Rigoletto opens the new Season with director Matthew Richardson (The Devil Inside 2016) and Olivier Award-winning designer Jon Morrell reviving their powerful 2011 production of Verdi’s masterpiece. Conducted by Rumon Gamba, internationally acclaimed baritone Aris Argiris leads the cast which also includes Lina Johnson, much-praised for her Gilda in Trieste in 2016; award-winning British tenor Adam Smith; and David Shipley, a recent graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme. Scottish Opera Emerging Artists Alexey Gusev and Lucy Anderson also appear in this film-noir inspired production set in a dark and dangerous underworld.
In January 2019, the award-winning team behind 2016’s The Devil Inside returns with the world premiere of a Scottish Opera commissioned work, Anthropocene. The fourth collaboration between composer Stuart MacRae and librettist Louise Welsh, this gripping new work tells the story of a team of scientists trapped in the frozen Arctic wastelands. Directed by Matthew Richardson and designed by Samal Blak, Anthropocene’s ensemble cast includes former Scottish Opera Emerging Artist Jennifer France (Flight and Ariadne auf Naxos 2018), Scottish soprano Jeni Bern and Stephen Gadd (Flight 2018). Stuart Stratford conducts performances at Theatre Royal Glasgow and King’s Theatre, Edinburgh before the production transfers to Hackney Empire in London for two performances presented in association with The Royal Opera. Anthropocene is supported by Scottish Opera’s New Commissions Circle.
Renowned for his trademark theatricality and vivid storytelling, British director Stephen Lawless directs Janáček’s Kátya Kabanová at Theatre Royal Glasgow and Festival Theatre Edinburgh in March, in a new co-production with Germany’s Theater Magdeburg. Set in a small industrial community in Russia, the role of Kátya is taken by Laura Wilde, greatly praised for her Jenůfa at English National Opera in 2016. She performs alongside American tenor Ric Furman, Hanna Hipp (The Marriage of Figaro 2016) and Patricia Bardon in the role of meddling mother-in-law Kabanicha. Stuart Stratford conducts. Kátya Kabanová is supported by The Alexander Gibson Circle.
The 2018/19 Season closes with Mozart’s The Magic Flute, with Sir Thomas Allen returning to direct his acclaimed production set in a world inspired by the Victorian futurism of HG Wells and Jules Verne. Peter Gijsbertsen, who sang the role of Alfredo in 2017’s La traviata, is Tamino. He is joined by Gemma Summerfield, First Prize Winner at the 2015 Kathleen Ferrier Awards; up-and-coming talent Julia Sitkovetsky and Richard Burkhard, who returns to sing Papageno, the laugh-out-loud role he created in 2012. Tobias Ringborg (The Marriage of Figaro 2016) conducts dates in Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. There will be two Dementia Friendly performances of The Magic Flute in Glasgow and Edinburgh.