Opera Scotland

Così fan tutte 1996Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Così fan tutte

For Scottish Opera, the great importance of the 1996-97 season is that it saw the premiere of Inés de Castro, the first full-length opera by James MacMillan. It had been over a decade since the company had last launched a new work - Harper's Hedda Gabler in 1985. The success of the opening at the Edinburgh Festival was deserved, and it was as well received during the main autumn season. That contained six other full-scale productions: Idomeneo, Il trovatore, La bohème, Die Fledermaus, Samson and Delilah and The Cunning Little Vixen. The Opera-Go-Round small-scale tour was an enjoyable staging of Così fan tutte. There was also a bonus in December, with an enterprising series of concerts around the country under the title The Scottish Opera Collection.

After Opera-Go-Round tours embracing piano-accompanied performances of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Gluck's Orfeo, subsequent tours of Bohème (1995), Così fan tutte (1996) and Barber of Seville (1997) may all seem a bit conservative, even dull - but then these repertoire staples need to be made available to everyone - and The Makropulos Case would follow in 1998.

The standard of performance and staging was consistently high, with modern dress and semi-abstract sets, but a reasonably serious approach. This cast certainly showed no weak links. Twenty-one performances criss-crossing the country between 3 September and 19 October certainly made serious demands on all concerned