NOISE (New Opera in Scotland Events) – not a very inspiring name for an opera company but last night at the Queens Hall they put on Hirda – wreckage / mess in Shetland dialect. Certainly not a mess in an Opera – a performance that will live on in our memory . You can read more at
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/29/hirda-review-noise-opera
But the story to me was past and present brought together in Shetland, the newly married couple and the prodigal brother and moderating sister with the background of a distant love affair where the ghost of woman left in Shetland by her whaler lover can’t rest till she finds her lost mitten. And it all comes to an end on the moor with the newly wed wife almost on the point of death next the corpse of the women in a splendour of singing by all six of the cast (I need to cast my mind back to the finale of Rosenkavalier for an equivalent).
Music by fiddler maestro Chris Scott (last seen in a glorious concerto by Sally Beamish with Catriona McKay Scottish Harp) and Gareth Williams and libretto Sian Evans. I just hope that the opera gets south of the border to show the sophisticated Londoners what Scotland can produce. At least the review was by the Guardian so may be some small hope.
On Monday it was Red Notes – Noisy Notes (Noise again) with their excellent musicians playing music composed by young musicians, each piece being no more than 5 – 10 minutes in length. Often in The Traverse but this night in an old Anatomy Theatre for vets – the theatre is small in the round and gives wonderful visibility of the players – no more than three or four players usually with a conductor John Harris conducting with what looked like a red ball point. The session is usually split into two halves with space for the audience to come up in 10 minutes with an off the cuff piece. This time it was no surprise that Sally Beamish in audience won the prize for the best piece but she did squeeze a couple of extra minutes before her score was prised away from her.
Anyway below is the team except the flutist was replaced by an Australian Accordionist who in one piece was almost a show on his own
Mike Vickers' Blog 