Opera Scotland

Bohème 2025Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Bohème

This staging of the old classic was launched in 2017, and here has its first revival.  Given a setting  of Paris in the 1920s, it worked surprisingly well.  For evidence of its quality we only need to see not just that company chief Stuart Stratford has returned to conduct, but that the original Mimi, Hye-Youn Lee, is also on hand. 

Mario Chang is a tenor from Guatemala making his British debut.  He has already sung several parts at the Met, including Nemorino, and has also sung in Los Angeles and Santa Fe as well as several major roles at Frankfurt.

Roland Wood first sang Marcello at the beginning of his career in an Opera-Go-Round staging with piano, but now, at last, gets to perform the complete work.  Callum Thorpe first joined the company for Oedipus Rex at last year's Edinburgh Festival. Edward Jowle has recently joined Scottish Opera's Emerging Artist programme.

There are fifteen performances spread over the four cities that have suitable theatres - Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and Edinburgh.  A further experiment with scheduling is introduced.  Aberdeen joins Edinburgh and Glasgow in having a 3pm matinee. In Inverness the early performance starts at 5pm.  These changes should both make it easier for those many audience members that travel long distances.

 

Scottish Opera's programme for 2025/26

The most obvious novelty is a world premiere with a uniquely Japanese theme. The Great Wave has music by Dai Fujikura and a text by Harry Ross with a central theme derived from the famous print by Hokusai.

The season opens with new productions of an interesting double bill of works by two great twentieth century masters, Maurice Ravel and William Walton.  Scottish Opera did give us L'Heure espagnole as long ago as 1963, the company's second season, but Walton's operas, including his late comedy The Bear, have been conspicuous omissions.

As usual two popular favourites are given extended runs that include performances in Aberdeen and Inverness, as well as Glasgow and Edinburgh.  The autumn revival is Renaud Doucet and André Barbe's thoroughly enjoyable staging of La bohème, first seen in 2017.  The spring tour is one of the company's best productions, first seen in 2010 - Sir Thomas Allen's visionary interpretation of The Marriage of Figaro, which he is returning to work on.

There is a long-awaited return to the works of Wagner, with two concert performances of Tristan und Isolde, while a concert programme of excerpts this year is centred on Tchaikovsky.

The company's small-scale activities continue with autumn and spring tours of a Highlights programme.  The Pop-Up Opera series also continues to spread the length and breadth of the country.