Music, Opera

The Undersea World of Bubble McBea

19 Jun 2008

CHILDREN’S OPERA Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 20-Sun 22 Jun The words ‘children’ and ‘opera’ aren’t often found in the same sentence. But over the past few years, Scottish Opera has managed to make the artform not just accessible, but great fun.

Scottish Opera: Falstaff

19 Jun 2008

OPERA Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 21, Thu 26, Sat 28 Jun If you go to only one opera this year, you could do a lot worse than choosing Scottish Opera’s current production, Falstaff. Composed when he was approaching 80, this was Verdi’s last…

The Hebrides Ensemble

19 Jun 2008

CHAMBER OPERA Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 21 Jun Based on George Mackay Brown’s prose and re-imagined by Scottish composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, The Martyrdom of St Magnus was always going to leave an extraordinary legacy. Uniting the talents…

Opera Circus: Differences in Demolitions

22 May 2008

OPERA Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 27 & Thu 28 May; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 31 May Think of Bosnia and Herzogovina and the chances are that ethnic cleansing and bloodshed spring to mind. Yet, this Balkan country, where east meets west, has a rich…

Scottish Opera: A Night at the Chinese Opera

22 May 2008

OPERA Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Sat 19 May An afternoon at Scottish Opera was the setting for Judith Weir’s delightful A Night at the Chinese Opera. First performed in 1987 but amazingly only now receiving its premiere north of the border, the opera is…

Scottish Opera: Falstaff

8 May 2008

OPERA Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tue 13, Thu 15, Sat 17, Wed 21 & Sat 24 May; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 18, Sat 21, Thu 26 & Sat 28 Jun Long before any government directives on obesity, Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff knew all about the challenges…

A Night at the Chinese Opera

10 Apr 2008

OPERA Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Fri 11 & Sat 19 Apr, Tue 20 & Thu 22 May; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 25 & Fri 27 Jun Pick up any newspaper these days and the chances are that a story about China will be making the headlines. Whether it’s the…

Opera Unwrapped returns

10 Apr 2008

Book now for Scottish Opera's behind-the-scenes scheme SCOTTISH OPERA’S Opera Unwrapped season kicks off again next month in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The strand offers fans and novices an hour-long behind-the-scenes look at the new season’s…

Met Opera at the Cameo

13 Dec 2007

Usually, a visit to a cinema is for film and a trip to an opera house is for, well, opera. Ripping apart the straitjacket of all of that is a relatively new venture that brings live opera direct from stage to the big screen. The stage is the New York…

Scottish Opera: Seraglio

15 Nov 2007

OPERA Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 24, Tue 27 & Thu 29 Nov. Seen at Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Sat 27 Oct The term Turkish harem usually brings to mind opulent palaces, sumptuous silks and sensual, oriental soft-furnishings. In Seraglio, however…

Five operas to get their 15 minutes

31 Oct 2007

Scottish Opera has given an insight into five new 15-minute operas, which involve collaborations between Scotland’s top writing and musical talent. The works, which include contributions from popular authors Alexander McCall Smith and Ian Rankin…

Russell Watson leaves intensive care after brain tumour

30 Oct 2007

Opera singer Russell Watson – who was admitted to hospital last week for emergency surgery on an ‘aggressive’ brain tumour – has been moved out of intensive care. The 40-year-old is now off the critical list at the Alexandra Hospital in Greater…

Russell Watson ‘critical’ after second brain tumour

26 Oct 2007

The popular opera tenor Russell Watson is critically ill after undergoing emergency surgery to remove a brain tumour for the second time in two years. The singer, known as The Voice, had been working in his recording studio on Wednesday when he…

Global tributes for Pavarotti

28 Sep 2007

A series of commemorations are to be held across the globe in honour of the late opera star Luciano Pavarotti. The tenor’s contribution to classical music will be celebrated by a number of concerts and exhibitions on October 6 - a month after he died…

The Barber of Seville

20 Sep 2007

She’s 31, he’s 62. She’s a young Scot at the start of her operatic career, he’s a singer who seems to have been at the top of his for ever. But in Scottish Opera’s new production of The Barber of Seville, it is not as singers that the two come together.

Tenors remember ‘a good friend and great poker player’

7 Sep 2007

Opera singers Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras have paid tribute to their fellow tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who lost his fight with pancreatic cancer on Thursday. The widely admired opera star performed in the Three Tenors concerts for more than 10…

Italian tenor Pavarotti dies at 71

6 Sep 2007

Opera legend Luciano Pavarotti has died at the age of 71 at his home in the Italian city of Modena after 40 years performing on stage. The singer was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year, and did not make any public appearances after he had cancer…

Scottish theatre director to head Norwegian Opera

31 Aug 2007

A theatre director from Glasgow has been appointed to take control of Norwegian Opera, just as the company moves to a new opera house in Oslo. Paul Curran, who performed with Scottish Ballet in his early career and has staged performances across the…

Capriccio

23 Aug 2007

At the start of the Festival, opera-goers were spirited back to the genre’s origins with a spectacular production of the first great opera, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Now, as things draw to a close, the opera on offer is one which poses questions to itself…

Christine Brewer

23 Aug 2007

As comfortable chatting about American Idol as she is arias, Christine Brewer is swift to dispel any notion of the opera diva. Indeed, from the moment she burst onto the stage as a teenager with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Brewer knew she had…

Opera in concert – Dido and Aeneas and Prima La Musica, Poi Le Parole

23 Aug 2007

Opera at this year’s Festival has taken an interesting journey. The programme started with Bernstein’s Candide, chronologically the last of those heard, with Monteverdi’s glorious 400 year-old L’Orfeo hot on its heels. The latter was fully – and…

Candide

9 Aug 2007

In setting up this year’s Opening Concert of the Edinburgh International Festival, Jonathan Mills has quickly ditched the tradition of a Sunday evening kick-off (although the St Giles’ Festival Service remains in place for the morning) and has brought…

Scottish Opera appoints new director

News

9 Aug 2007

Italian conductor Francesco Corti signed up as new music director

Capriccio

19 Jul 2007

Richard Strauss’ final opera Capriccio, which received its premiere in 1942, is described by the composer as ‘a conversation piece for music’. A young countess cannot choose between two lovers, one a musician, the other a poet.

The Turing Test

19 Jul 2007

Quite what Monteverdi would have thought about a singing computer featuring in an opera is anyone’s guess. Inspired by the famous test set by Alan Turing, founder of modern computer science, composer Julian Wagstaff has written a chamber opera to be…