A VIBRANT new production of Opera Highlights goes on the road again this autumn, visiting 17 venues around Scotland.
A troupe of talented singers perform in this one-of-a-kind show, created specifically for Scottish Opera each season. Mezzo-soprano Katherine Aitken (The Verdi Collection 2023) and baritone Jerome Knox (The Fiery Angel 2017) return to our stages, while soprano Katy Thomson and tenor Innocent Masuku make their Company debuts.
From 21 September, they will travel to Giffnock, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Strathmiglo, Newtonmore, Lossiemouth, Ardross, Thurso, Lochinver, Arisaig, Isle of Seil, Tillicoultry, Glasgow, Dumfries, Crawfordjohn, Maybole, and Musselburgh. Accompanying them on piano is Music Director Toby Hession, a former Scottish Opera Emerging Artist.Directed by Laura Attridge (The Miserly Knight and Mavra 2022), designs are by Ana Inés Jabares-Pita.
The playlist, devised by Scottish Opera’s former Head of Music Derek Clark, cleverly combines a fabulous collection of much-loved classics with a treasure trove of lesser-known pieces. These include music from Verdi’s La traviata, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Puccini’s La bohème, Arthur Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, alongside works by Kurt Weill and William Walton. Audiences also have the chance to hear Toby Hession playing the world premiere of his short opera, entitled ‘In flagrante’.
Celebrating love and life, this production of Opera Highlights is set at a wedding, and the show explores the stories that happen in the margins of this kind of occasion. The characters – four guests and four staff members – will find their narratives interweaving as the day progresses, with audiences following them through a series of intimate exchanges via a rich programme of operatic gems. The variety of musical styles span three centuries of history, and include a series of arias, duets, trios, and quartets together with a delicate overarching narrative devised by the Company.
Director Laura Attridge said: ‘I’m so excited to be returning to Scottish Opera to direct the new Opera Highlights tour. It’s a programme depicting the intimacies and complexities of human relationships with bold, colourful brushstrokes, and I can’t wait to bring it to audiences on the road with a staging that makes its stories really sing.’
Opera Highlights is kindly supported by Friends of Scottish Opera, JTH Charitable Trust and The Scottish Opera Endowment Trust.
Tickets are on sale now at www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/opera-highlights-202324/
In the spring, Scottish Opera’s 2023/24 Emerging, and Associate, Artists Inna Husieva, Lea Shaw, Monwabisi Lindi and Ross Cumming tour the same Opera Highlights production from 11 February to 23 March to Greenock, Stirling, Ardrishaig, Blairgowrie, Peterhead, Aboyne, Strathpeffer, Tongue, Stornoway, Poolewe, Dornie, Ballachulish, Tobermory, Johnstone, Middleton, Duns, St Andrews and Largs. By the end of this tour, Opera Highlights will have visited 35 venues around Scotland. Tickets go on sale Winter 2023.
