AT the end of a week that included the homecoming recital of Scotland’s first winner at Cardiff Singer of the World making an eloquent case for the benefits of training, and working, in Germany, it is time to look forward to the return of another Edinburgh mezzo, Katherine Aitken, who is equally vocal about the opportunities she’s had through working in an opera house in France.

Aitken is part of the company from the Opera de Lyon performing young Norwegian director Stefan Herheim’s radical version of Rossini’s individual take on the Cinderella story, La Cenerentola. It is safe to say that both these young woman are clearly on one side of a vexed current political debate.

Aitken trained at City of Edinburgh Music School, the Royal College of Music in London and then took an Advanced Diploma in Opera at the Royal Academy of Music. After that it was time to look for work out in the world.

“When I finished in the opera school at the Royal Academy, I put applications into opera companies’ studios across Europe, including two in France, in Paris at the Bastille and Lyon.”

Shortly after she had submitted that application, she received an email saying that the Lyon company’s director was to be in London and would like to meet her. Impressed by the recordings she’d submitted, he advised her on repertoire to bring along for her audition. So it was that she arrived in Lyon having begun work on Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortileges, in which she would perform the title role for her first production there.

“That was me for the next couple of years, and I really liked the way that it worked. You are only employed for the production that you are doing, so I did L’Enfant de les Sortileges after the initial three weeks coaching. You don’t need to relocate, and you can have concerts or other productions elsewhere. It is a good way for prepping you for what professional life is like, rather than you being in a house for a year with coaching every day. That is the German way, and the way Lyon does it is more what life is like.”

In fact Aitken ended up settling there, having met her partner, who works with computers for a telecom company and is a native of the city.

“I live in Lyon now; it is a beautiful city. I did the studio there and stayed for two productions in each season that followed so I have had a lot from them. It will be nice to go back in a few years’ time, but it is other people’s turn now, with others coming through the studio.

“As a young singer, it wasn’t restrictive at all; you could still be doing other things around the productions. And you are not covering or filling small roles, you are creating a full role in a studio production, and they aren’t advertised in that way, but sold to the public in the same way as something by the main company. I did L’Enfant de les Sortileges and then Monteverdi’s Poppea with 14 young singers. The repertoire was all completely new to me but all things that liked. It was a treat to get to sing in French in France, that improves your language ten-fold, and Poppea is something you should know. If anyone asked, I would recommend going to Lyon, it’s cracking.”

However she was only just in the door and starting work on her first show, when she had a message asking her to visit the casting director in his office that lunchtime. By the time the break came around, Aitken had convinced herself she was going to be fired, and texted her mother to expect her back in Edinburgh sooner than she had hoped.

In fact she was asked about her availability for parts in the next two main house productions, a staging of Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma by director Laurent Pelly, who created The Barber of Seville that opened the opera programme at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, and then as one of the wicked sisters in Herheim’s La Cenerentola.

“Pippetto in Viva la Mamma was small role and great fun, although I spent more time in hair and make-up than on the stage, and then sat in the dressing room until the curtain call. But with Tisbe there is much more to do, it is something to really get your teeth into. She doesn’t leave the stage, except for about fifteen minutes, so it was from one extreme to the other.”

“I did a lot of acting when I was kid, went to classes from when I was 11 and then did musical theatre. At college it was the acting that gave me the most joy, and I love having bizarre characters to play with. The Lyon production was a revival, but Stefan changed it to suit us rather than the two girls who had played it in Norway. Clara Meloni, who plays Clorinda, was also in Viva la Mamma, which was very choreographed, so we’d had practise in being a team, and with her as my sister it was dead easy, because we just had a laugh.”

“The plot of La Cenerentola plot doesn’t stick together well, it is full of holes, so this production tries to make sense of those gaps. And Rossini is quite easy listening in a way; it is musically satisfying, with tunes that you can come out whistling. It is interesting work for directors and interesting for singers – you can do so much with it. It is good that he is coming back into fashion, because for everyone involved it is a good chance to get your teeth into something tricky, but as an audience member it is not inaccessible, despite all the vocal fireworks.”

Since she played Tisbe in Lyon earlier this year, Aitken has been working with English Touring Opera, playing the “trouser role” of Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, a production that came to the Perth Festival in May.

“That was quite a tricky one to pace, as we had to do 29 Figaros all over the country. It was the first time I’d done that many shows, but I guess I can now say I know Cherubino! It was a good fun six months and nice to see parts of the country I wouldn’t normally have seen. I’d love to go back and work with them again.”

For now it is back to being wicked Tisbe for what are the last scheduled performances of this staging of the Rossini.

“We have ten days rehearsal, which is not too bad, I thought it would be shorter. We need the time for all the technical aspects of the show, but it will also be great to go back to it for a second time and fix the bits that you felt you could have done better - have fun and play with it a bit more. And to do it at home – that’s the special thing.”

La Cenerentola is at Edinburgh Festival Theatre from Friday August 24 to Sunday August 26 at 7.15pm. eif.co.uk