Opera Sins

Opera usually falls under the International Festival dictum, hence the relatively few traditional operatic productions among the ten million Fringe shows. Edinburgh’s Studio Opera group contain a wealth of talent with fantastic diaphragms and, for a second year in a row, their Fringe show succeeds in bringing opera into the new century.

Choosing to link seven short scenes together like three tandem bikes and a unicycle, and with reliable Nick Fletcher (Edinburgh’s finest young musician) directing the music with his flourishes on piano, we see Dylan Read’s dead body lying on a bed and characters coming in and operatically (hyperbolically) bursting into tears. They then realise there’s a will and a way to earn money and, soundtracked by Puccini, much bustle ensues. Busy scenes top and tail the concert, which ends with Vaughan Williams’ Pilgrim’s Progress and a scene in which Frankie Powlesland’s Lord Lechery does as his name tells us, as Jerome Knox’s pilgrim provides the chaste honesty, a contrast that finishes the recital well and rounds up the seventh deadly sin. The smaller pieces sit alongside these, with tender readings of pieces by Rameau (I must seek out Zoroastre), Monteverdi and Britten, whose Peter Grimes is excellent, using the balcony of the church much the same way that Debbie Miller’s witch does, able as she is to hang out sweeties for Hansel and Gretel to stuff into their breeches. As for Jerome Knox’s Figaro, singing Non Piu Andrai in a powerful tenor voice, someone sign him up to sing in front of millions, or at least in the International Festival. It is not just one man who makes a show great, and all credit to all the cast for providing so eclectic a taste, and for learning so many languages, for a wonderful hour in the heart of New Town.

Opera Sins
St Andrew’s and St George’s West
16:30 19-20, 23, 25-6 Aug