Scottish Opera’s 2019-20 season will feature nine Rayfield Allied artists. The season is curated by Scottish Opera’s Music Director, Stuart Stratford, who will conduct productions of Breaking the Waves, Tosca and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as concert performances of Iris, Cavalleria Rusticana and Zingari. This will be Stuart’s fourth season as Music Director of Scottish Opera, where he has conducted numerous productions including Katya Kabanova, Eugene Onegin, Greek, Anthropocene and Flight. He also introduced the Opera in Concert series, which has seen performances of Edgar, Aleko, Francesca da Rimini, Le Villi and L’amico Fritz.
Orpha Phelan, whose recent production of A Quiet Place was named Dutch Opera of the Year 2018, directs the Opera in Concert performance of Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavello’s Zingari.
Julia Sporsén makes her role debut as Pat Nixon Nixon in China, as well as singing Fleana in Zingari. Her recent performance as Komponist Ariadne auf Naxos for Scottish opera was praised as “a truly magnificent performance… passionately delivered and one of the evening’s musical highlights” (Bachtrack).
Peter Auty also returns to sing Turiddu Cavalleria Rusticana and Radu Zingari, following critical acclaim for his performance in the title role of Edgar at Scottish Opera: “Tenor Peter Auty was in superb voice in the title role” (The Herald ****).
Ben McAteer returns to sing the roles of Grand Inquisitor The Gondoliers and King Paramount Utopia, Limited, following performances for Scottish Opera in the roles of Guglielmo Cosi fan tutte, Pish-Tush The Mikado and title role Le nozze di Figaro. While in residence at Scottish Opera in 2016, Ben created the role of James in the world première of The Devil Inside, for which he won Outstanding Performance in an Opera at the My Theatre Awards in Toronto.
Gwyn Hughes Jones returns following his Scottish Opera debut as Manrico Il trovatore to sing Cavaradossi Tosca, a role for which he has received critical acclaim at English National Opera, Welsh National Opera and Los Angeles Opera. His performance at English National Opera was praised for "his ringingly powerful tenor which sailed as effortlessly through his cry of "death to tyrants" as the lyrical arias and duets" (The Telegraph).
David Stout makes his role debut as Henry Kissinger Nixon in China, following success as Frank Edgar and Marcello La bohème for the company: “David Stout, as an especially pivotal Marcello, was in magnificent voice” (Bachtrack).
David Shipley makes his role debut as Bottom A Midsummer Night's Dream. He previously sang Sparafucile Rigoletto for Scottish Opera, giving a performance that “possessed a menacing detachment befitting the cold-hearted contract assassin he is” (The Scotsman).
David Parry returns to conduct a semi-staged double bill of Mascagni’s Zanetto and Wolf-Ferrari’s Susanna’s Secret. The performances will be part of the Lammermuir Festival in Haddington in Autumn 2019. Parry’s most recent appearance with Scottish Opera was in La traviata in autumn 2017, where he was credited for his “stylish”, “alert” and “brilliant” conducting.
Further details of the Scottish Opera 2019-20 season are available on their website.
