Opera Scotland

Madam Butterfly 1994Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Madama Butterfly

Scottish Opera’s 1994-5 season opened at the Edinburgh Festival with a new production of Fidelio. The Glasgow programme saw this joined by a new Maria Stuarda and a revival of Madama Butterfly. There was also a short group of performances of Tristan und Isolde, a carry-forward from the previous summer with some cast changes. At Christmas the entertainment was the final run of Iolanthe, with the New Year bringing an interesting new modern dress Marriage of Figaro. The last group of operas, in the spring, consisted of an unknown recent Russian work, Schnittke's Life With an Idiot, in a co-production with ENO, and a revival of La forza del destino along with further performances of Madama Butterfly.

This final revival of the interesting Nuria Espert staging was very well cast, with Anne Williams-King again showing herself to be an excellent interpreter of the title role. The most notable new performance was the excellent Pinkerton of Ian Storey, who would return to equally good effect in the next staging by David McVicar. The newcomers, René Massis and Jutta Winkler, also made a strong impression.

There was a short final run of four further performances the following summer.