Opera Scotland

Luisa Miller 1998Royal Opera

Read more about the opera Luisa Miller

The extended closure of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to allow for its spectacular redevelopment had the benefit for Scottish audiences of making its resident company available to visit the Edinburgh Festival Theatre for the 1997 and 1998 Festivals.

The Royal Opera did originally plan to perform all Verdi’s operas in the years leading up to the centenary of his death. Financial stringencies meant the scheme was not completed, but they did produce some of the rarer ones. The Edinburgh Festival visit only saw this one in concert form, along with the Festival's own performance of Giovanna d'Arco. It was Don Carlos and I masnadieri that were fully staged.

The previous Covent Garden production, in the 1970s, invariably boasted Katia Ricciarelli in the title role, in wonderful form. In three successive runs she was partnered by Pavarotti, then Domingo and finally Carreras. This cast had nobody on that level, and only one international star, Paata Burchuladze. Nevertheless, Fiorella Burato was particularly successful in the title role and it was good to renew acquaintance with this charming tragedy, poisoned lemonade and all.