Susanna's Secret 1965New Opera Group
Read more about the opera Segreto di Susanna
The New Opera Group was established in Dundee on Sunday, 9 May 1965. David Duke, an actor and musical director at Dundee Rep, was the driving force behind the company. At the Rep he had been connected with many productions, including Let's Make an Opera, The Medium, Edwardian Music Hall, Salad Days and Expresso Bongo. Sadly, by the time they were preparing a staging of Marriage of Figaro the following June, he was in hospital in London and died. His successor, William Cox-Ife, conducted Figaro, but was killed in a plane crash soon after. The company did not continue.
Wolf-Ferrari's frivolous intermezzo entered the consciousness of Scottish audiences following its performance by Glyndebourne at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival.
In Dundee it was played in the composer's own arrangement for piano and string quintet. It formed the first part of a double bill, followed by Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Performance Cast
- Countess Susanna Gil's wife, aged twenty
- Count Gil aged thirty
- Sante a manservant, aged fifty