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Claudio Monteverdi was employed by Victor Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua, but was dismissed from the court when his son Francesco Gonzaga took title in 1612. Monteverdi moved to Venice to take up the appointment of Director of Music at St Mark’s Basilica.

Die Zauberflöte was chosen as the final show in the academic year at Opera School in Glasgow. With its well-known music, it can sound deceptively easy, but in fact it is a really tricky opera to pull off successfully.

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland moved from its main theatre into the smaller opera studio for the latest offering from the Opera School students, Britten’s Rape of Lucretia. Premièred at Glyndebourne in 1949, this opera for eight singers and thirteen orchestra players significantly gained intensity by being performed in a chamber space rather than a main stage.

Hansel and Gretel, Humperdinck’s tuneful opera with its folk music themes was a good choice for the last opera of this academic year from the Opera School at the RSAMD in Glasgow. From the vignette on stage during the overture to Hansel and Gretel, it was very clear that we were in a very different place to the rural village next to the forest as famously told by the brothers Grimm.