Opera to the fore in Edinburgh Festival launch

Details of this summer’s fest were released this morning by director Nicola Benedetti Here’s a quick overview from Kate Calder of Edinburgh Music Review:

Last year there were no staged operas, and this year there are three and two concert
performances The Opéra-Comique’s new production of ‘Carmen’ by Andrea Homoki
celebrates the original performances, with sets based on the art and architecture of the
period. Gaëlle Arquez is Carmen and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under conductor Louis
Langrée provide the music.

Komische Oper Berlin under Music Director, James Gaffigan and theatre and opera director,
Kirill Serebrennikov bring a new production of ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ also to the Festival
Theatre. There are two ensemble casts which cover three performances.
Scottish Opera’s ‘Oedipus Rex’ at the Royal Museum of Scotland is a promenade production,
which will have 100-strong Community Chorus drawn from across central Scotland.

The SCO and SCO Chorus under Maxim Emelyanychev present a concert performance of
‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ with Golda Schultz as Fiordiligi and Christopher Maltman as Don Alphonso.
Richard Strauss’s final opera ‘Capriccio’, is the closing concert with the Philharmonia
Orchestra under Andrew Davis (who first conducted the opera 51 years ago) and singers
including Malin Byström and Sarah Connolly.

Among other sung events in the Usher Hall programme, the opening weekend’s ‘Matthew
Passion,’ in Mendelssohn’s arrangement, features the Festival Chorus with new director,
James Grossmith, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Wigglesworth and
soloists, Elizabeth Watts, Sarah Connolly, Ed Lyon and Neal Davies.

In a beanbag concert, the Festival Chorus sing Alexander Grechaninov’s unaccompanied
1912 ‘Passion Week.’ The Festival Chorus also take part in Mark Elder’s last ever concert
with the Hallé, to sing Lili Boulanger’s ‘Psalm 130,’ and in the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Verdi
‘Requiem’ under Santtu-Matias Rouvali.

Scotland’s orchestras, choirs, theatre and ballet companies play a central role in this year’s
Festival and Nicola Benedetti plays ‘The Lark Ascending’ for family audiences in an afternoon
concert– “all adults must be accompanied by a responsible child.”
My top tip in the Queen’s Hall programme is the Irish Baroque Orchestra. Under conductor,
former SCO bassoonist, Peter Whelan they’ve established a distinctive sound on period
instruments and their recreation of an 18 th century Dublin concert includes their splendid
version of Handel’s ‘Water Music.’ There’s also Il Pomo D’Oro with counter-tenor, Jakub
Józef Orliński, and the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela whose programme ranges from early
church music to Villa-Lobos and James MacMillan. I welcome the chance to hear soprano
Elizabeth Llewellyn with Simon Lepper in Late Romantic repertoire, and also Ian Bostridge
and Steven Osborne in Schubert’s ‘Schwanengesang’ and other Lieder. Sheku Kanneh-
Mason and pianist Harry Baker work on arrangements of Bach and composers he’s
influenced, and in the final Queen’s Hall concert, Thomas Quasthoff directs young singers,
chosen by audition, in a performance of Rossini’s ‘Petite Messe solennelle.’