Opera Scotland

Traviata 1970Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Traviata

Scottish Opera’s first full-scale staging of La Traviata opened during a brief pre-Christmas week at the intimate Lyceum. It was notable for the return of Franco Bonisolli to sing an attractively debonair Alfredo. Violetta was an American newcomer, Clarice Carson, who sang beautifully, but was on the large side for a realistic consumptive. There was an excellent performance from James Loughran and his BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

The director and design team had recently collaborated on a trio of productions for the small-scale piano-accompanied Opera for All tour, including Traviata, but here had a rather more substantial budget, especially for costumes. The designs looked quite luxurious in the party scenes but were very simple, with suspended mirror panels providing a sloping ceiling and making the entire staging look effectively grand. The country house set was located outside in the garden, dominated by a large tree which provided welcome contrast with the claustrophobia of the other sets. Flora's party gained from rich shades of crimson.

During his career Alex Reid supplied the company with costumes for four different productions of La Traviata, each in a slightly different 19th century period, but all equally distinguished.

The schedule for this short December season was:

Edinburgh, Royal Lyceum Theatre: Fri Dec 11 Magic Flute;  Sat 12 Traviata; Sun 13 -;  Mon 14 King Arthur; Tue 15 Traviata;  Wed 16 Magic Flute;  Thu 17 King Arthur;  Fri 18 Traviata;  Sat 19 mat Magic Flute; Sat 19 eve King Arthur.