From popular classics Carmen and The Mikado to a brand new stage work by writer Louise Welsh and composer Stuart MacRae, Scottish Opera’s 2015–16 season, announced today, features seven productions and a total of 111 performances in 41 towns across Scotland and beyond.

The season’s most ambitious offering is the world premiere of The Devil Inside (Jan 2016), a new opera based on a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson from novelist Louise Welsh and composer Stuart MacRae, whose previous collaboration Ghost Patrol was highly praised at its premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2012.

Also getting new productions are Handel’s Ariodante (Feb 2016) and a small-scale version of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, which tours Scotland from September to November 2015. The main-stage season kicks off with Bizet’s Carmen (Oct 2015), with a restaging of Grange Park Opera’s production of Dvorak’s fairytale Rusalka in April 2016, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado (a co-production with D’Oyly Carte Opera Company) in May and June 2016.

In addition, Scottish Opera’s highly successful KidO for three- to four-year-olds tours to small venues across Scotland, and its community Connect Company for 14- to 21-year-olds gives the world premiere of the brand new The Cabinet of Dr Caligari at The Arches, Glasgow.

The season announcement follows news that Scottish Opera has appointed British conductor Stuart Stratford as its new music director. He joins renowned baritone and director Thomas Allen, who has worked with the company as music advisor since 2014 following the sudden and unexpected departure of its previous music director, Emmanuel Joel-Hornak, in September 2013 after less than two months in the role.