Dark magic, abducted brides and toadstool tea - soprano Claire Booth on the BBC SSO's season opener, Folk

Claire Booth | Gerard Collett

“I sometimes feel I’m slightly bursting out of my role as a singer.” Singing might be what soprano Claire Booth is best known for – across a huge and extraordinarily varied repertoire from Monteverdi and Handel through to Birtwistle and George Benjamin, in concert halls and opera houses, and with a depth of emotional authenticity that few can equal. But Booth is also a musician who can step back, take stock of what’s going on more broadly, and come up with fresh ideas for new ways forward.

Just take her role in the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s season opening concert. It launches with Folk, a brand new piece co-created by writer Zoe Gilbert and Scottish-born composer Helen Grime – and instigated by Booth herself, who sings its solo vocal part. “I’ve known Zoe’s writing for ages,” she explains, “and Helen and I go back yonks.”

It was reading Gilbert’s much-lauded novel Folk that made Booth think it really ought to be set to music. “It has incredible stories,” she smiles, “and they’re almost like a northern version of something by Gabriel García Márquez, set in a world called Neverness, which might be somewhere like Orkney but isn’t quite.” Folk is a strange, interwoven tapestry of tales, bringing together ancient ritual and dark magic, in which a bull-turned-man abducts his bride, or toadstool tea allows its drinkers to dream of better lives. “I thought Helen might like these themes of north-ness and folk ideas, and when she read the book, she was immediately interested.” Booth, Gilbert and Grime worked together on the piece – “we’ve never met in person, but we’ve had lots of Zoom meetings and emails back and forth” – and the results, uncanny and vividly evoked in Grime’s music, are unveiled at the BBCSSO’s concert, with Booth singing four of the book’s eccentric characters.

“We can’t say that Folk was commissioned by Claire Booth,” she says, “but I’d be very happy for people to know that actually, it was my idea.” It’s just one example of Booth working beyond what we might consider the traditional role of a performer. Another example is the MA in cultural policy and management she’s recently gained from King’s College, London. “It started during the pandemic, when obviously things were getting cancelled, and organisations were treating their self-employed artists very differently in terms of upholding contracts, offering work opportunities and so on. I thought: I’ve got the time, and I’m sick of people on social media moaning about the situation we’re in, so why don’t I try and understand it from the other side?”

Her specific area of study was opera performed in English translation, rather than in its original language, and whether that was still a culturally appropriate idea in an age of surtitles and increasing sensitivities to languages and diverse values. “I was surprised that none of the opera companies had ever asked their audiences what they thought. I ended up doing stuff at my kitchen table that they have whole departments devoted to.”

Booth points to audiences’ engagement with culture – specifically opera in the case of her study – as one factor among many facing the sector. “There’s a problem with democratising culture, and in allowing people to choose their own cultural tastes. If they’re not exposed to something in the first place, then they’ll never choose it. So rather than asking what audiences want, we may want to frame it more as: what might they like?”

With many years at the coalface of classical music, Booth feels that as an active practitioner, she has wisdom and insight to offer those making decisions about its future direction. It’s even something she’d consider for future work. “I don’t want to close anything down, and I feel I’ve still got something to say with my performance, but I’d definitely love to spread my wings wider. There are certain artists now whose opinions are listened to – people like Nicola Benedetti and Roderick Williams. There should be more of us. I’d love to be part of that.”

Claire Booth gives the world premiere performances of Helen Grime’s Folk with the BBC SSO at theCity Halls, Glasgow, 26 September and Music Hall, Aberdeen 27 September