Scottish Opera invites audiences to share in the Company’s passion for exploring the world of opera in a busy new season with eight new shows, two classic revivals, six collaborations and 105 performances in 43 venues over the next twelve months.

General Director Alex Reedijk said, ‘What’s exciting about this season is the adventurous range of dramatic, passionate and humorous stories on offer, which I hope will give audiences the opportunity to revel in some old favourites, but also to try some new opera experiences. We remain committed to producing top quality performances that appeal to those who know and love their opera, but we’re also fascinated by the opportunities for us as a Company in testing the traditional opera boundaries to seek out new audiences.’

High-profile contributors to the season include political satirist Rory Bremner, who has completed a new translation of Offenbach’s irreverent romp Orpheus in the Underworld; Sir Thomas Allen, who returns to direct a revival of his vivacious 2007 production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville; David McVicar, who will direct his first production of Stravinsky’s colourful tale, The Rake’s Progress; and guest conductors Siân Edwards and Emmanuel Joël Hornak. Music Director Francesco Corti will conduct The Barber of Seville and Tosca.

The season begins with a return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins opening at the HMV Picturehouse, in a sassy co-production with Company Chordelia directed by Kally Lloyd-Jones; quickly followed by Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek, as the Company teams up for a third year with Music Theatre Wales and the Traverse Theatre to present audiences with some of the best of contemporary opera.

As always, the Company will tour extensively. Throughout the Autumn, while The Barber of Seville plays for audiences in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness, Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, in a co-production with Northern Ireland Opera will tour to eighteen communities throughout Scotland with both piano-accompanied and chamber orchestra accompanied performances. It will then transfer to tour in Northern Ireland and on to London’s Young Vic Theatre for a two-week run. Opera Highlights will once again tour to 15 of Scotland’s smaller venues.

The Winter months are brightened by Prokofiev’s whacky comedy Betrothal in a Monastery, the third of the composer’s work to be staged in the seven-year partnership with the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; and Humperdinck’s wonderfully unsettling Hansel and Gretel directed by Bill Bankes-Jones (Artistic Director of Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival), who will also provide a new translation.

The Spring sees the return to Scotland of David McVicar to direct the Company’s first new production of The Rake’s Progress since 1967. And the season finishes with the return of a well-travelled and much-loved production – Puccini’s Tosca originally directed by Anthony Besch, most recently performed by Boston Lyric Opera.

Singers to watch out for include Claire Booth (Dorinda, Orlando, 2011), Leah-Marian Jones (Marcellina, The Marriage of Figaro, 2010), Edgaras Montvidas (The Duke, Rigoletto, 2011), Ville Rusanen (Guglielmo, Così fan tutte, 2009), Shuna Scott Sendall (BBC Radio 2 Kiri Prize winner and Scottish Opera Emerging Artist), Ailish Tynan (fresh from singing the same role, Gretel, at the Royal Opera House), and Scottish tenor Thomas Walker (Lindoro, The Italian Girl in Algiers, 2009).

Following the success of the A Little Bit of… format in giving new audiences an experience of opera by taking it out of the theatre and into public spaces, Scottish Opera will make its debut at music festival T in the Park in July 2011. Festival-goers will be able to enjoy performances of A Little Bit Of Rigoletto a 20-minute, pocket-sized version of the opera with a singer, harpist and cellist. Throughout the 2011/12 season, further A Little Bit of… tours are planned, to complement the new season’s productions.

Scottish Opera’s education and outreach activity continues to blaze a trail with projects and performances that this season include:

AerialO, a performance arts programme for young people and adults with additional learning needs and physical disabilities that uses music, movement, film animation and specialist aerial flying techniques;

SensoryO, a brand new interactive musical experience for toddlers that picks up where BabyO left off;

BabyO, touring to festivals in the UK and abroad – from the Manchester to Norfolk, New Zealand and Canada;

Other ongoing activity such as Italian and Spanish singing classes for wee ones, youth orchestra and singing groups Connect Chorus and Connect Gateway, Primary School Tours of original commissioned mini-operas for pupils to learn and perform, and workshops based around Orpheus in the Underworld for secondary pupils.

Three singers have been named as Scottish Opera Emerging Artists for 2011/12 Ross McInroy, Shuna Scott Sendall (John Mather Charitable Trust Emerging Artist), and Marie Claire Breen, returning for a second year.

Meanwhile, the Theatre Royal Redevelopment project continues with 2011/12 capital funding from the Scottish Government enabling the progression of plans, which include enhancing front-of-house areas and improving disabled access.

For more information visit www.scottishopera.org.uk

Source: Scottish Opera