Iphigenia in Tauris 1979Kent Opera
Read more about the opera Iphigénie en Tauride
The 1979 Festival featured operas from two British companies. Kent Opera made their only visit, following their successful incursion to Stirling with Orfeo. Scottish Opera produced their first staging of Eugene Onegin, as well as revivals of two of their very best productions, The Golden Cockerel and The Turn of the Screw.
During their only visit to the Edinburgh Festival, Kent Opera had difficulties due to the illness of singers which affected their Traviata production. No such problem afflicted the wonderfully dramatic performances they gave of Gluck’s masterpiece, superbly conducted by Roger Norrington. The staging was eloquently simple, in a clean-cut classical style. Sung in English, it communicated with extraordinary immediacy in riveting interpretations by Eiddwen Harrhy and Jonathan Summers.
Performance Cast
- Iphigénie Priestess of Diana
- First Priestess
- Second Priestess
- Thoas King of Tauris
- Scythian
- Oreste son of Agamemnon
- Pylade friend to Oreste
- Temple servant
- Voice of Diana