Opera Scotland

Rosenkavalier 1952Hamburg State Opera

Read more about the opera Rosenkavalier

Every Festival to this point had enjoyed an opera programme provided by Glyndebourne. 1952 saw the first appearance by a different company, and the first visit to Britain by the Hamburg State Opera.

They brought six productions, which now seems an astonishing statistic, and some of them inevitably fitted into the King's Theatre rather more comfortably than others. Perhaps most obviously important was the British stage premiere of Hindemith's Mathis der Maler. The others were Die Zauberflöte, Fidelio, Der Freischütz, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and this entirely acceptable cast in Der Rosenkavalier. While none of these works, perhaps common enough in London, was completely unknown in Scotland, they were not given here frequently. Most had not been done since before the war at least - in some cases further back than that.

 

Hamburg State Opera in Edinburgh - 1952

The Hamburg State Opera was the first foreign opera company to visit the Edinburgh Festival, and brought six productions.  There were five unversally accepted classics of the German operatic repertoire -   Fidelio,  Die Zauberflöte,  Der Freischütz,  Die Meistersinger, and  Der Rosenkavalier, as well as the British stage premiere of Hindemith's  Mathis der Maler.

Many of the leading singers were famous at the time and remained well known through the gradually widening availability of many recordings from Bayreuth and other sources.

The performance schedule for the Hamburg visit was as follows:

First Week, commencing 18 Aug:  Mon 18 Fidelio;  Tue 19 Zauberflöte;  Wed 20 Fidelio;  Thu 21 Zauberflöte;  Fri 22 Freischütz;  Sat 23 Zauberflöte.

Second Week, commencing 25 Aug:  Mon 25 Freischütz;  Tue 26 Zauberflöte;  Wed 27 Freischütz;  Thu 28 Rosenkavalier;  Fri 29 Mathis der Maler;  Sat 30 Rosenkavalier.

Third Week, commencing 1 Sep:  Mon 1 Fidelio;   Tue 2 Mathis der Maler;  Wed 3 Meistersinger;  Thu 4 Fidelio;  Fri 5 Rosenkavalier;  Sat 6 Meistersinger.