Founded back in 1968, what was originally Edinburgh University Opera Club formed under the guidance of University professors and lecturers. Its aim was much as it is now, to perform high standard opera. The first performance was a UK premiere of Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo. In the last 37 years, the society has undergone much change. For some time now the society has been run by students alone with great success. Also, the society has changed its name throughout the years finally ending up with its present name: Edinburgh Studio Opera (ESO).

The Society aims to involve as many students as possible not only in the running and organisation, but also from the creative side of things (set design, tech, stage management). As far as possible we like to involve students in the direction and musical direction, although this is sometimes difficult with the latter as many students have little experience of opera. This is why we try where possible to have a young professional directors and musical directors taking overall responsibility for the production. The opportunity to work with professional artists is invaluable experience for our members, provides a richer final production for the audience, and helps further young professionals’ career paths.

Our production of The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky) in 2003 saw a shift in the reputation of ESO. As The Herald said “…at no point did they seem to have taken on more than they could handle…”. And in 2009 our production of La Clemenza di Tito directed by the wonderful Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones received our best reviews yet, with a comment from the Scotsman nationally recognising our ‘wealth of outstanding young singing talent’. Our premiere production of Julian Wagstaff’s opera The Turing Test on the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was a sell-out success, becoming one of the hottest tickets on the Fringe. The production also received excellent reviews in the national and theatre press. Following on from this, in 2009 we decided to undertake another Fringe show, a fully-staged production of Karl Orff’s Carmina Burana, devised by fantastic director Antonia Alonzo.

Edinburgh Studio Opera plans to continue this success year by year, and to involve the wider community whenever and wherever possible. In the 2009/2010 season there are several new events for the ESO company to look forward to. As well as more concerts in the ESO recital series, there will be a two night production of Opera Scenes, involving as many of the young singers from the university interested in opera as possible. Performing full opera scenes with choruses, trios and duets from all centuries of the opera tradition in their original languages, this ground breaking production will offer language and character training for all the young singers involved. Not to be missed!

Additionally, in the 2009/2010 season a new shadowing scheme will be added to the lives of the ESO cast and crew. Any student from a local school may apply to be on the scheme, learning specifically about the role of any member of the company, from Director to Chorus Tenor. Please see ‘Shadowing Scheme’ for further details.

ESO is always looking for people who are interested in opera and would like to work with us on future productions. If you are interested in any facet of theatre production we would love to hear from you. Please e-mail our society secretary for further details (secretary@edinburghstudioopera.com).