Rebus stageplay coming to two Scottish venues

Legendary Scots detective Rebus is coming to the stage later this year. Ian Rankin’s sleuth takes centre stage in this brand new production, created especially for the stage, which has been co-written with Scots playwright Rona Munro, from Aberdeenshire. Having been played on TV by John Hannah and Ken Stott, former Coronation Street star Charles…

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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…

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Record-breaking musical comes to Edinburgh this month

Tim Firth’s new British musical featuring Take That hits will play in Edinburgh from 10-14 July. The Band tells the story of five 16 year-old friends in 1992 who are big fans of ‘the band’. Twenty-five years later, the 40-something women are reunited and once more try to fulfil their dream of meeting their heroes.…

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Scottish park will host live screening of La bohème

One of the world’s most popular operas and unforgettable stories is set to enchant audiences when it comes to a Scottish park. Duthie Park in Aberdeen will host a screening of La bohème on Tuesday, 26 June. The opera is part of the free, outdoor BP Big Screens programme streamed live from the Royal Opera…

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The Scottish theatre that’s staging its own comeback

Abandoned theatres tug at our emotions. As glories of a past age, they’re up there with steam locomotives and gramophones, yet there’s an inherent sadness when places created for entertainment close. Perhaps they fall into disuse because the fun and laughter have gone? That was how Aberdeen’s Tivoli Theatre was left in 1999, when the…

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Dresdeners found the turmoil of the Russian soul

The penultimate concert in the Sunday Classics series at the Usher Hall (May 27) was an all Russian affair, delivered with controlled passion by the polished Dresden Philharmonic under Berliner Michael Sanderling. Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony might not have received the 45-minute ovation that greeted its first performance in 1937, but the deft Dresdeners gave a…

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Scottish Opera premier will be all Greek in New York

Opera fans will have the chance to see Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures’ co-production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek in the Big Apple this December when it makes its US debut. Following the success of the production at the 2017 Edinburgh International Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Howard Gilman Opera House will host four…

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Tuned in for new appointments at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has made two major appointments. The orchestra has appointed Paul Philbert as its new principal timpani and Luis Eisen as associate principal bassoon, writes Stacey Wylie. Paul Philbert, originally from London, will be joining RSNO as principal timpani (kettledrum). Having studied at Purcell School and Trinity College, Philbert has had…

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Breaking new ground by making opera accessible to all

Paisley Opera’s latest production is being performed this weekend. The show will take place in Paisley Abbey, Paisley today, Friday, 8 December, and tomorrow, Saturday 9 December. The show The Witches of Paisley is a dramatisation of the terrible events of the last ever major witch hunt in Western Europe, set to some of the…

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Aberdeen youngsters do the light thing over creative proposals

Youngsters in Aberdeen have been sharing their views on proposals to showcase Aberdeen’s landmarks, civic spaces and streetscape using creative lighting. Pupils at Middleton Park Primary, St Joseph’s Primary, Skene Square Primary and Harlaw Academy have taken part in a public engagement exercise for Aberdeen in Colour. Dozens of pupils shared their views on what…

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