ALMOST as a riposte to the lumpen parochialism of the lard-brained London critic who last week slagged off Britain's so-called regional opera companies, derided Scottish Opera's latest production, and arrogantly insulted its ''largely uncomprehending Scottish audience'', Scottish Opera on Saturday launched a new season that contains imaginativeness and ambition by the yard. On top of which, the new season is enshrined in a brochure designed by Storm Thorgerson (founder of iconic sixties design company, HipGnosis, and creator of Pink Floyd album covers) that is the most spectacular in the history of the company: Vivid works of art permeate the brochure, from front cover to back.
Saturday evening's concert, given before an audience of around 3000 in the acoustically unglamorous maw of the SECC's quirkily attractive sibling, basically unfolded a series of tasters from the new season. Music director Richard Armstrong, with the Scottish Opera Orchestra and chorus, presided, an array of soloists - some to feature in the new programme, some stepping in because they're here anyway - sang bleeding chunks, and the evening was compered Scottish Television's Angus Simpson, who, tentative out of his regular format, sent up his own initial falterings. But the meat of the event - transcending some routine performances - was the season itself. Of nine fully-staged operas, there is only one potboiler, maybe two if you include The Magic Flute, and that is the revival of Puccini's La Boheme.
The rest amounts to a catalogue of glories and innovation: four new productions, featuring the British stage premiere of Delius's The Magic Fountain, a rare outing for Smetana's glorious nationalist Czech opera, Dalibor, and long-awaited new productions of Richard Strauss's glittering Der Rosenkavalier and Verdi's Aida.
And the revivals are no less meaty, led by the company's superlative settings of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and James MacMillan's harrowing opera, Ines de Castro. Mark Tinkler's atmospheric Hansel and Gretel also returns. Imaginativeness also touches the small Opera Go Round operation, which will tour Janacek's The Makropoulos Case, the most ambitious undertaking ever by this limb of the company.
Additionally, Scottish Opera will host performances of Robert Lepage's staging of Mahler's piano-accompanied Kindertodenlieder (currently running in London) and will also give a one-off performance of the work with the Scottish Opera orchestra.
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