At Scottish Opera, we have been closely monitoring and acting appropriately to all advice from the UK and Scottish Governments with regards to Coronavirus. We have implemented precautionary measures in our workplaces and are keeping our teams informed of official guidance.
In order to be cautious, we have made some difficult decisions today to postpone the following events:
• The Glasgow Memory Spinners (our Dementia Friendly programme) group was due to start meeting on Tuesday 14 April. We hope to re-commence for the Autumn block which is due to start in September.
• Our new series of 24 Continued Personal Development workshops for staff in 8 different day care and residential centres. We hope to re-schedule these for the autumn.
• The reception for Patrons at the National Opera Studio workshops on Friday 20 March is cancelled, although the workshops will continue behind closed doors.
• Our Patrons dinner, which was to take place at the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh on Sunday 29 March. We will reschedule this for later in the year.
We will be in touch with patrons and ticket-holders for the above events individually to confirm ticket/booking requirements.
In the immediate future, we intend to:
• Complete our Opera Highlights tour with the final concert in Rutherglen tomorrow night (14 March).
• Proceed with our final performance of Breaking the Waves at the Adelaide Festival on Sunday (15 March).
• Proceed with our Fox-tot! tour that is about to get under way.
• Continue with our production of The Frogs with Scottish Opera Young Company.
• Continue with our Primary Schools Tour and our Disney Musicals in Schools projects as long as schools remain open.
• Hold auditions for Young Company 2020/21 this weekend, and will reschedule for anyone not able to make it along.
• Our Wednesday evening Community Choir continues to meet, but note that attendance is entirely voluntary.
Preparations for our upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream are going well. At this current time, we do not expect this production to be affected by the Scottish Government’s announcement that large-scale gatherings with the potential to impact the emergency services should be cancelled. Our events do not involve emergency services and as such we remain committed to delivering Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, opening on Tuesday 31 March at Festival Theatre Edinburgh.
We are also liaising with our venues over operational matters and audience communications.
The health and safety of our staff and audiences is paramount. We hope this message is reassuring to our audiences and everyone who works with us and we would like to thank you for your continued support and patience in these times.