Opera Scotland

Queen of Spades 1990Tayside Opera

Read more about the opera Queen of Spades

Tchaikovsky's final tragedy is a demanding challenge for any amateur group, and it stretched the Tayside forces to their limit. They met the difficulties head on, however, even including the masque scene where the composer did a pastiche in the style of a century earlier. It probably could not have been attempted without the willingness of David Hillman to take on the lead role. He was nearing the end of his career, though had worked with Scottish Opera a few months before. However he had sung Hermann with Sadler's Wells at the Coliseum in the early seventies, and clearly wanted another crack at this meaty, dramatic role. He returned the following year to take on a new challenge, Gustavus in A Masked Ball.

Of the other cast members, Alison McDonald, an Aberdeen soprano, was a regular guest in Dundee, and would return frequently for many years. The Kirkcaldy based soprano Gelda Bell usually sang leading roles with Fife Opera and in Edinburgh, as well as Dundee, but here sang a short, but important part.