Opera Scotland

Carmen 1977Edinburgh Festival Opera

Read more about the opera Carmen

This production was something of a landmark in the history of the Festival. Peter Diamand was reaching the end of his run as Festival Director, and had long wished to stage Carmen with Berganza in the lead. She had resisted the idea, having her own views on how the work should be played. Long term planning resulted in a superbly successful, unusually restrained staging, specially tailored to the intimate environment of the King's Theatre.

Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony Orchestra, the Scottish Opera Chorus, and Plácido Domingo, in his only Scottish operatic appearances, came together in a beautifully designed and directed production. Mirella Freni appeared for the opening night, also giving her only Festival operatic performance.  Leona Mitchell was an excellent Micaëla during the rest of the run.

The Finnish baritone Tom Krause was a major star on the continent but rarely sang in Britain.  His smoothly supercilious Escamillo had already been recorded a few years before, so when the production went into the studio later (in London) Sherrill Milnes took the part. Freni had also featured in an earlier recording so Ileana Cotrubas joined the team.

One oddity in the casting was that there was only one native French speaker, and that in the relatively brief, largely spoken, part of Zuniga.  When one considers the huge scandal caused by the departure of Maria Callas before the final performance of Sonnambula in 1957 (not her fault, rather a managerial issue), it may seem surprising that Domingo's early departure failed to arouse similar comment.

Top tickets were priced at £25 each, which caused a bit of a fuss at the time, though there was no difficulty in selling them.