Opera Bohemia bringing popular new show to town
Scotland’s professional touring company Opera Bohemia is making its first visit to Stirling for a performance of the new production of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers.
The performance will be held at Macrobert Arts Centre on Wednesday, August 23.
Opera Bohemia was founded by Fife-born baritone Douglas Nairne and Glasgow-born conductor Alistair Digges.
Now in its eighth year, the company recently celebrated its 100th performance and over the last seven years has provided performance opportunities for more than 100 young professional singers musicians. One of the original goals was to try and introduce opera to a new audience as well as providing more live performances for opera lovers.
Much of the Opera Bohemia audience across Scotland have been opera “newbies” who have loved the experience.
This year the company launched its first education project, taking opera workshops to schools all round Scotland. More than 350 youngsters took part including students from Stirling High School.
The company hopes to tempt even more people to give opera a try with the new production of The Pearl Fishers. In this moving tale set in Ceylon, two men’s vow of friendship is threatened by their obsession with the same woman, a beautiful priestess, who battles to suppress her feelings of love in order to uphold her sacred oath.
The opera is composed by Georges Bizet, best known for Carmen.
He wrote The Pearl Fishers when he was much younger, still not 25 years old.
The work contains a duet for tenor and baritone (The Pearl Fishers Duet) which has become one of the most famous and loved duets in the whole operatic repertoire.
The production is directed by former Scottish Opera young artist Lissa Lorenzo and features a starand studded cast led by Scottish soprano Monica McGhee in the role of Leila.
McGhee was part of the internationally successful opera group Amore. Welsh tenor Thomas Kinch returns to Opera Bohemia in the role of Nadir, with Scotland’s Douglas Nairne and Michael MacKinnon as Zurga and Nourabad, completing the cast.
The production features the company’s first professional chamber chorus and is accompanied by the Opera Bohemia Ensemble under the baton of Alistair Digges.
With beautiful melodies, rousing choruses and opera’s most famous duet, this promises to be a magical night at the opera.
The production is sung in French with English subtitles.