Tag Archives: Scottish Opera

A-NOTHER NIGHT AT THE OPERA – KATYA KABANOVA

Posted on by
Reply

Janacek’s, Katya Kabanova at the Edinburgh Festival theatre last night was a wealth of surprise. It’s a sombre tale of dysfunctional family, a failing society and, I thought, mental illness – with wonderful music.

LAURA WILDE’S, Katya conveyed all the bewilderment of the person not coping. Her inner life is on a diffrent plane to the rest of the world and that initially attracts, but ultimately, at least where her husband and her lover are concerned, frustrates. Only the foster daughter of the family, Varvara, dramatically realised by Polish mezzo-soprano HANNA HIPP, fights Katya’s corner with passion and releases her, for a while, from the prison of the family house.

Sex may have been invented in the sixties, but there was a lot of it in Janacek’s fictional world. Hypocritical among the oldies, exuberant and life-affirming for Varvar and Vanya and fatal for Katya. The modernity of Janacek’s vision is breath-taking.

Catch it at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre on Saturday 23rd March.

THE DEVIL INSIDE Stuart Macrae and Louise Welsh

Posted on by
Reply

What a lot we owe Robert Louis Stevenson. The Devil Inside, a new opera by Stuart Macrae with an excellent libretto by Louise Welsh is based on his 1893 short story called The Bottle Imp. The Devil Inside is playing for two nights at Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre before touring through the rest of the UK and to Toronto. It is a co-commission and co-production with Music Theatre Wales.

Macrae and Welsh have collaborated before to write two operas for Scottish Opera, Remembrance Day and Ghost Patrol. Macrae observes that the pieces have become longer and The Devil Inside is certainly a beautifully paced re-telling of this older story.

The story is about all those ways in which we can let our moral guard slip. It’s about greed, addiction and ultimately selflessness. Who among us is capable of resisting the promise of a fail-safe investment? Life, as in the Faust legend, is long, and reparation a distant issue to be dealt with as and when.

Apologies to Mr Macrae, but I’m not qualified to judge the score. Those around me who were more musically educated, seemed happy enough. It’s great to encounter so many young people in Scottish Opera audiences. Indeed the young woman next to me was there on a press ticket for an online University newspaper. Didn’t catch her name or the name of the paper, but glad to see this interest.

The libretto, on the other hand, I do feel more at home reviewing and it was good. Excellent story-telling with a straightforward beginning, middle and end on view. Lots of scope for the characters to show their inner turmoil in the drama.

A pared back set was moved around by a black-clad crew who earned their own applause among the curtain calls.

Run continues tonight, 30 Jan, at 7.15 King’s Theatre Box Office 0131 529 6000

Street Theatre

Posted on by
Reply

Street theatre. Three toddlers just released from keeping the mummies company at coffee find Sainsbury’s Christmas tree. Shake bottom branches and baubles drop. Kick baubles/chase baubles/kick baubles/go back to get more baubles. Mummies arrive. Mortification sets in and baubles are rescued.
Been there, ladies. Thanks for brightening my morning.

Also La Cenerentola at Edinburgh Festival theatre. Rossini’s great comic opera was a delight. Russian mezzo-soprano Victoria Yarovaya, winner of the 2013 Mercedes Viñas Prize sang the title role, Cinderella.

Loved the stage set with its many doors for opening and closing.

 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream BENJAMIN BRITTEN

Posted on by
Reply

Okay, so Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but if you’re around the theatre world at all, or even this blog, you’ll know everyone else has had a go. BENJAMIN BRITTEN’s opera performed by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the National Youth Choir of Scotland and Scottish Opera is another take on the world’s most versatile play.

The students of RCS and performers from Scottish Opera’s emerging artists’ scheme gave a wonderful performance, ably supported by children from the National Youth choir, directed by Andrew Nunn who is currently studying conducting at RCS. The music doesn’t have many tunes, but in a way that allows the drama and the language to shine through. The performance was conducted by Timothy Dean who was in charge of memebers of the Scottish Opera orchestra with students from RCS.

The production is a revival of Olivia Fuchs 2005 Royal Opera House one and she again directed supported by the original designer, Niki Turner.

A major highlight for me was the breath-taking circus skills exhibited by Jami Reid-Quarrell playing Puck. Strength, elegance and consumate acting characterised his offering and I hope we’ll being seeing him again.

The King’s Theatre Stalls were looking good. Do we have new seats? It was a pleasure not to sink through the cushions onto the floor beneath. Sadly, looking up is another matter. The lovely ceiling is decayed and in need of a lot of TLC.

Run ended.