What's On / Edinburgh Grand Opera: Imprisoned in Edinburgh (La Prigione di Edimburgo)
Edinburgh Grand Opera: Imprisoned in Edinburgh (La Prigione di Edimburgo)
15 May 2011 at 7:30pmat The Queen's Hall
Edinburgh Grand Opera presents Imprisoned in Edinburgh, (La Prigione di Edimburgo), composed by Frederico Ricci with libretto by Gaetano Rossi and will take the form of a semi-staged concert to be sung in Italian. Ricci took his inspiration from Sir Walter Scott's Heart of Midlothian which was published in 1830.
The Musical Director is Neil Metcalfe and Artistic Director, Christina Dunwoodie.
The last recorded performance of La Prigione di Edimburgo was in Genoa in 1865, the only recording being made by Opera Rara in 2004.
A great line-up of Principals will join the Edinburgh Grand Opera Orchestra and the Chorus of soldiers, peasants, noblemen and women and smugglers: Susan McNaught: Ida whose baby is stolen and who is arrested, accused of killing him; David Hamilton: Giorgio, a smuggler who is the missing baby's father, as well as the son of the Duke of Argyll; Christina Dunwoodie: Giovanna, a woman driven mad after her baby dies and who takes Ida's baby thinking it is her own. She is still infatuated with Giorgio who was also her baby's father.
Peter Cannell: The Duke of Argyll, whose men arrest Ida; Jennifer Craig: Fanny, Ida's sister; Ivor Klayman: Tom, leader of the smugglers who becomes head jailer; Russell Malcolm: Patrizio, one of the Duke's men; Donald Maxwell will provide narration in English to help everyone, including the Company, follow the plot.
Some Local History associated with the story: The location of the Old Tolbooth Prison is marked by brass plates embedded into the cobbles beside St Giles's Kirk in Parliament Square, just off The Royal Mile in Edinburgh. It was demolished in 1817, originally built as a Custom House to collect tolls in 1561. It served as a Council Chamber and a Courthouse before becoming a notorious prison. It was known as the Heart of Midlothian and this is now also marked in cobbles in memory of those who were executed on the gallows there. Local people still traditionally spit on the heart as they pass.
