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Farnes Triumphant


The first time I heard Richard Farnes, some years ago at the Perth Festival, I thought him potentially the best opera conductor in Britain.

He was, at the time, in charge of that plucky little company, English Touring Opera, and the way he handled its artful production of Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at the Perth Theatre riveted my attention.

Since then he has become music director of Opera North in Leeds and, with a Ring cycle and a much-praised Peter Grimes under his belt, has proved that my thoughts about him were no idle prediction.

There was a point, after he conducted the premiere of David Horne’s challenging Friend of the People, a complex modern opera if ever there was one, in Glasgow in 1999, when Scottish Opera could have grabbed him. It never happened, though he was to make sensational appearances around that time with Glyndebourne and English National Opera.

Now, a few nights ago, he made a guest appearance conducting a concert by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow City Hall.  The programme included Delius’s Walk to the Paradise Garden and Walton’s film score for Henry V, among other things. Though I was unable to attend the event myself, I noticed that my colleague Michael Tumelty gave him a five-star review in The Herald, adding that he would have awarded six, if he had been allowed to do so. Will Scottish Opera offer him a production next season? Let us wait and see.
24 January 2015

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