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Tue 29 Nov 2005

Putting on a brand new opera generally has the same sort of success rate as bringing out a first novel. If it doesn't have the right support, it's likely to sink without trace. It's a conundrum to challenge the most brazen of opera producers, and so it's no surprise that Brian McMaster - never one to baulk at a challenge - has decided that his very last year as Director of the world's greatest arts Festival in 2006 is the perfect opportunity to show how it might be done.

Which is how 30 year old rising star composer Stuart MacRae - discovered by McMaster early in his career and given an EIF retrospective at a remarkably young age in 2001 - found himself on the receiving end of a commission for his very first opera. "I really wanted to hear him try something theatrical" explains McMaster. Not only will the work premiere at EIF 2006, on the same Lyceum stage where Britten's Curlew River astounded audiences in 2005, but it will immediately tour to coproducers ROH2 at the Royal Opera House's Linbury Theatre in London, giving MacRae's new work the kind of legs that any composer would kill for.

But if the stress of debuting his first opera on such an international stage is getting to the young composer, he's not letting on. "I've discovered I thoroughly enjoy dramatising a text and building a musical relationship between singers and ensemble. Writing an opera is so unbelievably different from concert music of the nature that I usually do."

MacRae has outlined a schedule that has him writing 1 minute 26 seconds of music every week until January 2006. Or at least, he would be if he wasn't a little behind time.

"I'm now writing 2 minutes a week, as some weeks I've written rubbish that I just had to chuck away," MacRae explains. It may sound super-organised, but MacRae says he had to work it out mathematically, "otherwise I'd end up doing what I used to do. A last minute panic and 80 hour weeks".

The Assassin Tree (the working title) toys innovatively with the age-old operatic ingredients of sex, violence and a few good arias. Loosely based on the ancient Roman myth recounted in George Fraser's The Golden Bough, the King of the Wood is a priest of the goddess Diana. Prospective applicants for the priesthood - only freed or escaped slaves need apply - must murder the existing priest, then spend their remaining years as King awaiting the same grisly fate. One can't help feeling that Dostoyevsky or Shakespeare would have had a field day.

"We've altered the original a bit," grins MacRae, referring to co-author and first time librettist, poet Simon Armitage. "It's fiction after all! In our libretto, the King of the Wood is Diana's husband as well as her protector and he's becoming old and weary. So the basic premise is that Diana is on the look out for a replacement."

MacRae found Armitage by emptying the contents of the new poetry section of his local bookshop. "He had the wit, humour and attention to detail without cryptic fussiness that I felt was ideal" says MacRae. "I've always found the rather prosaic method of naturalistic dialogue in some modern operas embarrassing to watch. They might as well be speaking. I like opera to have poetic language as well as expressive music. It's ideal for the genre."

Those familiar with the Inverness-born composer's work will realise that MacRae was always going to have a specific vision. "I like models such as Wagner, Janàcek and Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle. I'm not a fan of the ‘big numbers' opera. I prefer interwoven ideas, so the arias aren't disconnected." This hasn't stopped MacRae inserting a few "full blown arias" however. "Mainly because I was keen to have moments where the four characters can explore their past and step outside the action for a bit. It's a device to underline the mythological storytelling aspect."

McMaster needed to find a director who could produce a vision as strangely compelling as MacRae's nascent score - no problem when you've spent years scanning the world for innovative talent. He knew exactly who he wanted. Emio Greco and Pieter C Scholten, the exciting choreographic duo who cut their teeth on their first opera in EIF 2003, an uncompromising Orfeo ed Euridice with Opera North.

With a team like this, this is one opera that may just make it past that first production hurdle.

Sarah Jones is a freelance writer