Opera Scotland

Traviata 1974Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Traviata

Ian Watt-Smith's 1970 production, revived at Christmas, had a final spring tour with the same cast.  Only Loughran survived from 1970, but the main points of interest were Robert Tear's Alfredo - he was not associated with the Italian lyric roles at all - and Sesto Bruscantini's Germont.  He had come regularly to Edinburgh with Glyndebourne and other companies, but had not been to Scotland for some years.  He was redirecting his career away from the youthful baritone roles of Mozart and Rossini that had dominated his career, and his Germont was a fine lesson in bel canto singing and subtle acting.  Urszula Koszut became ill during the run, and Violetta required some emergency replacements.  Elizabeth Vaughan had sung the part at Covent Garden and elsewhere and would now return to Scotland regularly.  Anna Maccianti, more of a coloratura soprano, flew in from Italy and had a success in Edinburgh, along with the Canadian tenor Ermanno Mauro, a member of the Covent Garden company for several seasons.

 

The Scottish Opera season

Scottish Opera's spring 1974 season opened on 16 March with a single performance at Stirling's MacRobert Centre.  This was the World Premiere of a new commission from Iain Hamilton, The Catiline Conspiracy.  When the company moved on to its first visit to York,  Catiline was joined by the previous season's Merry Widow and the recent compact staging of The Magic Flute.  At Sunderland a revival of the 1970 Traviata joined the programme and the ensemble then moved on to Oxford.  The Flute was then the only work seen in Perth before the main season opened in Glasgow.  In that city, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, the repertoire of Catiline, Merry Widow and Traviata, all of which used the Scottish Chamber Orchestra or its expanded version, the Scottish Philharmonia, was augmented by the two operas that required the services of the SNO - revivals of the 1965 Boris Godunov and 1970 Fidelio.