The Covent Garden Opera's spring 1951 tour took in only two venues over four weeks - the Edinburgh Empire from the fifth to the seventeenth March and the Manchester Palace from the nineteenth to the thirty-first.
The Edinburgh programme was as follows:
First week: Mon Lohengrin; Tue Rigoletto; Wed Fidelio; Thu Carmen; Fri Traviata; Sat mat Butterfly; Sat eve Figaro.
Second weel: Mon Figaro; Tue Lohengrin; Wed Carmen; Thu Rigoletto; Fri Butterfly; Sat mat Traviata; Sat eve Rosenkavalier.
Figaro would remain a signature role for Sir Geraint Evans for the next quarter-century - culminating in his own staging of the work for the Edinburgh Festival. Emmy Loose is interesting casting as Susanna - a guest who spent her career at the Vienna State Opera, but here learns a very long role in English. New Zealander Inia Te Wiata had joined the company in January, and worked for much of the next twenty years at Covent Garden.
The cast is taken from programme for Saturday 10 March in the Edinburgh Room collection (Edinburgh City Library) and for Monday 12 March in the NLS collection.
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