International Opera Company of the Month: Scottish Opera

In this month's featured International Opera Company, we bring you the Scottish Opera now in its 50th year of delighting opera and music lovers!

Scottish Opera is Scotland's national opera company and the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland. It was founded by Alexander Gibson and was inaugurated with a production of Madama Butterfly at the King's Theatre in Glasgow. In 1974 Scottish Opera purchased the Theatre Royal Glasgow, which reopened in 1975 as Scotland's first national opera house. The Orchestra of Scottish Opera was founded in 1980.

Notable achievements include the world premiere of James MacMillan's Ines de Castro at the 1996 Edinburgh International Festival and complete Ring cycles at the 2003 Edinburgh International Festival, which won the 2004 South Bank Show Award for Best Opera Production. Recent commissions include Five:15 Operas Made in Scotland, part of a five-year research and development project to find the next generation of opera-makers, composers and librettists.

We are committed to bringing the widest possible range of opera, performed to the highest possible standards, to the maximum audience throughout Scotland and the UK; each year it performs in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness and over 50 other theatres, village halls and community centres. We also operate an extensive programme of outreach and education work which involves over 12,000 primary school children a year, as well as many other activities including adult learning andUnwrapped taster sessions.

Upcoming events at Scottish Opera include LA TRAVIATA, THE FLYING DUTCHMAN and THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE. For a complete list of dates and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.scottishopera.org.uk/whats-on