Ledlanet Nights in

Kinrosshire The County of Kinross or Kinross-shire is a historic county and registration county in eastern Scotland, administered as part of Perth and Kinross since 1930. Surrounding its largest settlement and county town of Kinross, the county borders ...

, Scotland, was an arts festival that operated from 1962 for around ten years. This "inventive and not at all flippant little festival" offered performances mounted on a shoestring budget, which were held in a hall at Ledlanet, then the home of the publisher

John Calder John Mackenzie Calder (25 January 1927 – 13 August 2018) was a Scottish-Canadian writer and publisher who founded the company Calder Publishing in 1949. Biography Calder was born in Montreal, Canada, into the Calder family associated with the ...

History

Ledlanet Nights, described at some length in Calder's autobiography, ''Pursuit'', developed as a general festival from modest beginnings. Many art forms were offered, among which were opera, theatre, recitals and orchestral concerts. An early, if unexpected addition, were folk evenings. As well as art exhibitions, the mix included one- or two-person shows of different types ranging from those of

Geraint Evans Sir Geraint Llewellyn Evans (16 February 1922 – 19 September 1992) was a Welsh bass-baritone noted for operatic roles including Figaro in ''Le nozze di Figaro'', Papageno in ''Die Zauberflöte'', and the title role in ''Wozzeck''. Evans was esp ...

to Ian Wallace or

Donald Swann Donald Ibrahim Swann (30 September 1923 – 23 March 1994) was a British composer, musician, singer and entertainer. He was one half of Flanders and Swann, writing and performing comic songs with Michael Flanders. Life Donald Swann was born ...

. Initially these were mostly produced especially for Ledlanet, but as the seasons grew in ambition, later shows were often 'bought in' from a tour. In the immediate post-war period, professional opera could be found in Scotland mainly through the offerings of touring companies. Arts activity in country houses was not unknown but festivals generally were nowhere near as widespread as they have since become. In 1963 when opera was found in Scotland largely at the

Edinburgh International Festival The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially european classical music, classical music) and ...

, and when

Scottish Opera Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies of Scotland. Founded in 1962 and based in Glasgow, it is the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland. History Scottish ...

had only just been founded, any additional opera on a small scale was welcomed. Handel works, then much less well known, featured prominently at Ledlanet with productions including Agrippina and

Alcina ''Alcina'' (Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis, HWV 34) is a 1735 opera seria by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of ''L'isola di Alcina'', an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he acquired the year after during ...

Jill Gomez Jill Carnegy, Countess of Northesk (''née'' Gomez; born 21 September 1942) is a Trinidadian and British soprano who enjoyed an active career on the operatic stage and in the concert hall in a wide repertoire, and has made many recordings. Lif ...

and

Josephine Barstow Dame Josephine Clare Barstow, (born 27 September 1940) is an English operatic soprano. Education and early career Josephine Barstow was born in Sheffield and educated at the University of Birmingham. She made her professional debut (Mimì in ...

were among several singers appearing who made an impression there at a relatively early stage in their careers, in ''

Il Re Pastore ' (''The Shepherd King'') is an opera, K. 208, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Metastasio, edited by Giambattista Varesco. It is an opera seria. The opera was first performed on 23 April 1775 in Salzburg in the Ritt ...

'' and ''

Una cosa rara ' (''A Rare Thing, or Beauty and Honesty'') is an opera by the composer Vicente Martín y Soler. It takes the form of a dramma giocoso in two acts. The libretto, by Lorenzo Da Ponte, is based on the play ' by Luis Vélez de Guevara. The opera was f ...

'', respectively. Ledlanet Nights remained small scale; even at its peak in 1973 there were seats for only 155 people. Performers and audience members alike remember well the intimate atmosphere. With little support from public coffers, the Festival was heavily dependent on fundraising by regular patrons and supporters. By 1973 this was no longer sustainable. Calder attributes the sudden end of Ledlanet Nights to the financial consequences of his divorce from his second wife.

References

{{Reflist Festivals in Scotland