The main operatic element of the 1962 Edinburgh International Festival was a visit by the company from Belgrade. They were imported to fill a gap in the repertoire - Russian opera had hitherto been ignored, and the Yugoslavs provided the closest to an authentic slavonic sound that we were likely to hear at the height of the Cold War, even if some of the singers had a tendency to perform in Serbo-Croat.
The repertoire they brought was wonderfully unusual and enterprising. The Russian rarities were Musorgsky's Khovanshchina, Borodin's Prince Igor and Prokofiev's Gambler and Love for Three Oranges, both receiving British premieres. The non-Russian rarity was Massenet's Don Quichotte.
The other opera was presented by the English Opera Group - a new staging of Britten’s tense little masterpiece, The Turn of the Screw, with two of the original cast from 1954, Peter Pears and Jennifer Vyvyan, still in the roles they created. Basil Coleman was also an experienced had at directing Britten's operas.
© Copyright Opera Scotland 2024
Site by SiteBuddha