Creation 1971Ledlanet Nights
Read more about the opera Creation
A midsummer evening must have been a lovely occasion on which to perform this most cheering of oratorios. The conductor and three soloists were at this time well established as regular performers with Scottish Opera, The spring season, which had seen them all in the memorable Rosenkavalier with Janet Baker, Elizabeth Harwood and Helga Dernesch, had just finished. Patricia Hay had sung First Orphan while covering for Harwood as Sophie, and the other two were similarly occupied.
The programme note reveals that 'The third part, taking place in the Garden of Eden, is not being given tonight.' No reason is divulged, but the Adam and Eve sequence can sometimes seem anticlimactic. The second part ends with the inspiring chorus 'Achieved is the Glorious Work' with the Earth populated with flora and fauna. This at least allowed for a dinner interval between the first two parts.
The Scottish Baroque Ensemble consisted of twenty-one players in all, fourteen strings and seven winds. The excellent Ledlanet Festival Chorus, clinging to the staircase, was well drilled as usual by Gordon Mabbott. They comprised twenty voices. This must have made enough noise to just about blow the roof off the old house's main hall.
The Ledlanet summer season included a week-long residency by Scottish Opera for All - piano-accompanied stagings of La traviata, Martha and Cinderella, as well as Ledlanet's own production of Telemann's Pimpinone coupled with Monteverdi's Ballo delle Ingrate. There was also an oratorio performance - Haydn's Creation. The Autumn schedule included another double bill - Pergolesi's Serva Padrona paired with Dido and Aeneas.
