Opera Scotland

Peter Grimes 1968Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Peter Grimes

The first staging of Britten’s early masterpiece by Scottish Opera was also the first time that Colin Graham had worked both with the company and on the opera. The great success of the event was the hair-raising performance by the Scottish Opera Chorus and Scottish National Orchestra under Gibson. The designs of Alix Stone, meticulously based on a row of fisher cottages, also worked well, combined with excellent Dickensian costumes.

The Festival run was due to open with Richard Cassilly’s British debut, but he had a throat problem which obliged him to miss the first two evenings. The opening night therefore featured the company debut of Nigel Douglas, who had spent most of his career on the continent. Britten was in the audience and remembered him when he was composing Owen Wingrave a few years later – Nigel Douglas went on to create the role of Owen’s classmate Lechmere.

Phyllis Curtin returned after her successful 1966 Marguerite, while John Shaw and Elizabeth Bainbridge repeated parts they had sung at Covent Garden. Harold Blackburn and William McAlpine were Scots with notable, and lengthy, careers in London and elsewhere.

After the Festival two performances were given in Newcastle, along with Figaro – Scottish Opera’s first visit to a city which became a regular touring date for twenty-five years until the expansion of Opera North meant they supplanted the Scottish company.

 

Opera at the 1968 Festivals

In 1968, the Edinburgh Festival followed its Stravinsky theme of the previous year by concentrating on two composers, Britten and Schubert. The result was a Festival full of memorable concerts and recitals. Perhaps the operatic side was slightly uncertain. Scottish Opera had recently been exploring Albert Herring (taking it to Florence on the company's first foreign tour in May) and now produced Peter Grimesfor the first time. The English Opera Group also brought the most recent of Britten's stage works, the three Parables for Church Performance. Schubert's operas have always been seen as a problem area of his output, with stagings extremely rare. Sadly, no full-scale presentation was attempted here, but the Festival did at least mount a memorable concert performance of Alfonso und Estrella, with largely Scottish forces.

The visiting company was again from Germany - a third season by the Hamburg State Opera, previously seen in 1952 and 1956. The original plans included the British premiere of Arden Must Die, Alexander Goehr's recent adaptation of the anonymous Elizabethan tragedy Arden of Feversham, as well as a Scottish premiere for Strauss's Arabella. In the event, due to the notorious technical restrictions imposed by the stage facilities of the antiquated King's Theatre, the only venue then available for opera, the Strauss novelty was quickly dropped, even before the programme was revealed. Though the Goehr was initially announced, along with Fliegende Holländer and Ariadne auf Naxos, by the time booking opened it had been substituted with Elektra - admittedly requiring a large orchestra, but with only one simple set.

Scottish Opera also made its first appearance on the Fringe.   In addition to its excellent Peter Grimes, it gave its first staging of a work by Monteverdi.   The brief comedy, Il ballo delle ingrate, was mounted as a late-night entertainment.

 

Scottish Opera's Seventh Season - 1968

The ten operas performed were by Monteverdi (Ballo delle ingrate);  Mozart (Marriage of Figaro);  Wagner (Götterdämmerung);   Musorgsky (Boris Godunov);   Sullivan (Gondoliers);   Puccini (Madam Butterfly); Stravnsky (Soldier's Tale);  Britten (Peter Grimes, Albert Herring);  Orr (Full Circle).

Full Ciircle was given in Edinburgh as a late night performance (10:00pm) after some performances of The Gondoliers,  while in Perth it formed a double bill with The Solder's Tale.

The schedule was as follows:

Perth, w/c Mon 8 Apr:  Tue 9 Marriage of Figaro;  Wed 10 Full Circle & Soldier's Tale;  Thu 11 Marriage of Figaro;  Fri 12 Full Circle & Soldier's Tale;  Sat 13 Full Circle & Soldier's Tale.

Glasgow, w/c Mon 29 Apr:  Fri 3 May Boris Godunov;  Sat 4 Marriage of Figaro. 

Glasgow, w/c Mon 6 May;  Fri 10 Boris Godunov; Sat 11 Madama Butterfly.

Glasgow, w/c Mon 13 May:  Tue 14 Madama Butterfly;  Wed 15 Götterdämmerung;  Thu 16 Marriage of Figaro;  Fri 17 m Marriage of Figaro; Fri 17 e  Madama Butterfly;  Sat 18 Götterdämmerung.

Aberdeen, w/c Mon 20 May:  Tue 21 Götterdämmerung;  Wed 22 Marriage of Fgaro;  Thu 23 Madama Butterfly;  Fri 24 Marriage of Figaro;  Sat 25 Boris Godunov.

Edinburgh, w/c Mon 27 May:  Tue 28 Boris Godunov;  Wed 29 Madama Butterfly;  Thu 30 Marriage of Figaro;  Fri 31 m Marriage of Figaro;  Fri 31 e Madama Butterfly; Sat 1 Jun Boris Godunov.

Edinburgh, w/c Mon 3 Jun  Tue 4 Götterdämmerung;  Wed 5 Boris Godunov; Thu 6 Marriage of Figaro;  Fri 7 Götterdämmerung;  Sat 8 Marriage of Figaro.

Florence, w/c Mon 17 Jun:  Wed 19 Albert Herring;  Thu 20 Albert Herring.

Edinburgh Festival: 19, 21, 23, 26 Aug Peter Grimes.

Edinburgh Festival (Fringe): 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 Aug (late) Il ballo delle ingrate.

Newcastlle, w/c Mon 9 Sep: Tue 10 Peter Grimes;  Thu 12 Marriage of Fiigaro;  Fri 13 Marriage of Figaro;  Sat 14 Peter Grimes.

Edinburgh, w/c Mon 9 Dec:  Thu 12 Gondoliers;  Sat 14 Marriage of Figaro.

Edinburgh, w/v Mon 16 Dec:  Mon 16 e Gondoliers; Mon 16 (late) Full Circle;  Tue 17 Marriage of Figaro; Wed 18 Gondoliers; Thu 19 Gondoliers;  Fri 20 Marriage of Figaro;  Sat 21 e Gondoliers;  Sat 21 (late) Full Circle.