Opera Scotland

Mastersingers of Nuremberg 1977Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Scottish Opera's second Theatre Royal subscription season (1976-77) again consisted of ten varied operas. It opened with a revival of the successful Ebert staging of La bohème. This was followed by Confessions of a Justified Sinner (new in the summer), The Magic Flute, Don Pasquale, Macbeth (launched at the previous Edinburgh Festival), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, The Merry Widow, Fidelio, The Rape of Lucretia and Jenůfa.

David Pountney's hugely successful staging of Meistersinger had been a dominant feature of the 1976 autumn season at the Glasgow Theatre Royal, and the original cast came together again for the spring 1977 tour to Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Newcastle.

A rapid revival of the staging at Glasgow in the autumn was thoroughly deserved, and most of the singers returned for this further run. A notable change was the promotion of Graham Clark from Zorn to the much more significant part of David, which he would soon sing at Bayreuth, at the start of his long international career singing character roles in Wagner's works.

That third winter season at the Theatre Royal (1977-78) opened with Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots, premiered a few weeks earlier at the Edinburgh Festival. It was followed by Fidelio, Otello, Ariadne on Naxos, The Golden Cockerel, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Falstaff, The Marriage of Figaro (launched earlier in the year), Madama Butterfly and The Bartered Bride - this last being the only completely new production.