Scottish Opera Highlights 2025 tour review: 'energetic synergy and neat choreography'

The old adage “it’s worth a try” comes to mind in relation to the fundamental change to this latest Scottish Opera Highlights Tour compared to previous ones. Where Head of Music Fiona MacSherry proposed a fresh format of fewer, more sizeable scenes than the quick-fire miscellany of old, stage director Rebecca Meltzer has responded with a railway station concept as the means of knitting it all together.

You can see the logic. Give the audiences – this Highlights tour calls at 24 far-flung Scots venues over a hectic two-month run – a more holistic operatic experience, a sinuous journey with a final destination. Meltzer’s rationale, that stations are a hotbed for multifarious intrigues, is a promising hypothesis.

The result is quirky, and not without fun. Kenneth MacLeod’s design operates on functional simplicity, animated by a destination board signalling successive stops (why did we stay so long in long in Langham on Tuesday?) and sound effects operated by the cast. The latter is the customary solo quartet who, a third of the way through the tour, have clearly found their composite rhythm.

As a group, they boast energetic synergy and neat choreography, while individually enjoying their moments in the sun: tenor Robert Forrest soaring high as Lensky from Tchaikovsky’s Onegin; baritone Ross Cumming unleashing a pantomimic Belcore from Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love; soprano Kira Kaplan achingly expressive in Leïla’s Cavatina form Bizet’s Pearl Fishers; and mezzo Chloe Harris in a spellbinding Scherza, Infida from Handel’s Ariodante.

If some shoehorning is required to make all of this fit the stage concept – the tomfoolery of Humperdinck’s Goosey Goosey Gander struggles a bit – there’s plenty physical impetus to pick up the slack. Star of the show? It’s surely musical director Joseph Beesley who miraculously extracts infinite orchestral shades from a single piano.​​​​​​​