Opera Scotland

Entführung aus dem Serail 1964Sadler's Wells Opera

Read more about the opera Seraglio

Having visited Glasgow and Edinburgh in the spring, it is perhaps surprising that Sadler's Wells should return in the autumn, but the first visit only took in the central belt. This time, a further fortnight's stay, starting on 9 November, took in Glasgow again, but instead of Edinburgh, continued north to Aberdeen.

The repertoire was the same in both cities, though the order of performance varied slightly. The Glasgow schedule was: Mon Faust; Tue Girl of the Golden West; Wed Hansel and Gretel; Thu Carmen; Fri Seraglio; Sat mat Hansel and Gretel; Sat eve Faust. In Aberdeen the running order changed slightly, with Humperdinck and Mozart on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by Puccini on Friday.

This staging of Seraglio opened at Sadler's Wells on 3 April 1964. The whole cast for the production looks good, but one singer in particular stands out. Elizabeth Harwood was always a noted performer of Mozart, and by the end of the decade Konstanze was the role of her breakthrough at the Salzburg Festival - a very rare achievement for British singers at the time. She repeated the part over several years in a famous staging by Giorgio Strehler.

John Wakefield, Jenifer Eddy and Harold Blackburn had all sung these roles with Scottish Opera in the spring of 1963.

Cast details for Glasgow are from a programme in the OperaScotland collection, for Aberdeen a programme in Aberdeen City Library.