News

3 February 2012

We’re looking for adults to take part in brand new community opera we’re staging with the Citizens Community Company.

In Temptations of Tam a cast of 20 will perform their own take on Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, following Tam Rakewell’s downfall in a world of temptation and debauchery. The Orchestra of Scottish Opera will accompany the final performances at the Citizens Theatre in June.

Workshop auditions will take place at the Citizens Theatre on 21 and 23 February. No preparation is needed, just be ready to get involved and give it a go! Casting will be based on vocal and acting ability, and to be considered you must go to both workshops.

For more information on how to get involved follow this link.
 

1 Feb 2012

The fantastic work carried out by our education team is to be further supported with a new capital investment from the Scottish Government.

For 40 years the Education Department has been running an extensive programme of work, ranging from performance workshops with 12,000 primary school pupils every year, to developing productions like the recent BabyO and AerialO and the popular Opera Unwrapped taster sessions.

The money will buy a much-needed van for the department, enabling them to deliver an ever increasing number of projects all around Scotland.

Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, announced the additional funding at a Scottish Parliament debate on the Year of Creative Scotland, as part of a wider commitment for a number of cultural organisations across Scotland.

If you want to find out more about classes run by the education department and their upcoming productions follow this link.

For more on the education department’s work in schools follow this link.

For the Scottish Government press release follow this link
 

1 Feb 2012

The first photographs of Opera Highlights 2012 are here!

The show takes our four singers and a pianist the length and breadth of Scotland performing a variety of arias, duets and ensembles offering a little something for everyone, from the seasoned opera fan to first-timers.

Rosie Aldridge, Robert Anthony Gardiner, Anita Watson and

Marcus Farnsworth in Opera Highlights 2012. Photo by Tommy

Ga-Ken Wan.

Follow this link to see the production photographs.

Follow this link for tour, venue and booking information.

24 January 2012

The Connect Chorus and Connect Orchestra are getting the chance to share their skills with family and friends.

Scottish Opera's Connect programme offers 14 to 21 year old singers and orchestral musicians a unique practical introduction to the skills and experience needed to perform opera. The groups are tutored by Scottish Opera’s top professionals and visiting artists, giving them the chance to develop their singing and playing, as well as allowing an insight into the workings of a professional opera company.

Leah-Marian Jones – who’s singing the role of the Witch in Scottish Opera’s upcoming production of Hansel and Gretel – will lead the Connect Chorus in a Masterclass on Saturday 28 January. During the 3 hour session Leah-Marian will hear individual and group singing and give hints and tips to the young singers on improving their technique, as well as their overall performance.

Sunday 29 January sees the Connect Orchestra take centre stage with a short concert conducted by Scottish Opera Music Director Francesco Corti. The group will perform extracts from Humperdink’s Hansel and Gretel alongside The Orchestra of Scottish Opera. Singers Shuna Scott Sendall, Michel de Souza, Rebecca Afonwy-Jones and Frances Morrison will also perform during the 45 minute sharing, along with 20 girls from the Connect Chorus.

Audiences will get the chance to see what the Connect Chorus and Connect Orchestra can do in March, when the groups will stage two public performances of Copland's The Second Hurricane at our Production Studios in Glasgow. It follows their successful professional theatre debut last season in the double bill of family operas On The Rim of the World and Dr Ferret's Bad Medicine Roadshow at the Citizen's Theatre in Glasgow.

Find out more about Scottish Opera Connect.
 

19 January 2012

Scottish Opera and the Scottish Refugee Council are working together on a music project in primary schools.

Based around the music of our forthcoming production of Hansel & Gretel, a series of workshops is being developed working with refugees in their own communities across Glasgow.

During the sessions The Orchestra of Scottish Opera have performed extracts of Humperdinck’s music, the children have been learning some of the chorus songs, as well as designing their own posters for the production and getting the chance to try on some costumes.

Next month the participants will be coming along to the Theatre Royal in Glasgow to see a special Children’s Unwrapped of Hansel & Gretel.
 

See pictures of a workshop in action.

Read Marlene Madenge’s blog on the workshops.

You can find out more about the Education Department's work by following this link.

Feast your eyes on pictures and film from behind the scenes of Betrothal in a Monastery.

Prokofiev's hilarious comedy marks Scottish Opera's seventh annual winter collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and opens at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow on 20 January.

See the behind-the-scenes film

See rehearsal pictures

Ticket and booking information.

21 December 2012

Opera Highlights audiences will be the first in the UK to hear a brand new work.

Scottish Opera’s inaugural composer in residence has revised Dance ‘til the Sun Sets especially for the annual 15 date whistle-stop tour. It will be performed alongside arias and ensembles from well-known operas including Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, as well as a sprinkling of lesser-known works from the likes of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko and Britten’s Paul Bunyan. Listen to excerpts here.  

A cast of four talented young singers will bring the eclectic programme to life - they are baritone Marcus Farnsworth (with Riccardo Simonetti singing for the final six performances), soprano Anita Watson, mezzo-soprano Rosie Aldridge and tenor Robert Anthony Gardiner. Packing up her piano to accompany them on the 5 week tour is Susannah Wapshott.

The tour starts in Livingston on Tuesday 31 January, before heading to Broughton, Jedburgh, Castle Douglas, Largs, Arran, Glenuig, Benerloch, Mull, Gairloch, Lochinver, Invermoriston, Midmar, Glenrothes and Musselburgh.

Check here for full venue and booking information. 

Listen to Gareth Williams talking about Dance ‘til the Sun Sets. 

Listen to Head of Music Derek Clark discussing how the Opera Highlights programme is put together. 
 

4 January 2012

2012 is here and it's looking very busy!

With Opera Highlights and our collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Betrothal in a Monastery  both opening in January, and a brand-new production of Hansel & Gretel beginning the first weekend in February, we are straight back into rehearsals.

Looking a little further ahead, tickets are also on sale for the David McVicar-directed The Rake’s Progress (opening 17 March) and the revival of Anthony Besch’s phenomenally successful Tosca in May.
 

Happy New Year!

6 Dec 2011

Scottish Opera helped celebrate a new cultural understanding in Beijing recently.

50 schoolchildren performed children’s opera Tale o’ Tam at a special reception following the agreement being signed.

The pupils from Beijing No. 4 School spent a week rehearsing the opera based on Robert Burns’ epic poem ‘Tam O’Shanter’ with our Education team and singers Iain Paton and Nadine Livingston. Guests at the performance included First Minister Alex Salmond and China’s Minister of Culture Mr Cai Wu. It follows a similar project in September with the English Schools Foundation in Hong Kong of Bizet’s Carmen.

Scottish Opera's General Director Alex Reedijk said ‘Our work with No. 4 School this week is a great illustration of the cultural collaboration our countries aspire to. We've been able to share our best practice in arts education, built up over 40 years, and have been impressed by the pupils' commitment to achieving so much in such a short period of time. It's also wonderful to have the opportunity while we are in China to showcase young Scottish talent as an inspirational example of where arts education can lead.’

The children perform alongside Nadine Livingston and Iain Paton

29 Nov 2011

Pupils on Scotland's Glow network are getting the chance to find out more about the life of a professional opera singer.

Scottish Opera singers  Marie Claire Breen and Ross McInroy will be hosting a Glow Meet through Glow TV on Tuesday 6 December at 2pm.
 

Glow is the world's first national intranet for education, and is available in classrooms and  to pupils at home to help enhance their learning experiences. 

The two singers, who are Scottish Opera Emerging Artists and currently on tour singing in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, will talk live from the Young Vic theatre in London where the show is starting a sold-out 2 week run.

Marie Claire and Ross will answer any questions from pupils on subjects such as how they got into music, how they often practice, what it’s like being on tour or even what it’s like being fitted for costumes or having to wear wig.

So if you'd like to take part and you have access to Glow then register for the Glow Meet through Glow TV, or simply log on to join in on the day. 

To find out more about the Emerging Artists Programme, follow this link.