Bluedog left a comment here recommending Scottish Opera’s La traviata and letting me know about the 10 pound ticket offer the Scottish Opera has going for under 26s, and it looks like a good deal – the price is good for any performance and all categories of seats.
I picked up a promotional postcard with an interesting Rorschac-like graphic:
‘Decadence, love, despair: Everyone sees something different.‘
They also have a website about the offer.
Unfortunately I was dragging along a 27 year old (unfortunately for the ticket buying, not the quality of company!), so I went up to get day tickets and grabbed the last two at 1.15, they sell 50 or 60 on the day so the cheap tickets seem to be in demand. Day seats are 8 pounds, and ours were on opposite sides of the auditorium – the front row and the second. There were quite a few empty seats in the more expensive sections of the stalls, so maybe in tough economic times the company is feeling the need to advertise down market.
The performance was very good. I tend to find Verdi so catchy it is exhausting, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen La traviata and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Violetta was played by Carmen Giannattasio, a wonderful Italian singer who dramatically upstaged the rest of the cast. Richard Zeller was also very good as Giorgio Germont. Federico Lepre was a decent Alfredo, but in comparison to Giannattasio his voice got a bit lost as he moved away from the front. The cast also included an Australian singer, Catriona Barr, as Annina – a reletively small part done very well.
The production was new to Scottish Opera this year and the design was one of the best traditional opera stagings I’ve seen in some time – great dark colours and decadent costumes. Brief stage nudity, as I’ve come to be expect. The use of tracking curtains midway up the stage stopped the entirely interior-set story from becoming too static.
If I hadn’t been so busy last week I would have definitely gone to see it again. Tonight was the last night in Edinburgh, but the production will be heading to Belfast early next year.
La traviata
Scottish Opera
Edinburgh Festival Theatre
19/11/08
Between Castles 
3 comments
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November 30, 2008 at 1:12 am
Art is free. « Between castles
[…] you can probably gather I’m a big fan of seeing lots of live performances, as cheaply as possible. Actually, every performance I’ve written up on this blog has cost less than 15 pounds – […]
November 30, 2008 at 8:50 pm
bluedog1257
Glad you enjoyed it. The Festival Theatre is a 2000 seater which takes a bit of filling.
If you want to see it again, it is coming back to Glasgow in February.
December 6, 2008 at 3:08 pm
betweencastles
It’s a pity they have difficulty filling the house – I suppose I’ve happily based all my impressions of Edinburgh crowds at festival levels and will have to wait until the festival next year to see sell outs. It seems a pity they don’t put out more day tickets when they’re low on numbers. I’ll have to look into heading to Glasgow next year – I am hoping to get down to London to check out Adams’ Doctor Atomic at the ENO in February so I’ll have to work on the dates.