Opera review: Scottish Opera Double Bill, Perth Concert Hall

This concert performance of two Russian operas was preceded by a rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem which was clearly intended to carry as far as Kyiv, writes Ken Walton

Sarah Pring and Lea Shaw in Mavra PIC: Fraser Band

Scottish Opera Double Bill, Perth Concert Hall ****

Stravinsky’s deprecation of Rachmaninov as “six feet two inches of Russian gloom” was never truer than in Perth on Friday, For not only did this one-off operatic double bill by Scottish Opera open with the latter’s weighty, lugubrious The Miserly Knight; but it took Stravinsky’s Mavra, and its more frivolous concision, to expel the emotional permafrost.

The fact we were listening to Russian opera at all (both based on Pushkin plays) was potent, sensitivity addressed by the opening counter-blast of the Ukrainian national anthem from the hefty Rachmaninov-sized Scottish Opera Orchestra. Big, beefy and belligerent, it’s possible they heard it in Kyiv.

The Perth hall’s spacious stage and golden acoustics seemed a natural accommodator for Rachmaninov’s Wagnerian largesse, and as the vast on-stage orchestral machine edged into action – dark opening bars that pre-echo his later Isle of the Dead – it became clear, under Stuart Stratford’s encouraging direction, that its role would be as unyielding and defining as the fruitiest of Hollywood soundtracks.

This threw up projection issues for the front-of-stage cast, playing out a safe, if over-simple semi-staging by Laura Attridge, struggling sometimes against the insistent orchestral powerhouse. But the stronger voices – Alasdair Elliott’s piercing Solomon and Roland Wood’s wretched Baron (a late replacement) – carried comfortably, and where the balance worked, Alexey Dolgov’s impassioned tenor blossomed as Albert, Alexey Gusev evoked noble stoicism as the patrician Duke, with John Molloy amenable as the dutiful Ivan.

Mavra was an all-embracing triumph, Stratford and the reduced instrumental ensemble revelling in Stravinsky’s rascally neoclassicism, the small cast fully tuned to its pithy comedy: Anush Hovhannisyan as a bubbly, if slightly husky, Parasha: Sarah Pring as her controlling mother; Dolgov returning as the cross-dressing Vassili; and a characterful Lea Shaw as the Neighbour.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription at https://www.scotsman.com/subscriptions