Pescatrici 1965Edinburgh Festival Opera
Read more about the opera Pescatrici
This was the British premiere of a great rarity even by the standard of Haydn's other operas. It was a co-production with the Holland Festival, from which the new Edinburgh director, Peter Diamand, had just arrived. The opera seems to have been received with a sense of delighted surprise by an audience unacquainted with any of Haydn's operatic output. It seems surprising that such a charming work has continued to be neglected.
Most of the cast returned to subsequent festivals - Maddalena Bonifaccio as a lovely Lauretta with Tito Gobbi's Gianni Schicchi production - and the conductor Alberto Erede was already a familiar figure. The Yugoslav mezzo Ruza Pospis had a substantial career largely as a Verdian mezzo (under her married name Ruza Baldani), and Adriana Martino sang with most of the Italian companies. Umberto Grilli, Giacomo Aragall and Carlos Feller all returned to later Festivals.
Opera at the Edinburgh Festival 1965
The 1965 Edinburgh Festival presented an interesting group of five works. The foreign guest company was the Bavarian State Opera, from Munich, making its only Edinburgh appearance - their own Munich Festival tends to run around the same time, obliging them to be at home. The two pieces they brought were a beautifully cast, if conventional, staging of Così fan tutte, and the British premiere of a then little-known Strauss comedy, Intermezzo. The English Opera Group brought Albert Herring, which was just returning to the repertoire. The Festival itself mounted two operas in conjunction with the Holland Festival which was also run by Festival director Peter Diamand. These were a staging of Don Giovanni and a delightful introduction to Haydn opera, with Le pescatrici.
