Curtain up on 15-minute operas as big names aim for the wow factor

Each is only 15 minutes long, but one or more could go forward to become a full-blown opera production, depending on how they play at Glasgow's Oran Mor, and at the Hub in Edinburgh next month.

Scottish Opera has stressed that Five:15, the title given to the performances, is no operatic gong show but audience reaction could help determine whether a project is developed.

The general director of Five:15, Alex Reedijk, said: "Either there's a terrific idea that audiences love and want to see more of, or there's incredibly creative people we want to encourage to make a project."

Rankin has worked with the film composer Craig Armstrong on Gesualdo, based on the Italian composer who murdered his wife and her lover.

"I haven't managed to get along to any of the dress rehearsals so haven't seen the singers actually 'act' the piece. The first night will be a revelation," he said.

"I am on tenterhooks. Mind you, the real pressure is on Craig – opera-goers seldom remember the librettist; the work stands or falls by the quality of the music, and Craig is a first-class composer."

Scottish Opera's bold move to go beyond Mozart or Verdi and commission the brand-new works has ensured a sell-out run in Glasgow and at The Hub in Edinburgh.

Particularly intriguing is the collaboration between Osborne, an opera composer, and the Indian classical musician, Wajahat Khan, on the Glasgow novelist Suhayl Saadi's story of a Scottish Asian Muslim girl.

Mr Reedijk revealed yesterday that the Scottish Government has also sponsored two performances in Brussels, in May.

Now, however, it will face the critics and the public.

Alexander McCall Smith and Edinburgh composer Stephen Deazley are already working on a full-length version of their production, Dream Angus. "We actually were writing this as a full-length piece when we came into the project," he said.

GESUALDO

FILM and rock music composer Craig Armstrong's work runs from Madonna songs to Moulin Rouge. Lush, beautiful string-sounds are a hallmark of his classical work, but he will face the scrutiny of high-brow critics. With crime writer Ian Rankin (above) and a true-life tale of a murderous Italian composer, surely one of the highlights of the evening.

THE KING'S CONJECTURE

THE pairing of Irish writer Bernard MacLaverty (below)and his compatriot, composer Gareth Williams, is an unknown quantity. The story tells of King James IV's famous language experiment in which he placed a deaf and dumb woman on isolated Inchkeith Island. How will MacLaverty, author of four novels, tell the story in 15 minutes of music?

THE PERFECT WOMAN

COMPOSER Lyell Cresswell and novelist and playwright Ron Butlin (above) have already written two successful "chamber operas" about 40 minutes long, and music critics are watching this work with particular interest. The Perfect Woman tells the story of a scientist who plans to remove his wife's blemish in a public operation.

QUEENS OF GOVAN

NIGEL Osborne is a provocative composer and Wajahat Khan is an Indian classical musician, skilled at playing ragas on the sarod without written music. Their collaboration may be the biggest challenge of the night, in a story by Glasgow novelist Suhayl Saadi (above) of a young, Scottish-Kashmiri Muslim woman working in a kebab shop.

DREAM ANGUS

SCOTLAND Street author Alexander McCall Smith (left) and award-winning composer Stephen Deazley are adapting McCall Smith's own book, Dream Angus. The story features the oldest Celtic deity, Angus. Theatre and music director Ben Twist is also on the team.

The two men are already working on a full-length opera and instead of 15 minutes of new work, their task was to shrink it. Deazley's music is described as a lively mix of several genres, including classical and jazzy elements. McCall Smith's storytelling skills need no introduction. Hopes are high.