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Five - 15 Operas Made in Scotland: Soloists, Orchestra of Scottish Opera.  Conductor: Derek Clark.  The Hub, Edinburgh, 7.3.2009 (SRT)

The Lightning Rod Man
Music: Dr Martin Dixon Words: Amy Parker
Based on the original story by Herman Melville
Director: Frederic Wake-Walker

Happy Story
Music: David Fennessy Adaptation: David Fennessy & Nicholas Bone
Based on the original short story by Peter Carey
Director: Nicholas Bone

White
Music: Gareth Williams Words: Margaret McCartney
Director: Frederic Wake-Walker

Death of a Scientist
Music: John Harris Words: Zinnie Harris
Director: Michael McCarthy

Remembrance Day
Music: Stuart MacRae Words: Louise Welsh
Director: Michael McCarthy

Singers:
Mary O’Sullivan (soprano)
Lise Christensen, Arlene Rolph (mezzo-sopranos)
Emma Carrington (contralto)
Daniel Keating-Roberts (counter-tenor)
Richard Rowe (tenor)
Phil Gault (baritone)
Dean Robinson (bass)


Scottish Opera made a big splash last March when they introduced this innovative and exciting project for which five Scottish composers and five librettists were invited to produce a series of operas, each lasting fifteen minutes.  I wasn’t at last year’s event but I was lucky enough to catch the next installment in Edinburgh last weekend.  By its very nature it was a varied evening, but also an exciting and broadly successful one.

The 15-minute format is a world away from what we normally expect in an opera house, but it’s an invitation to artists to creates something which is far more distilled and intense where questions are posed and resolved (or not) in a short space, like staged Lieder.  The Lightning Rod, for example, posed the opposition of science and faith but studiously avoided coming to any conclusion about it.  Some are definitely more successful than others: Happy Story is a beautifully distilled picture of a couple whose relationship we see coming under threat (by the wife’s misunderstanding of the husband’s fantasies about flying) and then being resolved (when she realises he wants to fly with her), including the not inconsiderable achievement of 5 scene changes in 15 minutes!  This was the lightest and cheeriest piece of the evening, with clear singing from Phil Gault and Lise Christensen, the wife’s staccato music being slowly pacified by her husband’s more lyrical gestures.

After this White was intense and strident, a seemingly endlessly repeated top note on the keyboard setting the scene for the sterile environment of the hospital where a cleaner comes to terms with her own grief at the loss of a child through sharing in that of another family.  Emma Carrington’s cleaner was superb here, entering into the pathos with her vocal acting and a remarkable low register.  Remembrance Day was quirky and challenging, tracing another young cleaner who is murdered by her geriatric clients.  MacRae’s extra-musical touches were very winning, such as his own “tea room music” on the gramophone and the girl’s tuneless iPod humming.   Dean Robinson was also great as the patient with Alzheimer’s whose vacant expression belied some energetic yet chilling vocal memories.  The denouement itself posed too many problems for me, however, as if the piece didn’t seem to be sure whether it was absurdist or naturalist.  The most successful piece of the evening to my mind was Death of a Scientist, based on the death of government scientist Dr David Kelly.  Kelly, sung with declamatory strength by Richard Rowe, finds himself pursued by contrary voices as he enters the woods and eventually takes his own life.  John Harris’ music was hypnotic and spectral as befitted the story of spirits whispering in the ear of the dying man. 

The small ensemble (about 15 musicians) was ably led by Derek Clark, the different textures of each piece shining through with clarity.  The singing was uniformly strong, but the stand-outs of the night were Dean Robinson, Lise Christensen and counter-tenor Daniel Keating-Roberts who brought characterful beauty to the farmer in The Lightning Rod Man (an opera which was a good opener to the evening but went off the boil for its conclusion).  In spite of its variability I left the theatre feeling excited and challenged and convinced that, however ropy its last few years have been, Scottish Opera continues to move in the right direction.  Long may it continue.

Simon Thompson


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