Seizing the chance

There was a time when Scottish Opera travelled deep into England. Walter Weller conducted Fidelio in Newcastle, whose Theatre Royal the company loved to visit. Gary Bertini took The Magic Flute to Manchester. Thomas Wilson’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner had its premiere at the York Festival. Liverpool was not omitted.  Tristan and Isolde and its French obverse  Prlleas and Melisande went side by side in London.

Times have changed. Opera North, originally an offshoot of English National Opera, now operates independently with Leeds as its base. There was once talk of merging it with Scottish Opera but the plan, if it really existed, fell through. And though the English company does many interesting things, and has, in Richard Farnes,  one of the best opera conductors in Britain, its 2014-15 season looks no more adventurous than Scottish Opera’s. The Marriage of Figaro, La Traviata, The Coronation of Poppea and Gianni Schicchi (in a double-bill with a revival of La Vida Breve) are the new productions, along with revivals of Carousel and The Bartered Bride and concert-hall performances of The Flying Dutchman. It’s a little - not a lot - more than what Scottish Opera is offering, but nothing to persuade us that we are less well off in Scotland, where Janacek’s Jenufa is a highlight of the Scottish Opera season.  

And what of Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera’s other regional rival, if such a word as regional  dare be used today? Thanks to the ever-adventurous presence of David Pountney (Scottish Opera’s long-lost director of productions) as artistic director, the season is being split into three parts, each with its own title.  First to arrive is “Liberty or Death,”  constructed out of William Tell, Moses in Egypt, and Carmen. Then there is “Spellbound,” with The Magic Flute, Hansel and Gretel, and a newly devised scenic extravaganza called Chorus! created by Pountney himself. Finally comes  “A Terrible Innocence,” which sidesteps The Turn of the Screw to give us Pelleas and Melisande, The Magic Flute (again) and an  operatic version of Peter Pan by the Cornish composer Richard Ayres.

  In scale the Welsh season is similar to those of the other companies. But its ambitions look higher,  its excitements bolder, its risks greater.   Coming from a company which has always made an asset of its chorus, its event of that title certainly suggests itself to be  a comment on Scottish Opera, which a few years ago famously sacked its chorus. New productions of two of Rossini’s grandest operas also provide choral scope, and a new Pelleas is always something to look forward to, even if it happens to come off the rails. The advantages of co-productions - there are several of these - are sensationally embraced. 

Wales, in other words, is seizing its chances. It would be nice if Scotland is proved to be doing so, too.

19 May 2014