The Great Wave: Scottish Opera's Hokusai-inspired production to 'straddle fact and fantasy'

General director Alex Reedijk doesn’t hold back his own admiration. “Stuart has brought so much to the company, exactly what we needed when the going was tough: great musical values, but most of all a style of leadership that makes everyone feel involved, whether artists on stage or specialists behind the scenes. He’s created a really strong sense of ensemble within the company.”

As for Stratford’s own highlights of the last few years, these chime with recent, recognisable successes. Main stage productions such as Puccini’s Il Trittico (Sir David McVicar’s production won Outstanding Achievement in Opera at the 2023 Critics’ Circle Awards) rank highly on his list. Then again, so do the far-reaching partnership projects and inclusive community initiatives that are now equal drivers in defining Scottish Opera’s artistic programming.

“Collaborative productions like [Osvaldo Golijov’s] Ainadamar have been a huge success,” he says, “leading to popular stagings in North America - Detroit, Houston and the Met, before going on to Los Angeles next year. We’re very proud it was ‘made in Scotland’”.

“I’m also very passionate about the community style operas we’ve done - the circus tent Pagliacci in Paisley, Bernstein’s Candide and, at last year’s Edinburgh Festival, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex. These are ongoing and now one of the flagship things we do.”

Add to that Stratford’s championing of rare operatic repertoire, much of it presented in concert format with the Scottish Opera Orchestra centre stage, other productions - such as Richard Strauss’ Daphne - facilitated by the company’s recent partnership with East Lothian’s Lammermuir Festival.

Which is exactly where the 2025-26 Season kicks off: a comedic double bill in Haddington (4 September) of Ravel’s L’heure espagnole and Walton’s Chekhovian one-acter The Bear, later transferring to Glasgow and Edinburgh. “These will work well together, with a common theme of infidelity,” Stratford explains. The Ravel also recognises the 150th anniversary of the composers birth.

But the biggest news of the new season is the world premiere in February of a major new opera, The Great Wave, by British-based Japanese composer Dai Fujikura and Scots librettist Harry Ross.

The title refers to the iconic woodblock print by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, whose story, and that of his daughter, are freely imagined.

“The subject is an actual historical figure, but the storyline straddles fact and fantasy,” says Stratford. “Then there’s the elusive charm of Fujikara’s music, a mix of avant garde with distinctive Japanese simplicity and instrumental colourings.”

The Great Wave marks yet another major international collaboration by Scottish Opera, this time with Japanese promoters KAJIMOTO, who will oversee future stagings in Japan.

If the remainder of the main scale season amounts to a couple of revivals - the exuberant Barbe & Doucet production of Puccini’s La bohème (October/November) and Sir Thomas Allen’s sprightly Marriage of Figaro - these are nonetheless rich pickings from the Scottish Opera back catalogue. “Doing Figaro in English this time will lend Sir Tom’s production a fresh curiosity,” promises Reedijk.

Lest serious opera fans feel short changed, there’s a hint of bigger things to come in concert performances in Glasgow and Edinburgh (March) of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde featuring Annemarie Kramer as Isolde in her Scottish Opera debut.

“It’s our first Wagner since 2013 and my first Tristan,” says Stratford, with a wink to the future. “I think we’re ready again to tackle these iconic Wagner works.”

“Look out for some future Verdi too,” Reedijk pitches in.

Meanwhile the groundwork for future community productions continues with the formation of a new children’s chorus under the direction of Scottish Opera Chorus director Susannah Wapshott, and a new community chorus in Edinburgh arising from the success of last year’s Oedipus Rex project.

“We’re in a very stable position here,” insists Stratford. “Getting to do such exciting projects is what keeps me here. I’m very optimistic about what we’re doing. And about the next ten years.”

Full information on Scottish Opera’s 2025-26 Season at www.scottishopera.org.uk

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