Music and Opera

Scottish Opera celebrates 50th anniversary

Five facts about the company

25 May 2012

Over its 50 years of existence, Scottish Opera has staged 223 new productions. Their furthest fl ung performance took place in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1970 – a four-night run of The Turn of the Screw directed by Anthony Besch. Among the famous faces who…

Scottish Opera revive Besch's celebrated Tosca adaptation

The new production stars Susannah Glanville and José Ferrero

25 Apr 2012

Described as a ‘shabby little shocker’ by one of America’s leading musicologists, Puccini’s Tosca has been a success with audiences the world over since its premiere in Rome in 1900. From the countless productions of it, one which has had particularly…

Edinburgh International Festival 2012 programme launched

Highlights include Mariinsky Ballet, TEAM and Camille O'Sullivan

14 Mar 2012

The Edinburgh International Festival has unveiled its extensive 2012 programme. With nearly 200 different performances to choose from, we’ve selected some dance, opera, classical music and theatre highlights you won't want to miss. NVA's Speed of…

Hansel and Gretel

RSNO and Scottish Opera in new translation of opera

27 Jan 2012

Irish soprano Ailish Tynan is proving a hit with Scottish audiences. After joining the RSNO for a highly successful Viennese New Year, she’s now back to Glasgow and Edinburgh to work with Scottish Opera, taking the role of Gretel in their brand new…

Pass the Spoon

Shrigley's food-based opera aims for pure entertainment and succeeds

21 Nov 2011

The most David Shrigley has claimed of Pass the Spoon is that it's meant to be entertaining. It’s mock-modesty, but in Shrigley & Co's defence, they've succeeded. The plot, for there is one, is like a mash-up of Ready Steady Cook and Terry & June…

Pass the Spoon: The cast of characters in David Shrigley's opera

The artist on collaborating on the musical extravaganza

28 Oct 2011

Pass the Spoon came about because I was invited to make a project with (composer) David Fennessy and (director) Nick Bone. They wanted to collaborate with someone who would write an opera libretto. I’ve never been to an opera but I was interested…

Writing an opera - Five creative types who have written a opera

Stewart Lee, Damon Albarn, Armando Iannucci, Paul McCartney

21 Oct 2011

Stewart Lee The ‘comedian’s comedian’ took some time out a decade back to dash off Jerry Springer: The Opera, a paean to the trashy US talk show host and his disciples. The show’s eye-wateringly profane libretto, depictions of Biblical figures…

Scottish Opera take new work on tour

Triple bill of satire and Greek mythology

24 Aug 2011

Scottish Opera goers are spoiled for choice in early September as the company puts on no less than three different productions in the space of just over a week with one of them, Orpheus in the Underworld, then heading off on tour all around Scotland.

Ten Plagues

Intense, moving Marc Almond-starring plague musical strikes a chord

11 Aug 2011

A one-man musical based on eyewitness accounts of the London Plague of 1665 starring Marc Almond sounds on paper like the kind of parody you’d find on the website fakefringe.com. Indeed, the 80s pop icon seems nervous as he takes to the stage in black…

Qing Cheng

Epic, millenium-spanning Chinese love story part of the China Fringe Festival

21 Jul 2011

A night at the opera takes on a whole new meaning with Qing Cheng, an elaborate yet moving Chinese musical making its European debut at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall as part of the China Fringe Festival. Top billing in a week of cutting-edge entertainment from…

Opera Die Frau Ohne Schatten set for 2011 Edinburgh International Festival

Russia's Mariinsky Theatre and Jonathan Kent bring Strauss opera to EIF

7 Jul 2011

To say Jonathan Kent's EIF opus is 'a bit' epic is like saying Edinburgh gets 'a bit' busy in August. This summer the Brit director joins forces with Russia's Mariinsky to stage the little-seen Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow). A cast…

Theatre, music and dance highlights from the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Semiramide and King Lear among picks

7 Jul 2011

The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) has been a benchmark for quality and innovation in the performing arts since its inauguration nearly 65 years ago. This year artistic director Jonathan Mills builds his programme around the multi-faceted…

Music highlights from the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival

Melvyn Tan and Bamberg Symphony Orchestra among picks

7 Jul 2011

Melvyn Tan. The Queen's Hall morning concerts can usually be relied on for a few Festival surprises. Hearing perfectly formed piano music by 18th century Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti alongside Sonatas and Interludes by 20th century American John…

Seven Angels opera tackles Paradise Lost

Composer Luke Bedford uses Milton’s epic to explore envorinmental themes

29 Jun 2011

According to Wikipedia, there are over ten thousand individual lines of verse in Milton’s Paradise Lost. That’s a bit much for an opera. So, for his new Seven Angels, leading young British composer Luke Bedford uses Milton’s epic as the starting point…

Edinburgh International Festival 2011 IN festival membership scheme

EIF and The List deal for half-price tickets, events and freebies

24 May 2011

Edinburgh International Festival - in association with The List magazine - are offering members of an innovative and exclusive membership scheme a whole host of half-price tickets, event passes and freebies for the 2011 Festival season. Membership to…

The Okavango Macbeth: Alexander McCall Smith’s 'Shakespeare and baboons' opera

The author/librettist teams up with Tom Cunningham and Robert McFall

24 Mar 2011

Alexander McCall Smith’s inspiration to write an opera based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth isn’t the first. Verdi was certainly there before him, but what makes McCall Smith’s The Okavango Macbeth decidedly different is that the characters are all baboons.

Scottish Opera: Orlando - Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Wed 16 Feb

Tim Mead, Sally Silver and Claire Booth star in Harry Fehr's WWII adaptation of Handel's opera

3 Mar 2011

In setting Handel’s Orlando in a 1940s London hospital, young director Harry Fehr has been completely ingenious. Taken from Orlando Furioso, the Italian Renaissance epic which inspired three Handel operas, the tale is of Orlando, the great soldier of…

Scottish Opera and the RSAMD stage production of The Cunning Little Vixen

Janácek’s opera filled with perpetual themes of life, death and love

14 Jan 2011

Building on collaborative achievements of the past few years, Scottish Opera and the RSAMD now turn to Janácek’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen. Set in a forest, its characters are both animal and human. Inspired by a comic strip from a newspaper, it’s…

Magnus Lindberg's Graffiti performed by RSNO

Finnish composer's orchestral study of Pompeii graffiti

16 Nov 2010

With funding for culture in Italy facing the same challenges as ministerial budgets across Europe, the future of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, which needs constant support for excavation and preservation, is uncertain. Numerous stray dogs reputedly…

Infant Opera BabyO is 30 minutes of melody, rhythm and harmony

Scottish Opera’s latest project is aimed at babies aged just 6-18 months

3 Nov 2010

INFANT OPERA BABYO You’re never too young to enjoy a six-part harmony. That’s the theory behind Scottish Opera’s latest project, BabyO. Performed by three operatic singers, a bass, soprano and mezzo soprano, the show is aimed at babies aged just…

Philip Glass' opera In the Penal Colony tours UK

Disturbing chamber opera adaptation of Kafka

2 Nov 2010

In its second year of celebrating the best in contemporary music and dance as the seasons change, the Traverse Theatre welcomes a return joint visit from Music Theatre Wales and Scottish Opera to open the 2010 Autumn Festival. With a new production of…

Scottish Opera: The Marriage of Figaro

Sir Thomas Allen moves from performing to directing

26 Oct 2010

Poacher turned gamekeeper isn’t overly common in the world of opera, but one internationally famous singer who has successfully moved from performing to directing is Sir Thomas Allen. Bringing the same team who produced a hugely enjoyable Barber of…

Opera Bohemia

Talented new company's Fringe debut

23 Aug 2010

As the name may suggest, Opera Bohemia’s title was inspired by the aspiring artist characters in Puccini’s La Bohéme. Founded by two former RSAMD students, Alistair Digges and Douglas Nairne, this new opera company is a wealth of extraordinary fresh…

Opera Australia brings Bliss to Edinburgh

An opera set in 1980s Australia explores a middle-aged ad-man’s mid-life crisis

19 Aug 2010

Bliss. What is it? Perfect happiness? And who achieves it? Maybe not as many people as think they do. Sometimes a life that seems blissful may be far from it and the search has to start again. Enter Harry Joy, the main character in Australian author…

Tribute concert to Sir Charles Mackerras at EIF

Fantastic celebration of a wonderful man

15 Aug 2010

One of the leading lights on the EIF, Sir Charles Mackerras has long been synonymous with the talent and the creativity at the heart of the Edinburgh International Festival. Fitting then, that they should celebrate his passing earlier this year with a…

Sarah Connolly

Mezzo soprano returns to jazz roots

12 Aug 2010

Among other things, 2010 is likely to be memorable as the year of the mezzo-soprano at the Edinburgh International Festival. Joyce DiDonato, Petra Lang and Christine Brewer, who replaces the indisposed Susan Graham, are just three of the famous names…

Porgy and Bess takes centre stage at Edinburgh International Festival

Opéra de Lyon's production of Gershwins' crossover classic

16 Jul 2010

As operas go, it’s fair to say that Porgy and Bess blew in like a hurricane. When George and Ira Gershwin’s self-styled ‘American folk opera’ featuring a libretto by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward appeared on the New York stage in 1935, its cast of…

American mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato returns to Edinburgh Festival

DiDonato performs Idomeneo and with David Zobel at EIF 2010

16 Jul 2010

Last summer, mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato soldiered on with a broken leg in London and was plunged into darkness at the Usher Hall. Carol Main keeps everything crossed for the Kansas girl’s Edinburgh return

Further Edinburgh International Festival highlights 2010

16 Jul 2010

Montezuma Carl Heinrich Graun’s opera about the Aztec leader who welcomed Spanish adventurers into his kingdom only for them to quickly get tore into the plundering and subjugation explores the clash of two very different worldviews. King’s Theatre…

An overview of the 2010 Edinburgh Festivals and their directors

What to expect from Edinburgh in August

15 Jul 2010

Nowhere does a festival quite like Edinburgh, and even with the film folk having long moved out of August, there is more than plenty going on for lovers of art, literature, comedy, theatre, kids entertainment, music, dance and military displays. The…

Five:15 in twenty:10

14 May 2010

The state of the economy is never far from the headlines these days, but as an opera subject it is somewhat unexpected. Not so in Scottish Opera’s latest batch of five short new operas. For the third year of the company’s bold commissioning strand…

La Bohème

Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Sat 27 Feb 2010

15 Apr 2010

Two completely contrasting operas are on offer from Scottish Opera in the company’s spring foray to Edinburgh this year. Not that Edinburgh audiences are unfamiliar with Stewart Laing’s production of Puccini’s La bohème. First seen back in 2004, Laing’s…

Edinburgh, My Home: Jonathan Mills

22 Mar 2010

Edinburgh International Festival director Jonathan Mills on the virtues and indiscretions of his adopted home

John Adams and Lee Breuer among Edinburgh International Festival 2010 highlights

22 Mar 2010

As the programme is launched for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, we cast an eye over the highlights

The Knife (with Mt Sims and Planningtorock) - Tomorrow, in a Year

17 Feb 2010

(Brille) Darwin’s discoveries get the ‘electro meets classical’ treatment in this experimental tribute opera. Fever Ray, or Silent Shout fans will find it requires lots more ‘uphill’ from the listener, but if you’re in a mood to indulge the…

RSAMD – War and Peace

15 Jan 2010

In what must be their most ambitious opera project ever, the RSAMD present the premiere of the original version of Prokofiev’s opera War and Peace. Based on Tolstoy’s epic novel of the same name, the version of the opera which will be seen in Glasgow…

Scottish Opera –The Elixir of Love,

Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Sat 24 Oct

4 Nov 2009

Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love is a feel-good opera with a lighthearted tale of true love triumphing against the silliness of the odds that come its way. With its predictable ‘all’s well that ends well’ outcome, Scottish Opera’s revival of Giles…

Music In The Digital Age

Technology's impact on the artform

2 Oct 2009

To paraphrase the Creme Egg adverts, when it comes to music, how do you hear yours? Streaming over the internet? Nicking stuff from torrents on the web? A bag full of goodies from Fopp? Crates of obscure vinyl from your local specialist…

Scottish Opera: Italian Girl in Algiers

She takes a trip to Scotland too this autumn

2 Oct 2009

Sun-kissed blondes in bikinis aren’t the usual types found on the world’s operatic stage. Especially bouncing up and down on a spacehopper. Scottish Opera’s new co-production with New Zealand Opera of Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers is a bit…

Actus tragicus

Bach in a dolls house

11 Sep 2009

'I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual.' Virginia Woolf's sentiment is one the characters in Actus tragicus might well understand - though her black humour would probably be lost on them. Filling the stage is an impressive…

Tragic endeavours: Staatsoper Stuttgart’s Actus Tragicus

Lifting the lid on one of the EIF's must-sees

21 Aug 2009

Actus Tragicus. A presentation of tragedy. With that title, Stuttgart Opera’s production is hardly going to be a bundle of laughs. Yet, the sheer beauty of the Bach cantatas, which lie at the heart of this highly unusual synthesis of music and drama…

Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich

American soprano is mobbed, but not in the mob

20 Aug 2009

Dawn Upshaw is up to her elbows in batter. She’s in the kitchen of her New York home, making pancakes with her son. It’s a very domestic scene, but then the American soprano couldn’t be further from the diva-ish stereotype. She’s just returned from the…

David Levin talks The Testament of Cresseid

The Israeli director discusses adapting Burns for the stage

20 Aug 2009

Robert Burns might be the subject of many Homecoming events this year, but Jonathan Mills’ decision to focus on the lesser-known Scottish poet Robert Henryson as part of the Edinburgh International Festival’s 2009 programme could prove a rewarding one.

Music Hitlist

What to go see this week

10 Aug 2009

GRV three-day music festival, The Juan McLean, Young Fathers and Unicorn Kid, Scotland at Night, St Kilda, Broken Records

St Kilda - Island of the Birdmen

A multi-media, operatic portrayal of Island life

13 Jul 2009

At 191 metres, there is no building in Scotland anywhere near as tall as Stac an Armin, the highest sea stack in Britain. Along with the slightly shorter Stac Lee, these wildly dramatic sea cliffs were among the hunting grounds for the birdmen of St…

Doris Dörrie to direct Handel's Admeto, re di Tessaglia

The opera is given a Far Eastern flavour

13 Jul 2009

It might be nearly 300 years since it was first performed in London, but Handel’s opera Admeto, re di Tessaglia isn’t showing its age. Given an innovative reworking by director Doris Dörrie, the action has been transplanted from the classical Greek…

Scottish Opera: Cosi Fan Tutti

11 Jun 2009

OPERA For their keenly anticipated summer week in Edinburgh, Scottish Opera bring a choice of two operas – Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Jules Massenet’s Manon. Neither will disappoint. Both have been deservedly well received by public and press from…

Auntie Janet Saves The Planet

11 Jun 2009

Despite perceptions, young audiences can often be the toughest to entertain. But they’re also one of the most open, as writer Mark Robertson is gleefully aware. ‘It’s very liberating,’ he says. ‘Because there’s stuff you can do that you just wouldn’t…

Scottish Opera: Manon

14 May 2009

All singing, all dancing might be a phrase originally applied to musicals, but it’s a description that well fits Scottish Opera’s new production of Manon. A chorus of 40, orchestra of 60-plus, fully choreographed ballet scenes and at least eight…

Paul Vickers & The Leg

30 Apr 2009

INDIE/POST-PUNK OPERA It’s not at every pre-weekend indie night you witness the premiere of a 20-minute post-punk opera performed by a supergroup quartet of men in animal costumes. Yet that’s exactly what’s on offer in the debut of Itchy Grumble, a…