Opera Scotland

Alceste 1996Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Alcestis

Scottish Opera's season for 1995-96 contained some new productions that were highly memorable, though most were not seen again and none survived for long. After the Edinburgh Festival, where the new staging of The Jacobin opened, there was a very strongly cast small-scale, piano-accompanied tour of La bohème. The main subscription season contained The Jacobin and new stagings of Don Giovanni, La belle Hélène and Hansel and Gretel. A revival of La traviata was followed by new productions of Alceste and Turandot.

Twenty-two years had passed since its first attempt at performing Alceste, when an interesting and enjoyable staging by Anthony Besch and John Stoddart, very much set in the ancient world, was launched at the 1974 Edinburgh Festival and had a couple of performances at Aldeburgh before disappearing.

This new production by Yannis Kokkos, planned in collaboration with Nice, was given a Greek village setting, with distinctly unregal central characters. It was difficult to gain any great sense of involvement, in spite of a very good cast being expertly conducted by Nicholas McGegan. The movement group, directed by Richild Springer, who also took the role of Death, seemed tagged on rather than being an organic part of the setting. Mark Padmore sang beautifully,and the smaller roles were expertly taken by singers of the quality of Lisa Milne, Matthew Best and Andrew Burden. Isabelle Vernet, singing sweetly, was not as dramatic as she might have been in the title role.