Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies of Scotland. Founded in 1962 and based in Glasgow, it is the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland.
Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies of Scotland. Founded in 1962 and based in Glasgow, it is the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland.
Scottish Opera was founded by conductor Alexander Gibson in 1962. In 1975 it purchased the Theatre Royal in Glasgow from Scottish Television re-opening it as the first national opera house for Scotland in October 1975 with Die Fledermaus . In March 2005, the management of the Theatre Royal was transferred to the Ambassador Theatre Group, but remains the home of Scottish Opera and of Scottish Ballet. [1]
Scottish Opera dealt with various financial troubles, related to lack of funding and accusations of fiscal profligacy,[ citation needed ] during the first part of the 2000s. Its cycle of Richard Wagner's Ring was critically acclaimed,[ citation needed ] but also was highly draining of the company's financial resources. In 2004, a financial restructuring plan had called for the elimination of 88 jobs, including all 34 members of the chorus, and the suspension of the entire 2005–06 season. [2] In protest, Sir Richard Armstrong announced his resignation in December 2004, effective at the end of the 2004–05 season. [3]
Alex Reedijk became general director of the company in 2006. [4] In August 2007, effective the same month, the company announced the appointment of Francesco Corti as its next music director. [5]
Recent commissions include the Five:15 Operas Made in Scotland, part of a five-year research and development project to find the next generation of opera-makers, composers and librettists.[ citation needed ]
The company has won awards, including the Barclays TMA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for Macbeth and Der Rosenkavalier (both in 1994) and for Die Walküre and Siegfried (both in 2002), as well as the South Bank Show Award for "Best Opera" for the Ring Cycle (2004) and a Herald Angel Award for The Two Widows at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2008.[ citation needed ]
Scottish Opera has also staged many successful productions abroad, including Albert Herring in Florence, [6] Egisto (opera) in Venice, [7] tours in Germany, Austria, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Yugoslavia and Iceland and recent years including Peter Grimes and Tristan und Isolde in Lisbon; Macbeth at the Vienna International Festival and the European premiere of MacMillan's Ines de Castro in Porto, Portugal.[ citation needed ]
Sir Richard Armstrong is an English conductor. He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar.
The Scottish play and the Bard's play are euphemisms for William Shakespeare's Macbeth. The first is a reference to the play's Scottish setting, the second a reference to Shakespeare’s popular nickname. According to a theatrical superstition, called the Scottish curse, speaking the name Macbeth inside a theatre, other than as called for in the script while rehearsing or performing, will cause disaster. A variation of the superstition also forbids quoting lines from the play within a theatre except as part of an actual rehearsal or performance of the play.
Henry Ian Cusick is a Peruvian-Scottish actor of television, film, and theatre and a television director.
Sir Alexander Drummond Gibson was a Scottish conductor and opera intendant. He was also well known for his service to the BBC and his achievements during his reign as the longest serving principal conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in which the orchestra was awarded its Royal Patronage.
The Theatre Royal is the oldest theatre in Glasgow and the longest running in Scotland. Located at 282 Hope Street, its front door was originally round the corner in Cowcaddens Street. It currently accommodates 1,541 people and is owned by Scottish Opera. The theatre opened in 1867, adopting the name Theatre Royal two years later. It is also the birthplace of Howard & Wyndham Ltd, owners and managers of theatres in Scotland and England until the 1970s, created by its chairman Baillie Michael Simons in 1895. It was Simons who as a cultural entrepreneur of his day also promoted the building of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and Glasgow's International Exhibitions of 1888 and 1901.
The National Theatre of Scotland, established in 2006, is the national theatre company of Scotland. The company has no theatre building of its own; instead it tours work to theatres, village halls, schools and site-specific locations, both at home and internationally.
The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco.
Blythe Duff is a Scottish actress best known for her role as Jackie Reid in the ITV television series drama, Taggart.
Malachi Bogdanov is a theatre director.
Paul Curran is a Scottish opera director. He was General Manager of the opera company of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet (2007–2011), and artistic consultant to Central City Opera of Denver, Colorado.
Daniel Craig Jackson, also known as D.C. Jackson, is a Scottish playwright, born in 1980.
Carrie Cracknell is a British theatre director. She was Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre, London from 2007–2012. She was Associate Director at both the Young Vic (2012–2013) and the Royal Court (2013–2014).
The Glasgow Grand Opera Society, known by its members and audiences alike as simply 'The Grand', was an opera company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded in 1906 and was wound up in 2000.
Emmanuel Christian Hedmondt was a Canadian-born tenor who made a long and distinguished career, mainly within the operatic repertoire. He changed to this stage name from his family name Hausgen. He also used the name Charles Hedmont, although spellings of this vary.
Edinburgh Grand Opera is Scotland's oldest existing grand opera company, founded in 1955 by Richard Telfer. This Edinburgh Music Society is run by its non-professional chorus with advice and support from the professional Artistic and Musical Directors and Designers it engages. It was originally known as the Edinburgh Grand Opera Group, and it has also been referred to as Edinburgh Grand Opera Company. Its soloists are a mixture of amateur, semi-professional and professional singers from Scotland and abroad, many of whom are students or graduates from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. It was the first amateur company to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.
Scottish opera is a subgenre of Scottish music. This article deals with three separate, but overlapping subjects:
Events from the year 1937 in Scotland.
Dominic Hill is Artistic Director at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. He took up post in October 2011.
Sir Thomas Martin Devine is a historian and author. The Financial Times in 2021, described him as "Scotland's most distinguished historian since Thomas Carlyle"1795-1881.
Elizabeth Ranken is a British choreographer, performer, director, movement director and artist. She is an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and was a lead performer with DV8 Physical Theatre. Her work encompasses opera, theatre, physical theatre, dance, television, film and art.
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