Pelléas and Mélisande 1978Scottish Opera
Read more about the opera Pelléas et Mélisande
1978 marked Peter Diamand's final Festival, and many of his old colleagues returned for the occasion. The opera programme seems astonishingly generous by more recent standards. The previous season's 'house' staging of Carmen was repeated. Scottish Opera revived its superb Pelléas et Mélisande, while the Frankfurt Opera brought a good cast in a staging of Kátya Kabanová. There was also a first visit by the Zurich Opera, bringing their cycle of the three full-length Monteverdi operas, L'Orfeo, L'incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria.
This was a special Edinburgh Festival revival of Colin Graham’s classic staging, with some notable newcomers. Thomas Allen sang opera in Scotland for the first time. By contrast, Joseph Rouleau first sang Arkel with Scottish Opera in the opening 1962 season. Central to it all was still the wonderful orchestral performance produced by Alexander Gibson in his final performances of the work.
