Scottish Opera ready to make its festival debut

Scottish Opera is performing at the award-winning Lammermuir Festival in East Lothian for the first time this September, with a new semi-staged performance of Benjamin Britten’s The Burning Fiery Furnace.

Soloists, chorus and instrumentalists perform Britten’s colourful and exotic Church Parable in Haddington’s mediaeval St Mary’s Parish Church, telling the tale of Nebuchadnezzar and the three Israelites. This timeless biblical work was premiered in 1966.

Singing the role of Nebuchadnezzar is Ben Johnson, who is joined by David Stout (La bohème 2017) as Abbot; William Morgan (Opera Highlights 2018) as Misael; Benedict Nelson as Ananias and Lancelot Nomura (Ariadne auf Naxos 2018) as Azarias. Scottish Opera Head of Music Derek Clark conducts and Jenny Ogilvie directs. The performance also features five boy trebles aged between 9 and 12 as The Acolytes.

Lammermuir Festival, established in 2010 by Artistic Directors Hugh Macdonald and James Waters, runs from 14 to 23 September in beautiful venues around East Lothian. The festival won the 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Best Concert Series and Festival, and features several of Scotland’s leading ensembles, internationally renowned musicians and exciting new talent.

Stuart MacRae is Composer in Association at Lammermuir Festival and his new piece ‘I am Prometheus’, the second of his three festival commissions inspired by the Prometheus myth, will be premiered by Joshua Ellicott, Emily Hoile and the Hebrides Ensemble at this year’s festival.

In January 2019, Scottish Opera premieres Stuart’s new opera Anthropocene with a libretto by Louise Welsh at Theatre Royal Glasgow.

Scottish Opera general director Alex Reedijk said: ‘We are very proud to be sharing with Lammermuir Festival a new semi-staging of Britten’s The Burning Fiery Furnace.

‘This new partnership between Scottish Opera and one of the UK’s premiere boutique festivals in an amazing mediaeval church will see the performance of an extraordinary work by one of the 20th century’s greatest composers. One of Britten’s three church parables, it is a tale that makes a powerful emotional impact that belies its brevity and scale.’

Hugh Macdonald and James Waters, artistic directors of Lammermuir Festival added: ‘We are simply thrilled to welcome Scotland’s national opera company to the Lammermuir Festival. The opportunity to present operatic work of this quality is the fulfilment of a dream for us.’

More information and tickets are available from HERE.