Opera Scotland

Aïda 1963Glasgow Grand Opera Society

Read more about the opera Aïda

In 1963, Glasgow Grand suddenly had a rival in the staging of large-scale opera - Scottish Opera were about to launch its own amateur chorus in a new production of Otello.

Undaunted, the Grand mounted the most popular of Verdi's large-scale works. Of course many of the singers were members of both bodies.

The rarity on the other three evenings was another Verdi work, his fifth opera, Ernani, probably not seen in Glasgow since Victorian times (though Sadler's Wells mounted it a couple of years later).

Cast details for Aïda and Ernani are from a copy of the programme in the OperaScotland collection.