Opera Scotland

Rosenkavalier 1974Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Rosenkavalier

After the Edinburgh Festival Alceste, with its brief excursion to Aldeburgh, Scottish Opera's autumn tour in 1974 centred on the first revival of the 1971 Der Rosenkavalier using the Scottish National Orchestra, and being sung this time in German.  The Scottish Chamber Orchestra played in further performances of Elegy for Young Lovers and The Magic Flute.  With the addition of some more players the SCO became the Scottish Philharmonia, who were in the pit for the new production, Lucia di Lammermoor.  The tour took in Glasgow, Leeds, Newcastle and Aberdeen.

In October, a strongly cast reviv al of The Barber of Seville was taken to Stirling and Ayr.  Then in December the company played in Edinburgh, when Rosenkavalier and Lucia were supplemented by a revival of La bohème, not seen since 1967.

This was the  first revival of the outstandingly memorable Strauss staging.  From now on it was sung in German, and the linch-pin of every performance was the great characterisation of Ochs by Michael Langdon, who had sung the role over 100 times at Covent Garden, as well as at Vienna, Paris, the Met, and most of the major German houses.  Helga Dernesch returned as the Marschallin, with an equally elegant Catherine Wilson taking over at Christmas.  The excellent new Octavian was Anne Howells (except for the final performance, when she had a sprained ankle and the current Salzburg incumbent was flown in - surely an indication of the production's reputation).  The revival was directed by David Pountney, who had been Anthony Besch’s assistant in 1971.

The programme indicated that and excellent Swedish soprano, Birgit Nordin, sang Sophie in the autumn.  Eventually three sopranos appeared in the role, but we still need confirmation of specific dates other than those shown, which come from programmes.

This was the series of performances of which extracts were recorded by EMI for release on Classics for Pleasure.  Helga Dernesch,  Anne Howells and Teresa Cahill appear, with a tantalising glimpse of the wonderful Langdon as Ochs.