Scottish Opera launches season with four new shows

Published Wednesday 21 May 2008 at 18:05

Scottish Opera announced its 2008/9 season today with five main stage productions, four of which are brand new shows, a string of smaller scale and school events, as well as the return of Five:15, the experiment to find new opera-writing partnerships.

The two “top 15” operas for the season, La Traviata and Cosi Fan Tutte, are both co-productions and both directed by Scottish Opera regular David McVicar. The former is a new co-production with Welsh Opera and the latter created for Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg.

Alex Reedijk, the company’s New Zealand born artistic director told The Stage: “We are endeavouring to increase the number of operas we present. We have moved that on from four to five - and a half if you include Five:15.

“Co-productions sound very straight forward but in real life you have to have two willing folk with a shared vision for a piece.”

The season’s third co-production sees the company return to the Edinburgh International Festival, with a production of Smetna’s The Two Widows. Cimarosa’s The Secret Marriage sees the main stage debut for director Harry Fehr, while Scottish conductor Garry Walker also makes his opera debut. The final main stage piece is Manon, by Massenet.

The season also extends the company’s repertoire with the inclusion of a concert performance of I Puritani, by Bellini, in an initiative promoted by the company’s new music director Francesco Corti.