SCOTTISH Opera’s hugely popular Opera Highlights tour will arrive at the Eastgate Theatre in Peebles on Tuesday 28 September,

This will be the first time in 18 months that Scottish Opera has been able to perform inside local venues and there will be reduced audience numbers to allow communities to once again safely enjoy the live opera experience in their own venues.

Opera Highlights is an opportunity to hear a whole range of music in just one evening.

The hour-long show is full of fun and bittersweet comedy featuring a playlist of much loved classics, curated by Scottish Opera’s Head of Music Derek Clark, from Carmen, Don Giovanni and Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, alongside some lesser-known gems.

Using a selection of opera's greatest love stories, Director Jeanne Pansard-Besson’s production follows two couples reflecting on the pivotal moments of their relationships, celebrating the passion, happiness, silliness and sadness that come with love and revelling in the human emotions and feelings that we all experience.

Soprano Meinir Wyn Roberts and baritone Seán Boylan are joined by Scottish Opera 2021/22 Emerging Artists, mezzo-soprano Lea Shaw and tenor Glen Cunningham, with accompaniment on piano by Musical Director Fiona MacSherry.

Director, Jeanne Pansard-Besson, said: ‘In this Opera Highlights, everyone says I love you. Fragments of very different operas across time and space show all the different states of being in love and in a relationship, from the extreme highs to the extreme lows. And this is what opera is about: it expresses and reveals all human emotions, all the feelings that we all feel, have felt, and will feel. Hard not to fall in love with opera after this!’

Scottish Opera General Director, Alex Reedijk, said: ‘We are delighted that we can finally return to live indoor performance across Scotland. Opera Highlights was our last live performance before the pandemic and last year we were only able to offer our Autumn tour through a short film. So, this is the first time in nearly two years that we are able to tour with a new live Opera Highlights carefully curated by our wonderful Head of Music, Derek Clark. The Opera Highlights productions are always so well received by local audiences of all ages and it is a great opportunity to see some of our talented young singers performing. We can’t wait to get back out on the road bringing live opera to far-flung audiences across Scotland.’

Tickets are on sale at www.scottishopera.org.uk and for the first time are free for under 18s.

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