Sending in the Clowns
Pagliacci in a circus and La Traviata highlights of new season
FOR most of us, when we think of opera, we think of grand opera – and it doesn’t come much grander than La Traviata.
So it’s grand news that Scottish Opera’s 2017-18 season will be opened by Verdi’s masterpiece.
It’s not a new production – but it’s not any old staging either.
The season’s October opening is a very welcome revival of Glasgow-born Sir David McVicar’s 2008 production for the company – a stunning triumph of passion, love, life and death.
Scottish Opera’s music director Stuart Stratford said: ‘Sir David’s Traviata is a stunning production that has been a global success.
‘We are delighted to welcome it back to Scotland.’
Following its staging at the Edinburgh International Festival, Greek – based on Steven Berkoff’s reimagining of the Oedipus myth – will be at Glasgow’s Theatre Royal in early February.
Continuing the contemporary theme later that month, Jonathan Dove’s Flight receives its Scottish professional premiere.
Based on the true story of a refugee stranded in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport for years, the original production by Investec Opera Holland Park was highly praised. Ariadne auf Naxos, a new production with the Holland Park company, continues the season. This sublime work by Richard Strauss, directed and designed by Antony McDonald, will see tradition collide with burlesque in an ensuing riot of playfulness.
The last conventional opera house performance of the season sees a new production of a Russian classic, Eugene Onegin, that wondrous coming together of two of the country’s greatest artists, Tchaikovsky and Pushkin.
This classic tale of hopeless love is directed by Oliver Mears, director of opera at Covent Garden.
I described Eugene Onegin as ‘the last conventional opera house performance of the season’. It is not, however, the last major opera production of the season. That will not come until next summer.
It will be a production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, taking place in a ‘circus tent’. Well, where else would you want to experience an opera called Clowns?
It will feature circus artists in a 200-strong cast. They will move among the audience, who will not be seated. Standing room only, indeed.
Stratford said: ‘Opera does not have to be performed in a theatre. This is opera called Clowns; in a circus tent is a great way of putting it on.’ The venue has yet to be finalised but will be ‘somewhere in Greater Glasgow’. The Sunday Series of less common operas in concert continues this year with a Russian theme. Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, The Fiery Angel by Prokofiev and Rachmaninov’s Aleko and Francesca da Rimini (a Scottish premiere). Stratford said: ‘I trained in Russia and I am very happy to delve back into that wonderful musical world.’ Those may be the main highlights of the season – but the national opera company is about much more than big productions in big cities. This is apparent in the continuing Opera Highlights and Pop-up Opera tours. Scottish Opera general director Alex Reedijk said: ‘There are a wide variety of productions spread out across the year – and across the country.’ The company will be performing in 48 venues – from Portree to Peebles, from Shetland to Stranraer. Reedijk summed up the season: ‘It is our duty to take the joy of opera all over Scotland.’ Amen to that.