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Saturday 8 October 2016

Online opera awards


As the 2016 Edinburgh Festival recedes into obscurity, I have been compiling a personal list of online opera awards, dating forward from 1947, when as a schoolboy I attended my first festival events The memories linger on, and it is time I listed them.

Opera, for eighteen nights out of 21, was originally the pride of the festival,as it was, and usually still is, of all the great international festivals.  It is sad that in Edinburgh it no longer holds that dominant position but here, for what they are worth, are my nominations for my first online opera awards, complete with the names of the festival directors and opera companies who was responsible for them.

If you have memories, let me share them now.  But note that, for me, they are petering out.

The online opera awards:
Verdi A Masked Ball, Glyndebourne (Rudolf Bing)
Verdi The Force of Destiny, Glyndebourne ( Rudolf Bing)
Rossini Count Ory, Glyndebourne (Ian Hunter)
Strauus Ariadne auf Naxos/Le Borgeois Gentilhome, Glyndebourne (Ian Hunter_
Hindemith Mathis der Maler, Hamburg State Opera (Ian Hunter)
Stravinsky The Rake’s Progress, British premiere, Glyndebourne (Ian Hunter)
Bellini La Sonnambula (Callas) La Scala Milan (Robert Ponsonby)
Janacek Katya Kabanova, Prague Opera  (Lord Harewood)
Strauss Intermezzo, Bavarian State Opera (Lord Harewood)
Berg Lulu, Stuttgart Opera (Peter Diamand)
Stravinsky The Rake’s Progress, Scottish Opera festival debut (Peter Diamand)
Stravinsky The Soldier’s  Tale, Scottish Opera (Peter Diamand)
Henze Elegy for Young Lovers, Scottish Opera (Peter Diamond)
Rossini Cenerentola, La Scala Milan/Edinburgh Festival Opera (Peter Diamand)
Prokofiev The Fiery Ange, Frankfurt Opera (Peter Diamand)
Zinnernann Die Soldaten,  Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Peter Diamand)
Bizet Carmen, Edinburgh Festival Opera (Peter Diamand)
Monteverdi The Coronation of Poppea, Zurich Opera (Peter Diamand)
Handel Aiodante, LA Scala, Milan (John Drummond)
Britten Death  in Venice, Scottish Opera (John Drummond)
Verdi Don Carlos, Covent Garden (Brian McMaster)
Beethoven Fidelio, Scottish Opera (Brian McMaster)
Wagner The Ring, Scottish Opera (Brian McMaster)

Please send me some responses.
8 October 2016



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