Opera Scotland

Adventures of Mr Brouček 2010Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Adventures of Mr Brouček

Scottish Opera's 2009/10 season contained four full main-stage productions plus one small-scall-tour. The two works the company had never touched before were the young Rossini's frothy Italian Girl in Algiers and Leoš Janáček'a Adventures of Mr Brouček. The two revivals were an ultra-traditional Elisir d'amore and an ultra-modern Bohème. There was also  a piano-accompanied tour of a second Janáček piece, Kátya Kabanová.

There were some additional elements, however, including a third programme of new short chamber pieces under the 5:15 umbrella. There was also a 'Scenes & Arias' tour by four  young singers and a pianist, the old Essential Scottish Opera format now revised as Opera Highlights. There was a new 'Interactive Opera for 3 to 6 Year Olds', entitled Auntie Janet Saves The Planet. Two well-contrasted co-productions also featured. Music Theatre Wales brought a new chamber piece by Eleanor Alberga, Letters of a Love Betrayed, while the RSAMD joined forces with the orchestra and technical staff of Scottish Opera to mount the Scottish premiere of Prokofiev's wonderful Tolstoy adaptation War and Peace.

When, between 1977-1987, Scottish Opera mounted a series of five of Janáček's operas in conjunction with Welsh National Opera, this rarity was not included.

It was good therefore to see a collaboration with Opera North bringing the work to Scotland for the first time since the British premiere in 1970. Adventures of Mr Brouček (more correctly translated as Excursions) may not be a masterpiece, but there is plenty of good stuff in it and it should be performed far more often.

Another source of pleasure was the presence of Donald Maxwell returning to his roots after too long a gap. Surprisingly, Frances McCafferty was only making her first appearance with Scottish Opera, after several years working down south. John Graham-Hall also gave a masterly performance in the awkward title role. The rest of the cast combined to give a rewarding account of this too rarely played oddity.

One feature that separates this from most of the composer's other operas is the requirement for a large chorus. Since Scottish Opera no longer employed such an asset on a permanent basis, it was necessary to transport the Chorus of Opera North up from Leeds - and very good they were, too. Several of them were familiar names who used to work with Scottish Opera in the past, and a small group of Scottish Opera regulars also joined in.