Opera Scotland

Così fan tutte 2009Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Così fan tutte

Scottish Opera's 2008-09 season was unusual, in that it did not feature any revivals. What is more, the level of presentation, musical and dramatic, was also of a consistently high standard. Perhaps the one slight disappointment was the Edinburgh Festival offering, a rare staging of Smetana's charming domestic comedy The Two Widows. This was the company's second production of the piece. It was joined by two popular classics, La traviata and Così fan tutte, both directed in memorably intelligent fashion by David McVicar. The rarities were by Cimarosa (The Secret Marriage) and Massenet (Manon). Bellini's I puritani was given in a single concert performance. These were all company premieres. The small-scale tour was, unusually, an operetta, The Merry Widow. After the great success of the previous year's opener, the company also put on a second group of new, experimental 15-minute chamber dramas in the 5:15 series. Another welcome rarity was the next collaboration with the RSAMD - a large student cast assisted by Scottish Opera's musicians and technical staff, in a hugely enjoyable version of Prokofiev's Love For Three Oranges.

Since the last run of the masterly old Anthony Besch production in 1981, Scottish Opera had made several attempts to stage the piece again. But it seemed that each attempt was more frivolous and irrelevant than the one before. It therefore came as a great relief when they found in director David McVicar someone who at last showed signs of treating this great work seriously and having some idea of what it was about. Given that the cast assembled was also excellent, working under the musical guidance of another talented new arrival, Tobias Ringborg, the whole enterprise was delightfully enjoyable.

The staging originated in Strasbourg, with the Opéra National du Rhin, where McVicar has been a frequent guest director.