Opera Scotland

Iolanthe 1988Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Iolanthe

A quick revival of Keith Warner's excellent 1986 staging made ideal entertainment in the run-up to Christmas and New Year. Several of the previous cast returned, and Anne Collins, a fixture in the long-running ENO staging, visited Scottish Opera for the first time as a perfect Fairy Queen. Grant Llewellyn also made a promising company debut with a fizzing performance in the pit.

From the marketing point of view, the most interesting feature of this cast was the guest appearance of Rikki Fulton as the Lord Chancellor. Fulton had long been a popular stand-up comic in Scotland, in partnership with Jack Milroy as Francie and Josie. He had, from time to time, acted in stage productions, perhaps most notably in The Thrie Estaites at the Edinburgh Festival, and in several Scots adaptations of Molière. So Fulton was also an accomplished serious actor, as in the film of Gorky Park.

Operetta was a new departure for Fulton, and while his appearance was generally successful, he did sometimes lose contact with the conductor. But the main quibble would have to be over his need for amplification, which created occasional problems of balance during ensemble work with unmiked colleagues. That is the kind of problem that may well have settled down after a few performances, but should really be managed in rehearsal.

 

Scottish Opera's Season - 1988/89

The programme for the 1988-89 season of Scottish Opera opened with Midsummer Marriage. The other new productions were Fledermaus, Rheingold, Don Giovanni, Oedipus Rex, Traviata and Street Scene. The revivals were Magic Flute, Iolanthe, and Bohème, In the autumn the previous season's Richard Jones Così fan tutte, redirected by Tim Hopkins, went out on the medium-scale tour. There was also a small-scale, piano-accompanied tour of Don Carlos, so far Scottish Opera's only attempt at this work.