The best EIF opera - Scotsman critic Ken Walton previews the 2025 programme
Scotsman critic Ken Walton picks his opera highlights from this year’s EIF programme
Book of Mountains and Seas Complementing Circa’s unconventional take on Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice is the UK premiere of Book of Mountains and Seas, a meditative reimagining by American-based Chinese composer Huang Ruo and Olivier Award-winning director and puppeteer Basil Twist of ancient Chinese myths dating from the fourth century BC. Conceived in 2021, originally as a vocal theatre piece for Paul Hillier and his ensemble Ars Nova Copenhagen, the work’s Chinese texts tackle geological symbolism, elaborate monsters, philosophical and religious truths: in broader terms the relationship between humankind and the planet we occupy and our collective responsibility as caretakers of nature. Ruo’s music draws inspiration from Chinese folk music and Western modernism, sung in Mandarin and fictional language by Ars Nova Copenhagen with two percussionists. Twist’s puppetry has been described as “iconic and visionary.” The Wall Street Journal hailed Book of Mountains and Seas as “an immersive tapestry of sound and image”. The Lyceum, 14-16 August
Puccini’s Suor Angelica Normally you’d find Puccini’s Suor Angelica presented as the centrepiece of his operatic triptych Il trittico, with Il tabarro and Gianni Schicchi either side. Here, though, this tragic nun’s tale (thus the all-female cast) is presented as an operatic entity in a concert that is also part of the London Symphony Orchestra’s 2025 Festival residency. The big attraction, of course, is the man on the podium, Sir Antonio Pappano, now the LSO’s chief conductor, formerly music director of the Royal Opera House. He’s joined by a cast led by Armenian soprano Mané Galoyan (Suor Angelica) and Ukrainian mezzo Kseniia Nikolaieva (Principessa), supported by the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and RSNO Youth Chorus. The opera performance is prefaced by two orchestra pieces: Puccini’s Preludio sinfonico and Victor de Sabata’s symphonic poem Juventus (which is nothing to do with football). Usher Hall, 16 August
Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito Now in its third year, Maxim Emelyanychev and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s run of Mozart operas-in-concert is now one of the Festival’s must-see events. This year they tackle the composer’s last opera seria, La clemenza di Tito, which Mozart completed during a strategic break (money being the motive) from writing his final opera Die Zauberflöte. Going on previous form, Emelyanychev will find the kind of elemental dynamism guaranteed to give this slightly flawed work a run for its money. The cast is promising in itself, with the critically-acclaimed Italian tenor Giovanni Sala in the title role, American mezzo soprano Angela Brower in what was originally the castrato role of Sesto, multiple prize-winning Irish mezzo Tara Erraught as Vitlellia, Dutch mezzo Maria Warenberg as Annio and Italian bass-baritone Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Publio. With the SCO and its red-hot chorus centred prominently on stage, the audience can expect a powerhouse performance. Usher Hall, 9 August
For more information, and to book tickets, visit www.eif.co.uk
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