Scottish Opera's third winter season at the Theatre Royal (1977-78) opened with Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots, premiered a few weeks earlier at the Edinburgh Festival. It was followed by Fidelio, Otello, Ariadne on Naxos, The Golden Cockerel, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Falstaff, The Marriage of Figaro (launched earlier in the year), Madama Butterfly and The Bartered Bride - this last being the only completely new production.
Having been presented at the opening Theatre Royal season in 1975, and toured in 1976, this excellent staging returned to Glasgow for its final run. There were several cast changes. Nan Christie, previously Naiad, succeeded Norma Burrowes and Sandra Dugdale in the fiendish roulades of Zerbinetta. Malcolm Donnelly continued as the Music Master. Janet Baker came back to repeat her wonderful Composer.
The casting of Bacchus changed at a fairly late stage, but excellent tenors were found for this beast of a part, both making company debuts. In a much anticipated return, Helga Dernesch sang Ariadne, and the results were somewhat mixed. She looked lovely, and her acting was as sharply detailed as always. The middle and lower ranges of her voice were also glorious, but the upper reaches were now unreliable and sometimes unpleasant. Her future career, a long and successful one in the world's great houses, lay with major dramatic mezzo parts.
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