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Scottish Opera Gala Concert
(in support of Scottish Opera’s New Production Fund)
Sunday 19 September 2004
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Matthew Best
Karen Cargill
Dame Anne Evans
Jane Irwin
Simon Keenlyside
Lisa Milne
Ian Storey
The Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Leader: Anthony Moffat
Sir Richard Armstrong
Introduced by Iain Burnside
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Part 1
Tchaikovsky : The Queen of Spades : Prelude
The Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Sir Richard Armstrong
Tchaikovsky : The Maid of Orleans : Da Chas Natal (Adieu forêts)
Jane Irwin
Tchaikovsky : The Queen of Spades : Chto nasha zhizn?
Ian Storey
Mozart : Don Giovanni : La ci darem la mano
Simon Keenlyside
Lisa Milne
Mozart : Die Zauberflöte : Ach, ich fühls
Lisa Milne
Wagner : Lohengrin, Act 3 : Prelude
The Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Sir Richard Armstrong
Wagner : Lohengrin : Einsam in trüben Tagen (Elsa’s Dream)
Anne Evans
Britten : The Rape of Lucretia : Give him this orchid… Flowers bring to every year the same perfection
Karen Cargill
Britten : Billy Budd : Billy in the Darbies
Simon Keenlyside
Part 1
Dennis O’Neill and Claire Rutter were billed to sing excerpts from Un ballo in maschera in the second half but were both ill, and the other contributors filled in with various arias. If anyone can remember what these were, we’d be very grateful. One thing we do know is that SK closed the show.
Verdi : Don Carlo : Ella giammai m’amò
Matthew Best
Leoncavallo : I Pagliacci : Prologue
Simon Keenlyside
What the critics say
Sarah Jones for The Scotsman, 22 Sep 2004
Five Star rating*****
In a programme of arias, orchestral overtures and informative chat from pianist Ian [sic] Burnside, it was the quality on display that marked this as a gala worth the ticket price. Opening with the overture to Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, the Scottish Opera Orchestra (virtually the sole survivors of the stringent down-sizing of the company) provided a glittering prelude to an evening full of highlights.
Baritone Simon Keenlyside can always be relied upon to go the extra mile, and Sunday's performance was no exception. A lascivious Don Giovanni, enticing Lisa Milne's fluttering Zerlina away from her marriage bed, his postscript was a magnificent Billy Budd, sung as he sat crumpled on the floor, his rich, smooth tone hypnotically translating the dying thoughts of Benjamin Britten's doomed sailor.
Rounding off this celebratory evening, the wonderful Jane Irwin and Anne Evans (uncharacteristically) caterwauled through Rossini's Cat duet, hissing and spitting, a witty end to a truly memorable concert. Encore.
Singing out over opera funding
Tim Cornwall forThe Scotsman, 20th September 2004
http://entertainment.scotsman.com/headlines_specific.cfm?id=9287
A LEADING former soloist came out of retirement yesterday to sound a broadside at the Executive over funding of the arts in Scotland.
Dame Anne Evans attacked politicians for ignoring the needs of Scottish Opera as she lined up with an A-list of international singers at a gala concert in support of the company.
Her comments were echoed by the music director of Scottish Opera, who made a direct appeal for his company’s future at the fund-raising event, held in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
Sir Richard Armstrong told an audience of 1,700 that a planned nine-month "dark" period when the company will stage no full-scale operas "cannot be allowed to happen".
In his most outspoken comments to date, Sir Richard also called for the opera’s chorus to be restored after its members were cut from 35 to 20 under restructuring plans forced on the company.
"We have had the most terrible bruising time and there is no describing that," he said. "However, the company has a fierce determination to work through our difficulties and achieve a positive outcome."
Top tickets for last night’s concert and dinner cost up to £150.
Dame Anne, who gave her farewell concert in the Royal Albert Hall in last year’s Proms, came out of retirement to sing for no fee. Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland yesterday, the soprano said of Scotland’s politicians: "They seem more interested in football than they are in culture.
"It obviously means Scottish Opera is going to have to do smaller-scale productions until there is enough money for major ones. Even if they put on one fantastic new production in a season, that would be wonderful."
The baritone Simon Keenlyside, who made his career with Scottish Opera but has not sung with the company for nearly a decade, flew in between performances at the Paris Opera. The tenor, Ian Storey, flew in from Zurich yesterday morning.
Twenty years ago Scottish Opera staged 11 operas a year. Ten years ago the number was down to seven. This year there are effectively four full-scale productions.
Mr Keenlyside said yesterday that he learned his trade over five years in leading roles in Scotland, and it was that "huge debt of gratitude" that brought him back. It would be a tragedy if young singers could not find work that would build their own ties to Scotland, he said.
He did not know the ins and outs of the company’s history, he said.
But if the powers that be in Scotland had fallen for the "fatuous mantra" that opera was elitist, they were out of step with mainstream culture in Europe.
The concert was almost a sell-out yesterday, with estimated at slightly short of the original target of £60,000 for the night. Scottish Opera aims to raise £400,000 - enough to pay for a single new production, but fund-raisers are being cautious about figures.
Mr Keenlyside said: "I know the world doesn’t owe me a living, and I know the world doesn’t owe culture a living. You have to follow budgets, and perhaps we have to tighten our belts. But it is not question of hospitals or opera and to call it an elitist art form in this country of all places is such a nonsense.
"From the audiences I met on tour in Inverness, Aberdeen, in Edinburgh, in Glasgow, they are people who love music, the sound of the human voice. To pull it down on the grounds of elitism is just simply ignorant."