Opera Scotland

Barbiere di Siviglia 1974Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Barber of Seville

After the Edinburgh Festival Alceste, with its brief excursion to Aldeburgh, Scottish Opera's autumn tour in 1974 centred on the first revival of the 1971 Der Rosenkavalier using the Scottish National Orchestra, and being sung this time in German. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra played in further performances of Elegy for Young Lovers and The Magic Flute. With the addition of some more players the SCO became the Scottish Philharmonia, who were in the pit for the new production, Lucia di Lammermoor. The tour took in Glasgow, Leeds, Newcastle and Aberdeen. In October, a strongly cast revival of The Barber of Seville was taken to Stirling and Ayr. Then in December the company played in Edinburgh, when Rosenkavalier and Lucia were supplemented by a revival of La bohème, not seen since 1967.

Ian Watt-Smith's simply effective staging was revived with some new singers, and toured to a couple of medium-scale theatres, as preparation for the following spring, when a further thirty performances would be given all over the place. Patricia Kern had not sung Rosina in Scotland since the Sadler's Wells tour a dozen years before, and Ian Wallace had sung Bartolo with Glyndebourne at the Edinburgh Festival a few years before that. These were the only performances of Basilio that Richard Angas sang in Scotland - his 6ft 7in frame must have dominated proceedings whenever he was on the tiny stage. Sadly, these were his last appearances with Scottish Opera.

Given the intensity with which the company worked - five nights running in Ayr - the major roles were double cast.