Opera Scotland

The Bear in Scotland

Posted 13 Aug 2025

The Bear received its first performance in Scotland on 3 August 2013 as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The venue was the Greyfriars Tollbooth Highland Kirk.  Helios Chamber Opera performed it as part of a triple bill The Bear Goes Walkabout, with new works composed by Philip Ashworth and Joel Rust.

The cast of young British singers included Urszula Bock (Popova), Angus McPhee (Smirnov) and Sam Carl (Luka).  The Scottish mezzo Helen Stanley, who played one of the walk-on roles, went on to sing Popova as a student in Cardiff and at Sir William Walton's estate on Ischia.

The staging was directed by Ella Marchment and the Melos Sinfonia was conducted by Oliver Zeffman.

More recently  The Bear has been seen in Glasgow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  The production opened on 26 February 2016 in the Alexander Gibson Opera Studio.  Derek Clark, Scottish Opera's Head of Music, conducted the staging directed by Tom Creed.  It was played in an appropriately Russian double bill, coupled with Mavra, a farcical folk tale by Stravinsky.

There were two pairs of singers alternating as the warring couple.  The opening cast was led by Penelope Cousland, with a lovely fruity contralto, as Popova.  A genuine Russian student, Alexey Gusev, was a surprisingly sympathetic Smirnov.  He spent several years in Scotland as one of Scottish Opera's first Emerging Artists while also being a very useful language coach.

The second cast featured Jane Monari and Euros Campbell in the leading roles.  Luka was played (at all performances) as an unusually youthful servant by Ciprian Serban.