Opera review: Scottish Opera Five: 15

Published on Sunday 22 February 2009 19:57

**** ORAN MOR

FIVE operas did not simply premiere one after the other on Saturday evening. Each 15-minute work also impacted upon the next and ultimately upon the whole.

The Lightning Man was all-American patriotism replete with echoes of Copland and the music hall. Cosy familiarity soon dissipated however, as the narrator contemplated a hypnotic quandary – faced with progress, tradition and meaninglessness.

The slow-paced simplicity of Happy Story benefited from roomy music by David Fennessy in which a bassoon motif came to embody the central concept of the story; the wish to fly. Sadly its metaphorical significance was somewhat dented by the addition of a stuffed dog and a pair of flying goggles.

Composer Gareth Williams's bare-faced pairing of high minimalism with fluorescent lighting felt a little too transparent in White and, for all its Homeric allusions, tolling bells and wrung hands, Death of a Scientist occasionally gave the impression of Dr David Kelly as a moody adolescent.

It was the final work, Remembrance Day by composer Stuart MacRea, that really seemed to crack the code. Paralleling the dreams of a young student and the memories of an old man and his wife, the work encompassed the comedy of youthful misunderstanding, as well as the erotic horror of devotion. A strong libretto by Louise Welsh certainly helped, as did the haunting innocence of bass Dean Robinson, yet its success undoubtedly owed something to the amalgam of all that had come before it.