The annual Scottish Opera highlights tour cranks into gear, an event that on paper could be a dry opera-hits recital but turns out to be much more fun.
With a few props and a modest rack of costumes, director Pia Furtado devises an English country garden setting and corresponding plot of flimsy intrigue between a troupe of histrionic singers. Nothing grand, but enough to make for a sweet if innocuous couple of hours.
It's carried by the quality of the singers, all vocally charismatic enough to handle the repertoire with panache. Marcus Farnsworth is best of the lot: solid and expressive baritone, proper wit and stage presence. Robert Anthony Gardiner's tenor is lightweight and honey-smooth, not powerful but gorgeous as Handel's Jupiter. Soprano Anita Watson is a shaky actor but her upper register is stunning; mezzo Rosie Aldridge doles out hearty velvet sound and a superb turn as Mad Margaret.
Two hours of orchestral reductions is a feat of stamina for pianist Susannah Wapshott but she pounds on like a stern schoolmistress, no patience for sentimentalism. It works for Ruddigore and Fledermaus, less for Carmen and Mignon.
The line-up covers the inevitable smash hits: Verdi's Libiamo ne' lieti calici; Mozart's La ci darem la mano; Puccini's Flower Duet and the duet (Au fond du temple saint) from Bizet's Pearl Fishers. (In that last case, at least, it's a guilty pleasure to cut straight to the big tune without having to sit through the rest of the opera.) There are a few surprises, too, with some Britten and Stravinsky, plus a striking snippet from SO's composer-in-residence Gareth Williams. His vocal writing is accessible and inventive; this song was just a taster, but I suspect we'll be hearing more from him later this year.
Tours until March 3. For details visit scottishopera.org.uk
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