(Preview) Scottish Opera: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
Scottish Opera return to the Festival Theatre from 1st to 5th March with three performances of Britten’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. This production, directed by Dominic Hill, was originally planned for spring 2020. Now two years later its Glasgow performances have been hailed by critics as a triumph and a “classic in the making”.
Britten’s opera is delightful to watch. Almost thirty years ago, the Festival Theatre welcomed Opera Australia with Baz Luhrmann’s production, which had an exotic Indian setting. Ian Bostridge, then 29, made his operatic debut as Lysander. Scottish Opera promise an equally colourful design by Tom Piper, as you can see in the trailer below.
Lawrence Zazzo, the counter-tenor, and soprano, Catriona Hewitson, sing the quarrelling fairy lovers, Oberon and Tytania, ably assisted by a children’s chorus. Catriona, a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist, has distinguished herself in roles from Mozart to Sullivan online and in live performance in the last two years. It will be good to see her in this modern opera. The cast also includes Scottish tenor Jamie McDougall, last seen in Falstaff (2021) and David Shipley (Rigoletto 2018) playing Bottom, the Weaver, who has a strange dream…
I’m very much looking forward to seeing the production, which I’ll be reviewing for the Edinburgh Music Review. Sung in English, with English surtitles, Britten’s Dream is one of loveliest and funniest 20th Century operas. If you want to find out about Bottom the Weaver’s dream, make sure you get a ticket for one of the three performances. Seats are still available in all parts of the theatre, including some at £22.50 and £29.50 at the side of the Stalls and Grand Circle and in the Balcony.
