Right from the outset, since it was founded in 1962, the fortunes of the national company Scottish Opera have been variously interpreted as a barometer for Scotland’s wider cultural health. Recent debates over public funding for the arts have frequently centred on Scottish Opera’s recurrent financial crises, although broad-brush portrayals of it alternately as a profligate bastion of elitism, and as the blameless sacrificial victim of philistine politicians, have done little to advance the argument.

Arriving amidst the resurgence of new composition and contemporary music-making that was accelerating in Scotland at the time, Scottish Opera was originally the brainchild of the Lanarkshire-born conductor Alexander Gibson (1926-1995), then newly appointed as Musical Director of the Scottish National Orchestra. Having previously held the same post at Sadler’s Wells Opera in London, Gibson took advantage of the orchestra’s off-season summer break to mount an initial two operas in Glasgow: Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Debussy’s Pelléas et Melisande, performed in the original language by a hand-picked international cast of singers. Thus starting out with the attitude of uncompromising artistic bravado that has characterised it ever since, the fledgling company picked up rave UK-wide reviews for both productions.

This initial success paved the way for a steady expansion in Scottish Opera’s activities and reputation, with performances being extended to Edinburgh and Aberdeen within the first few years. Still in partnership with the SNO, it made its Edinburgh International Festival debut in 1967 - and has returned virtually every year since. Another major breakthrough was the acquisition and refurbishment of Theatre Royal, Glasgow as a permanent home, which opened in 1975 as Scotland’s first national opera house, with the newly-formed Orchestra of Scottish Opera taking up residence in 1980.

The 1970s also saw a string of landmark commissions from Scottish composers, including Robin Orr, Thea Musgrave, Iain Hamilton and Thomas Wilson. Other career highlights have included an acclaimed 10-year Janacek cycle, co-produced with Welsh National Opera; further major premieres, including Judith Weir’s The Vanishing Bridegroom (1990), James MacMillan’s Inés de Castro (1996) and Sally Beamish’s Monster (2002), and its stunning productions of Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle, culminating at the 2003 Edinburgh International Festival.

Outwith the main urban centres, Scottish Opera fulfils its ‘national’ performance remit through its small-scale touring arm, Scottish Opera Go Round, and its Essential Scottish Opera concert programmes. It has also garnered widespread praise for its innovative education work, under the banner Scottish Opera for All.

In the increasingly straitened climate of UK arts funding, however, Scottish Opera’s ambitions have repeatedly exceeded its means - and, some would argue, its sense of financial responsibility. Commanding as it does the largest single share of the Scottish Arts Council music budget – opera being, of course, a singularly costly business – Scottish Opera has struggled to demonstrate proportionate returns, as measured by numerical audience reach, although its artistic reputation has rarely if ever been in dispute. Successive yawning deficits have forced it to negotiate a series of rescue packages with the Scottish Arts Council and other funders – now including the Scottish Government - the latest of which, announced in 2004, controversially entailed axing the company’s full-time chorus, among other job losses. A year-long ‘dark’ period from 2005-2006 was another condition of the deal.

Apart from an extensive network of amateur opera societies, performing across the spectrum of ‘grand’ and ‘light’ repertoire, Scotland’s other chief operatic asset is the Alexander Gibson Opera School. The country’s first and still its only such facility, it was established in 1998 at Glasgow’s Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), in grateful memory of a visionary pioneer.

Despite its longtime status as one of the world’s premier arts events, for nearly its first half-century the Edinburgh International Festival lacked a world-class opera house. This somewhat glaring Achilles’ heel was finally remedied with the opening of the Edinburgh Festival Theatre in 1994. A redevelopment of the capital’s historic Empire Theatre, it now boasts the biggest stage and one of the highest fly-towers in Britain, and has been a key factor behind re-establishing opera’s pre-eminence in the festival’s programming over recent years. Outwith the festival, too, Scotland receives regular visits from international touring opera companies.