Opera Highlights Tour

 Scottish Opera's Opera  Highlights tour (basically four young singers and a pianist in  a white van driving round the Highlands and Islands and doing the modern version of 'hey! let's do the show right here in the barn' ) was in Kirkwall last night and of course we went.  We go mainly to show support for the company really, because I loathe the patronising attitude of 'here's some bleeding chunks of opera for all you poor saps who a) can't sit through a whole opera or b) can't afford to get to a main venue for a proper performance'. I know that's not what it's about, but that's how it comes over to me sometimes. Also, despite the fact that the excerpts are all carefully chosen and often  include pieces from operas I've never seen, or even heard of, bleeding chunks are not what opera is about and I just find it a bit distasteful. I know it's not really any different to popular singers making a living out of giving concerts to huge audiences belting out Nessun Dorma and its ilk, but I don't find that palatable either. Less so in fact, because there's a cynicism behind that that Opera Highlights doesn't have. Opera Highlights is a genuine  attempt to give people something, I just don't feel  they have quite worked out who or what. 

It doesn't help that the excerpts are strung together in a loose sort of (fairly dire) story which is usually pretty basic and inconsequetial except as a hook to hang the music on, but last night it wasn't really. The idea was 'amazing things can happen if you let them' and they had a board on one side of the stage headed up 'The one where ....' and then they changed it for each new piece. Of all the ones we have seen this was the most entertaining, but as usual the second half was largely filled with lighter pieces (Offenbach, Strauss - Johann, not Richard obviously - Gilbert and Sullivan) which I can only assume is designed to send the audience away humming a good tune. 

Of the singers, the mezzo was the stand out, with singing and acting of a very high standard which was consistent throughout all her pieces. I don't know where SO find their mezzos, but they seem to pull out a never ending stream of good ones from somewhere. The soprano had a lot of repetitive acting tics which distracted somewhat from her singing but she did hit all her notes. This was more than can be said for the tenor who started well and produced some lovely moments, but moments are not enough. He didn't have a great deal of power, was visibly tiring by mid-way through the second half and as a consequence missed some notes and cracked on others. As for the baritone he has a long way to go before he's anywhere near ready for anything, even this. 

I don't want to sound harsh. I'm not unaware that the Highlights Tour is tough on singers. Thirty different venues over two months, spread over a large area,  and in between times crammed into a van driving over sometimes very rough roads, plus sleeping somewhere different every third night, rehearsing, then performing then moving on.  It's a big ask,  but there again it's a good introduction to the life of a young singer, which is hard and unglamorous. I suppose if it doesn't break you, it makes you, and you get to entertain pernickety people like me along the way!