Opera Scotland

Edinburgh International Festival 2025

Posted 9 Apr 2025

Few of us are unaware of some rather chaotic conditions in the global economy of late.

It is hardly surprising therefore that there had been a delay in Festival Director Nicola Benedetti learning what funding would be available. Yet at a very late stage, an appealing if limited programme has been assembled.

Only one opera will be fully staged, but Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, sung in Italian, and imported from Australia, promises to be fascinating.

Two operas will be heard in concert - La clemenza di Tito with the SCO continues the Mozart series under Maxim Emelyanychev, while Sir Antonio Pappano conducts Puccini's Suor Angelica.

In addition, we were pleased to find that two masterpieces of the choral repertoire also feature in the Festival programme - the Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony and that perennial favourite, Mendelssohn's Elijah.