Opera Students’ End of Term Show

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland - 08/06/23

One of the pleasures of Glasgow having one of the top conservatoires in the world is watching the students giving their end of year’s performance. I was lucky enough to attend the first of 2 nights presentations of the masters’ students in opera. Having recently attended an underwhelming end of year concert elsewhere I am delighted to report that the standards in Glasgow were extremely high and I am sure that some of the singers I heard will go on to become stars of the opera world. Also, although these sketches were only semi-staged in a concert hall, they were done with conviction and humour and with only piano accompaniment, albeit a very good accompaniment, by Cameron Burns. They took us into the operatic world of the composers.      

We began a very early work ‘I’incoronazione di Poppea’, perhaps the first ever well-known opera by Monteverdi from the 17th century. It’s a great fun piece with a battle between fortune and virtue, but love is the winner. It was sung very well by Aisling McCarthy, Ines Mayhew-Begg and Rachel Barnard, aided by all the other students on stage as an active chorus. Next up was ‘L’elisir d’amore’ with Aline Giaux as a very sweet Adina and James McIntyre as Nemorino. I have no doubt James is one to watch; he is a good tenor and looks and acts the part.

Next we had scenes from Mozart’s most famous opera ‘Don Giovanni’, again well conveyed by Rachel McLean, Claire Lumsden, Jessica Harper, James McIntyre, Ryan Garnham and a standout Masetto from William Costello. He also featured well in ‘Don Pasquale’, alongside an impressive Marie Tiziri Cayeux as Norina. Rachel McLean and Rachel Barnard performed well as the two sisters in ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’. Less convincing were the scenes from Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, a difficult opera to stage at the best of times; however they closed the evening with a lovely closing chorus from the Dream with all the students on stage, and Aline Giaux again as an amusing and expressive Puck. 

In between we had scenes from ‘Hansel and Gretel’, ‘Pelleas and Melisande’, ‘Fidelio’, ‘Arabella’, ‘Werther’ and ‘Alcina’. They are all well done and received a very warm reception from the big audience in the opera studio.