Opera Highlights, the popular tour from Scottish Opera (SO), kicks off on this coming Valentine’s Day at East Kilbride Village Theatre, from where it will travel across the country visiting the Scottish Borders to the Highlands and Islands.
Marking its 60th Anniversary, Opera Highlights forms part of SO’s commitment to bring opera to over 60 communities across all points of the compass around Scotland this Season. This show travels to Crail, Garvald, Perth, Stonehaven, Boat of Garten, Invergarry, Wick, Orkney, Ullapool, Torridon, Skye, Oban, Campbeltown, Islay, Gretna, Hawick and Ayr.
Director Emma Jenkins and designer Janis Hart are behind this year’s original piano-accompanied production where the cast includes SO 2022/23 Emerging Artist Colin Murray, alongside Annie Reilly, who both recently performed in the 5 star production of Ainadamar, as well as Andrew Henley (Thérèse 2022) and Holly Teague, led from the piano by James Longford.
The production also features the world premiere of a new piece by SO 2021/22 Emerging Artist and composer Toby Hession, that is a modern and humorous re-working of Macbeth entitled ‘Told By An Idiot,’ with libretto by Emma Jenkins.
SO’s Head of Music Derek Clark introduces audiences a playlist from much-loved opera’s including Mozart’s The Magic Flute and The Marriage of Figaro, Beethoven’s Fidelio, Verdi’s Macbeth and Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers alongside music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Gounod and a composition written by Mendelssohn when he was just 12 years old.
Director Emma Jenkins said “Four young singers in search of an identity find themselves, like Alice in Wonderland or the children of Narnia, propelled along an operatic rollercoaster of love and loss, devotion and desire, jealousy and jubilation. The overriding theme of the Opera Highlights is LOVE. Our singers put on and take off various roles as if possessed by the force of love in a fast-paced performance that celebrates not only the voice, but also ensemble work and physical theatre. All this against the backdrop of Janis Hart’s stunning design which combines a retro 70s feel with an anarchic theatrical space in which one feels that anything could happen!”
Opera Highlights is supported by The Friends of Scottish Opera and JTH Charitable Trust.
The production will be touring from 14th February to 25th March 2023.
Tickets are now on sale on at
www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/opera-highlights-202223/
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 