Scottish Play: Michael Fuller rejoices at the return of Wagner to Scottish Opera

Review of Tristan und Isolde (concert perf.), conducted Stratford, Glasgow, 2026.

July 2026, Volume 20, Number 2, 84–5.

The straitened circumstances faced by opera companies in the UK mean that concert stagings are an attractive proposition. Scottish Opera has recently presented a number of works in this way, including a memorable version of Strauss’s Daphne; now, following the example of Opera North’s Parsifal, the company has turned to Wagner. Placing the orchestra literally centre-stage and with the costumed singers acting their roles in front of it, little is required in terms of the audience’s suspension of disbelief for the drama to register.