Opera Scotland

Aïda 1986Tayside Opera

Read more about the opera Aïda

It was perhaps inevitable that Tayside Opera, having had success with several Verdi works as well as La gioconda, would move on to tackle Aïda. For this they cut the number of performances to five, but moved to the larger Whitehall Theatre (nearly double the seating capacity of the Gardyne). Of the major parts, only the title role was double cast - the appearance of multiple singers in the small roles was so that they could cover big ones if necessary.

A big gap in the company's ranks was felt due to the death during the year of Bill Dewar. He had been a driving force behind the development of the company since 1968, singing many baritone leads, and had still been in excellent form in the previous year's Trovatore. The young mezzo Elizabeth Kinnear also died within a few months of these performances.