Opera Scotland

Lustige Witwe 1973Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Merry Widow

Scottish Opera’s first staging of The Merry Widow was a hugely successful affair in the predictably safe hands of Anthony Besch and John Stoddart. The designs were just bright and cheerful enough, without ever being garish, and the comedy was also kept within reasonable limits. It opened for a week in June as the centrepiece of Clyde Fair International, then joined a long tour through the autumn and winter, continuing into the spring of 1974. Revivals continued for several seasons, maintaining a remarkable degree of consistency in the casting.

Alexander Gibson had introduced this classic of its kind at Sadler's Wells when he was leading that company in 1958, and Charles Hickman's production had run for years. Gibson had a natural feel for this repertoire, as was shown in his annual Viennese concerts with the SNO. Catherine Wilson, David Hillman, Bill McCue and Pat Hay, all accomplished operetta stylists, were joined by a talented newcomer in the Dutch baritone Marco Bakker. The tenor Graham Allum had a perfect sense of timing in his dialogue, and the rest of the cast consisted of young salaried principals who gave the whole enterprise a real sense of being a company performance in a way that ceased to be possible far too quickly.

Further cast variations to be confirmed by programme.