Opera Scotland

Pagliacci 1980Edinburgh Grand Opera

Read more about the opera Pagliacci

Leoncavallo and Mascagni had at this point been completely ignored both by Scottish Opera and the Edinburgh International Festival. Furthermore, Sadler's Wells, who had brought John Blatchley's updated staging of Cav & Pag to Edinburgh in 1972, had now, following the change of its identity to English National Opera, abandoned touring altogether. It was therefore left to the various amateur groups in the Scottish cities to keep these former stalwarts of the repertoire alive.

On this occasion, Edinburgh Grand took the unusual step of reversing the playing order, with Pagliacci starting proceedings. The company's leading soprano, Gelda Bell, sang Nedda at the opening night, plus Friday and Saturday - but she was also doing all five performances of Santuzza after the interval.

Alan Borthwick was, at this stage, the leading amateur tenor in Scotland, singing leading roles with not just this company, but also Edinburgh Gilbert and Sullivan Society and Tayside Opera in Dundee. During 1980 his parts with those groups were Bunthorne in Patience and Edgardo in Lucia. In this run he was satisfied with singing Canio, leaving Turiddu in other hands.