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Scottish Opera has revealed its plans to bring live music back to audiences, with more than 200 outdoor performances across being staged across Scotland as lockdown continues to ease. The company has plans to visit around 40 venues from June to September with pop-up opera for audiences seated in socially-distanced bubbles. The programme, which spans four months, will feature shows such as The Pirates of Penzance, The Gondoliers, The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, and Lolanthe. Meanwhile, the Scottish Opera headquarters in Glasgow will deploy its car park, which was used for a major outdoor production of Puccini’s La Bohème last year, for a new outdoor adaptation of Verdi’s Falstaff.
Scottish Opera revealed plans to stage more than 200 outdoor performances for around 12,000 people across Scotland as lockdown is eased. The company will visit around 40 venues from June to September, performing to audiences seated in socially distanced bubbles”. The pop-up opera will run for four months and will feature shows such as The Pirates of Penzance, The Gondoliers, The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, and Lolanthe. The performing group will travel in two specially adapted trailers, starting from June 8. The Scottish Opera headquarters in Glasgow will deploy its car park, which was used for a major outdoor production of Puccini’s La Bohème last year, for a new outdoor adaptation of Verdi’s Falstaff.
“Because I grew up in a country where there was no possibility of having an opinion, it makes me stronger now. Lots of singers are frightened about not getting invited back to an opera house if they speak out. But I have the courage to be, in a way, revolutionary. I want to fight for opera, for it to be taken seriously. Pop music is for the body, but opera is for the soul.”
Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu is the epitome of the modern-day diva. Acclaimed for her passionate interpretations of Verdi, Puccini and 19th-century French opera, her thrilling lyric voice, electric stage presence, volatile temperament and glamorous lifestyle have prompted many comparisons with her idol La Divina, Maria Callas.
Sir David McVicar’s bold new staging of Tosca, Puccini’s operatic thriller of Napoleonic Rome, thrilled Met audiences when it rang in the New Year in 2018. Only weeks later, the production was seen by opera lovers worldwide as part of the Met’s Live in HD series of cinema presentations. In this performance, Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva is the passionate title diva, opposite charismatic tenor Vittorio Grigolo as her lover, the idealistic painter Mario Cavaradossi. Baritone Željko Lučić is the menacing Baron Scarpia, the evil chief of police who employs brutal tactics to ensnare both criminals and sexual conquests. On the podium, Emmanuel Villaume conducts the electrifying score, which features some of Puccini’s most memorable melodies.