Opera Scotland

Incoronazione di Poppea 1978Zurich Opera

Read more about the opera Coronation of Poppea

1978 marked Peter Diamand's final Festival, and many of his old colleagues returned for the occasion. The opera programme seems astonishingly generous by more recent standards. The previous season's 'house' staging of Carmen was repeated. Scottish Opera revived its superb Pelléas et Mélisande, while the Frankfurt Opera brought a good cast in a staging of Kátya Kabanová. There was also a first visit by the Zürich Opera, bringing their cycle of the three full-length Monteverdi operas, L'Orfeo, L'incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle collaborated on a cycle of the three surviving full-length Monteverdi operas at Zürich, which then toured several European festivals. Most of the large cast of performers were excellent. However the Edinburgh performances were not ideal, partly due to poor sightlines in the King’s Theatre, particularly from upper parts of the house, and more because of the surprisingly unsubtle style of humour and design chosen by Ponnelle – not one of his better efforts. But Eric Tappy, Rachel Yakar, Trudeliese Schmidt and Matti Salminen all made a strong impression. It was also good to see three Brits, Paul Esswood, Alexander Oliver and Elizabeth Gale, making a brief return home.