Opera Scotland

King's Theatre, Edinburgh Edinburgh

“The Festival City Theatres Trust is responsible for the operation and management of two of Scotland’s major presenting venues – The Festival and King’s Theatres in Edinburgh. The Trust, which is a registered charity, was formed in July 1998 with the merger of the two theatres. It is the largest independent theatre management in Scotland.”

‘King’s Theatre
The King’s plays host to major touring drama, including West End, National Theatre of Scotland and Royal Shakespeare Company productions. The venue was built as a variety theatre in 1906 and over the years has played host to legendary performers such as Stanley Baxter, Rikki Fulton and Jimmy Logan. The 1350-seat venue continues to play a prominent role in the community, hosting the ever-popular King’s pantomime and a number of productions from local amateur societies throughout the year.

Source: Theatre website

Many will remember the years before the restorations firstly in the 1970s of The Playhouse, and then eventually in 1995 the Festival Theatre, when the King’s was the only place to go for opera lovers. The King’s Theatre, however constrained, hosted seasons of opera for the Edinburgh Festival, Scottish Opera and indeed other visiting opera companies in the city. Over the century since its construction there have been no major upgrades until the mid 1980s. Nevertheless it is something of a shock to return to this now venerable theatre and be reminded of its continuing limitations in relation to comfort and circulation space. More suited to small scale music theatre, it is hard to recall that the presentation there of large scale and Festival opera, including the works of Wagner, was once a regular occurrence.