Opera Scotland

Puritani 1960Glyndebourne Opera

Read more about the opera Puritani

Glyndebourne’s last visit to the Festival was notable for the first Scottish appearance by Joan Sutherland after her rise to stardom.  She had previously toured to the central belt with the Covent Garden company, and would return with them in 1961 as Lucia.

The great Scottish bass David Ward had spent a decade establishing himself with Sadler's Wells and was just on the threshold of his international career.  This meant, in addition to regular appearances at Covent Garden, also a season at Bayreuth, allowing him to study major Wagner parts with Hans Hotter.  Fortunately he still found time to come back to work with Scottish Opera.

Ernest Blanc had an important career as a leading baritone in the French repertoire, particularly remembered for his recordings of The Pearl Fishers (with Nicolai Gedda) and Carmen. (with both Victoria de los Angeles and Maria Callas).

One of the earlier performances in Sussex, with the same cast, was recorded, and appeared for the first time on CD in 2011, so we can hear just how good the production was.

 

Glyndebourne Opera at the Edinburgh Festival 1960

On its final Festival visit, Glyndebourne brought three programmes - a proven favourite by Verdi, a rare example of bel canto and a varied triple bill of twentieth century one-acters.

The five operas were:  Bellini (I puritani);  Verdi (Falstaff);  Busoni (Arlecchino);  Wolf-Ferrari (Susanna's Secret);  Poulenc (La Voix Humaine).

The three week performance schedule was as follows:

First Week, w/c 22 August:   Mon 22 np;   Tue 23 Falstaff;   Wed 24 Puritani;   Thu 25 Falstaff;   Fri 26 Puritani;    Sat 27 Falstaff.

Second Week, w/c 29 August:   Mon 29 Falstaff;   Tue 30 Triple Bill;   Wed 31 Puritani;   Thu 1 Sep Triple Bill;   Fri 2 Falstaff;   Sat 3 Puritani.

Third Week, w/c 5 September:   Mon 5 Triple Bill,   Tue 6 Falstaff;   Wed 7 Triple Bill;  Thu 8 Puritani;   Fri 9 Falstaff;   Sat 10 Puritani.

 

Bellini Operas at the Edinburgh Festival

During his ten year composing career, Vincenzo Bellini produced ten operas.  If only five of these have been seen at the Festival, at  least the casts have displayed five of the leading sopranos of the age - Maria Callas,  Joan Sutherland,  Anna Moffo,  Renata Scotto and Cecilia Bartoli - as well as some decent tenors (including Luciano Pavarotti , Nicola Monti and Giacomo Aragall).

The ten operas are:  Adelson e Salvini (1825);  Bianca e Fernando (1826);  Il pirata (1827);  La straniera  (1829);  Zaira (1830);  I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830);  La sonnambula  (1831);   Norma (1831);  Beatrice di Tenda (1833);  I puritani (1835).