Opera Scotland

Rigoletto 1951Covent Garden Opera

Read more about the opera Rigoletto

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.

Emmy Loose is to be admired for learning the role of Gilda in English, but then she was also singing the longer part of Susanna in Figaro. The conductor, Emanuel Young, spent much of his career on the music staff at the Royal Opera House, particularly associated, as late as the 1970s, with conducting performances by the Royal Ballet.

This cast is from a programme for 6 March in the Edinburgh Room collection, Edinburgh City Library.