Trovatore 1965Glasgow Grand Opera Society
Read more about the opera Trovatore
The 1965 season of Glasgow Grand as usual included four performances of a popular work, on this occasion Il trovatore. Three performances of a rarity were also given to contrast with this and this year it really was an unusual piece, Meyerbeer's final Parisian grand opera L'Africaine, full of lovely things.
The most important adjustment for the Society this year was probably a change of orchestra. For decades they had used the Scottish National Orchestra, but that band now worked with Scottish Opera during its spring season, and during this week they must have been hard at work rehearsing Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, and Boris Godunov, in the Musorgsky orchestration, which was scheduled to open on 14 May. Glasgow Grand therefore employed a band of freelance musicians.
The new director, Charles Barron, was a regular with a company 'up north', where he would continue to work for many years directing the opera productions at Haddo House in Aberdeenshire.
