Opera and Classical Review: Five of the best

Published on Thursday 12 February 2009 18:54

I'M GENUINELY looking forward to Scottish Opera's Five:15 project, which opens next Friday at Glasgow's Oran Mor.

This is an identical project to last year's bold innovation that, for the first time, saw the company commission a series of five new 15-minute short operas from various pairings of Scots composers and writers, among them authors Alexander McCall Smith and Ian Rankin, and composers Lyell Cresswell and Nigel Osborne.

The concept was brilliant. In the course of trying something new, we were handed a mouthwatering packet of operatic midget gems. The buzz around a packed Oran Mor was easily as exhilarating as the unfolding dramas. Granted, some of the sweeties in the poke were less tasty than others, but strangely that is the very reason I am so looking forward to this second version.

After all, it's in the very nature of ground-breaking experimentation that things don't necessarily go to plan the first time round. If there was a general criticism of last year's confection, it was that some of the writers and composers never quite mastered the 15-minute remit – for them it really was a case of "I've started, so I'll finish," and on they went. Or at least, that's how it seemed.

The reason was partly to do with the freshness of the whole project. "I think we said to the creators, 'Either to come up with a 15-minute piece, or something that could be expanded,'" explains Derek Clark, Scottish Opera's head of music, who, as last year, will conduct all five of the new operas. "This year, the instruction was less confusing – simply come up with a 15-minute opera."

So what self-contained delights lie in store for us? The line-up is as follows: Death of a Scientist by the husband-and-wife team of John and Zinnie Harris; Happy Story by composer David Fennessy and writer/director Nicholas Bone; Remembrance Day by probably the most experienced composer in the programme, Stuart McRae, and novelist Louise Welsh; The Lightning Rod Man by Glasgow University lecturer Martin Dixon and writer Amy Parker; and White by Gareth Williams and Glasgow GP-cum-writer Margaret McCartney.

Stage director Michael McCarthy, back again this year as the project's dramaturg – essentially the artistic director – and also producer of two of the newest mini-operas, actually pinpoints another key problem he identified in some of the original operas: how to get started. As he rightly says, it's important to recognise that the 15-minute challenge can be a whole new ball game for both writer and composer. "You need to cut to the chase. There's not so much setting-up time. You need a clear enough idea, then the ability to set it out in the allotted time," he acknowledges.

McCarthy, more than anyone, has kept a beady eye on the operas as they have taken shape, offering the collaborators useful advice and attempting to pre-empt possible pitfalls. "First you have to help them work out the nature of the collaboration – writers and musicians don't naturally do that," McCarthy explains. "They have different ways of expressing the same idea. One thing they often forget, for instance, is the ability of music to take you inside the drama as quickly, if not quicker, than text. A successful collaboration will avoid shoe-horning something too big into a small space of time."

So the benefit of experience will play its hand for the first time. And we'll be able to see a double dose of that with the reappearance of composer Gareth Williams, whose The King's Conjecture (a collaboration with novelist Bernard McLaverty) was a fresh and interesting example last year of a novice entering a grown-up world.

"He's back because a writer who came to last year's event came to us with an embryonic idea that we loved. We thought about which composer might measure up to the emotional qualities required of the text, and Gareth seemed the right man for the job," says McCarthy.

There's something very educational in such an approach, something exceptional and unique. Where else would composers and writers find a professional opportunity to assemble operatic ideas in such a relaxed, beneficial and sustainable way? The answer is probably nowhere.

Indeed, the whole point of Five:15 was always to create a kind of vibrant operatic laboratory running alongside the meat-and-veg of Scottish Opera's Romantic repertoire at the Theatre Royal. "It's so fantastic to have such a creative project happening against a new production of La Traviata," says McCarthy.

And it has also proved to be a potentially valuable export for the company's long-term future – in PR, if not necessarily cash, terms. McCarthy revealed that Alex Reedijk, Scottish Opera's managing director, is already talking to organisations outside the UK who are interested in copying the Five:15 model.

But at home, the big question is this: where does Five:15 go from here? We'll get a hint in next weekend's Glasgow and Edinburgh performances – a presentation similar to last year, with refinements to the artistic cohesion of the operas and a greater focus on the works themselves in the introductory video links. Scottish Opera's intention is to do yet another Five:15 next year. Beyond that, the project is open to discussion. It truly is work in progress.

&#149 Scottish Opera presents Five:15 at Oran Mor, Glasgow, 20-22 February and The Hub, Edinburgh, 7-8 March. For details, visit www.scottishopera.org.uk