On September 14, Scottish Opera’s Opera Highlights tour begins a tour of Scotland to 9 venues for 11 performances, the first time in 18 months that Scottish Opera has been able to perform inside local venues for a live audience.
Following last year’s online Opera Highlights, this year the tour returns to venues in Greenock, Musselburgh, St Andrews, Ballachullish, Strathpeffer, Stornoway, Peebles, Ayr and Dunoon.
The hour-long show, curated by Scottish Opera’s Head of Music Derek Clark, features music from Carmen, Don Giovanni and Gounod's Romeo et Juliette alongside some lesser-known gems. Using a selection of opera's greatest love stories, director Jeanne Pansard-Besson’s production follows two couples reflecting on the pivotal moments of their relationships.
Soprano Meinir Wyn Roberts and baritone Seán Boylan are joined by mezzo-soprano Lea Shaw and tenor Glen Cunningham, with accompaniment on piano by musical director Fiona MacSherry.
Director Jeanne Pansard-Besson said, "in this Opera Highlights, everyone says I love you. Fragments of very different operas across time and space show all the different states of being in love and in a relationship, from the extreme highs to the extreme lows. And this is what opera is about: it expresses and reveals all human emotions, all the feelings that we all feel, have felt, and will feel. Hard not to fall in love with opera after this!"