Scottish Opera’s 2024/25 Season announced!

Scottish Opera brings 5 productions to the Festival Theatre for their 2024/25 season, including Don Pasquale, Albert Herring, The Makropulos Affair, The Merry Widow & a Trial by Jury Double Bill. 

On sale to Scottish Opera Friends: 13 June 2024
On sale to Capital Theatres Friends: 20 June 2024
On general sale: 27 June 2024

Scottish Opera: Don Pasquale 

Fri 8 to Sat 18 Nov 2024

Revival of the 2014 production  

This highly successful production of Donizetti’s quick-witted comedy began life at Scottish Opera in 2014. Since then, it has entertained audiences in Miami, Genoa, Vancouver, and Toronto.  

Don Pasquale runs a crumbling boarding house in Rome with a chain-smoking chambermaid, an ancient porter, and a greasy cook for company. Determined to keep his fortune to himself, Pasquale decides to marry, spiting his nephew Ernesto. But, when he finds a bride, he discovers that married life is not as simple as he expected...  

Director-designer duo Renaud Doucet and André Barbe (La bohème 2017) bring this production to life in their usual colourful and quirky style. Set at the start of the Swinging Sixties, the story of these eccentric characters unfolds in a perfect setting for a clash of generations.   

Following his comic success in The Barber of Seville (2023), David Stout returns to Scottish Opera in the title role. Debuting with the Company, Stacey Alleaume is Norina, the clever woman who attracts Pasquale’s attentions. Also debuting with the Company are Filipe Manu as Ernesto and Josef Jeongmeen Ahn as the wily Doctor Malatesta. Stuart Stratford conducts The Orchestra of Scottish Opera through this sparkling masterpiece.  

Access performance: 15 Nov 2024

Scottish Opera: Albert Herring

Wed 13 Nov 2024  

One of the 20th century’s most beloved operatic comedies, Albert Herring is Britten's loose adaptation of a Guy de Maupassant short story, full of quirky yet loveable characters and 1980s nostalgia.  

The market town of Loxford is just as busy with gossip as it is with trade. Lady Billows organises the May Day festival. When her housekeeper tells her no young lady has a spotless reputation fit for the May Queen, she becomes alarmed. The answer? Crown Albert Herring, a shy mother’s boy, May King instead! Albert has not done anything wrong – indeed, he has hardly done anything at all. Suddenly in the spotlight, Albert is caught between old-guard traditions and his fellow youngsters’ freewheeling fun. Both parties are quick to judge the odd one out.  

In this chamber production created for the Lammermuir Festival, award-winning director Daisy Evans (The Telephone 2020) and designer Kat Heath bring a colourful eye to this story of finding one’s own path in life despite — or perhaps because of — misadventures along the way.  

Albert Herring is brought to life by conductor William Cole and a cast of top UK singers alongside Scottish Opera’s 2024/25 Emerging Artists. The cast is led by Glen Cunningham (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2022) as Albert, with Susan Bullock (Candide 2022) as Lady Billows and Jamie MacDougall (Marx in London! 2024) as the Mayor, Mr Upfold. 

Scottish Opera: The Makropulos Affair  

Thu 27 Feb to Sat 1 Mar 2025

‘Olivia Fuchs’s new production convinces me that this is Janáček’s most powerful and innovative, if not greatest, stage work’ - The Arts Desk  

Hailed as an ‘unmissable triumph’ (The Telegraph) and nominated for a 2022 Southbank Sky Arts Award, this co-production of Janáček’s mature masterpiece returns to Scottish Opera in its first full staging since 1993.  

Emilia Marty is a stylish, enigmatic diva with a secret. For over three centuries, she has lived many lives, in a quest to become a great opera singer. Emilia - also known as Enila Makropulos, or simply E.M. - captivates minds and hearts along her journey through time and across Europe. Her existence raises questions of science and nature, reality and fantasy, and life and death. But as the elixir she was given begins to lose its power, the secrets of her lives and loves begin to come to light. She can no longer escape from these essential human tensions.    

Olivia Fuchs’ ‘emotionally driven direction’ (The Telegraph) is supported by Nicola Turner’s multi-layered, poetic designs. Sung in English, Orla Boylan (Marx in London! 2024) leads as Emilia Marty, with Brad Cooper (Daphne 2023) as Albert Gregor. Joining them are Henry Waddington (Greek 2018) as Doctor Kolenatý, and Mark Le Brocq (Nixon in China 2020) as Vitek.  The Orchestra of Scottish Opera, conducted Martyn Brabbins, brings out every dramatic nuance.

Scottish Opera: The Merry Widow  

Thu 29 May to Sat 7 Jun 2025

A lavish Parisian party is a grand occasion for dancing, drinking, and (in)discreet love affairs. But Baron Zeta, the ambassador to the fictional cash-strapped state of Pontevedro, has a slightly more serious matter on his mind. Among his party guests is Hanna Glawari. Hanna is the glamorous Pontevedrian widow who arrived in Paris to enjoy her late husband’s immense fortune. Baron Zeta cannot bear the thought of Pontevedro losing half its national wealth should Hanna marry a Parisian. So, he assigns the charismatic Count Danilo to watch over her heart. But little does he know that they have quite the history... 

Director John Savournin (Opera Highlights Spring 2022) brings his joyful touch to Lehár’s waltz-filled charmer. Designer takis brings his dynamic visuals to the romance. A new English translation by Savournin and David Eaton makes the opera’s wit sparkle, with the cast to be announced later in 2024.   

Access performance: 3 June 2025

Scottish Opera: Trial by Jury  

Fri 30 May & Fri 6 June 2025

New production accompanied by the world premiere of Emma Jenkins & Toby Hession's A Matter of Misconduct! in a double-bill evening  

With a comic cast performing contrasting roles in both pieces, Trial by Jury / A Matter of Misconduct!  promises an unmissable night of classic G&S comedy and new writing.  

Trial by Jury  

First performed in 1875, this is the first major hit from the partnership of WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Set around a classic case of broken vows - the defendant having literally left the claimant at the altar - the trial bubbles over with emotion, humour, and downright chaos, leaving the jury divided. How will they decide between the charming yet swindling defendant and the utterly captivating claimant?   

A Matter of Misconduct!  

Following the crowd-pleasing political satire In Flagrante, which premiered on the 2023/24 Opera Highlights tour, Emma Jenkins and Toby Hession present a daring new operetta set in the press room at Number 9 Downing Street.   

When a scandal threatens to break about the front runner in a bloody leadership campaign, a lawyer is needed to prevent information from reaching the press. Sylvia Lawless from the firm Lawless, Lawless, Lawless and Crook must find the loopholes in this modern take on unsavoury behaviour.