The Scots Opera Project, with its community chorus under the direction of founder David Douglas, first presented their chamber adaptation of The Seal-Woman at the Perth Festival two years ago. Here we are given a further opportunity to experience it in the recently added amphitheatre at Pitlochry.
It is a charming piece of operatic folklore first heard in Birmingham in 1924. Text by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (a native of Perth), with music by Granville Bantock - both highly regarded in their day. The sung text switches between English and Gaelic.
The cast of five was the same as before, with the exception of a new baritone -already a familiar name -Colin Murray, as the Fisherman and Water-Kelpie.
Music director was Andrew Johnston (piano), with Esther Swift (harp) and Claire Robertson (violin). This instrumental combination provided substantially more atmosphere than the Perth presentation, which only had a piano.
The cast was led once again by mezzo Sioned Gwen Davies in the title role, with David Douglas as her man, left holding the baby. Colleen Nicoll and Ulrike Wutscher were just as effective as before.
An interesting footnote is that a well-received recording has just been issued by Retrospect Records - made in Glasgow with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera. Offering completely different singers and a much larger-scale presentation, this is well worth investigating.
At Pitlochry they also performed a revival of the first work the company did, back in 2015. This is a masterpiece of the French baroque, Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Actéon, in which David Douglas took the title-role.
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