Opera Scotland

Donna del Lago 2006Edinburgh International Festival

Read more about the opera Donna del Lago

The 2006 Edinburgh International Festival was the last under the distinguished direction of Brian McMaster, though his skills in achieving a fascinating balance of music, theatre, dance and opera were undiminished. Undoubtedly the hottest tickets were for Claudio Abbado's final operatic performances in Edinburgh, in Die Zauberflöte. The Opéra de Lyon made a welcome return with Peter Stein's production of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa and a double-bill of two Weill pieces, The Lindbergh Flight and The Seven Deadly Sins. The Festival mounted the world premiere of Stuart MacRae's first opera, The Assassin Tree, in a co-production with Covent Garden. In addition, three operas appeared in concert - Elektra to open and Mastersingers to close. Between those came a revelatory performance of Rossini's Lady of the Lake.

This was the first performance in Scotland of a lovely score, based on an important work of Scott, which until quite recently was a set text for everyone at school. The Lady of the Lake may no longer be read as widely as it once was, but that is no reason to neglect the opera derived from it. Rather, it is the fiendish difficulty of performing the work adequately that has prevented its more regular presentation.

For this concert (and the associated recording) a wonderful cast was assembled, with Carmen Giannattasio making her British debut in the title role. The Irish mezzo Patricia Bardon, previously an excellent Carmen with Scottish Opera, made a great impression in the rather old-fashioned trouser-role of the hero. The two tenor characters are dramatically rather ambiguous - on the face of it the king is the more romantic figure, though his behaviour is hardly ideal, while Rodrigo is a rebel, but not entirely villainous. What is important is that the two tenors need fabulous technical ability while being instantly distinguishable. Here they were taken by two expert but very different Americans, the sweet-voiced Kenneth Tarver as the king, and Gregory Kunde, with more of a ring to his tone, as Rodrigo. Under the expert guidance of Maurizio Benini, the Edinburgh Festival Chorus were on rousing form in the gathering of the clans, and glorious sounds came from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

 

Rare Rossini Operas at the Edinburgh Festival

Several Rossini works have appeared in Edinburgh when they were little known anywhere.  The first of these imported stagings was Il signor Bruschino (from Florence 1969), then  Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra, brought from Palermo in 1972.  After a near thirty-year gap Festival Director Brian McMaster in 2001 began a series of four concert performances with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and top-rank performers. The series began with Armida, sponsored by the Peter Moores Foundation.  That sponsorship continued with live recordings made by Opera Rara - Zelmira (2003),  Adelaide di Borgogna(2005), and La Donna del Lago (2006).  After a gap, in 2011 a staging of Semiramide appeared.