Opera Scotland

Actéon 2025Scots Opera Project

Read more about the opera Actéon

When Scottish tenor David Douglas first launched the Scots Opera Project complete with community chorus in Ayr back in 2015, he had recently returned from a period working in France.  His high-lying tenor voice is particularly suited to the music of the French baroque, 17th century composers such as Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Lully, championed by William Christie and his group Les Arts Florissants, with which Douglas worked.

Charpentier's short opera Actéon was the first work the Project performed in Scots translation, and it was a great success, with David Douglas giving an excellent account of the title role.  The plot derives from Greek mythology.  Actaeon, a young huntsman. is out with his hounds, hunting for deer.  In a forest clearing he encounters the goddess Diana and her attendant nymphs bathing.  Their fury is so intense that Diana changes him into a stag, so poor Actaeon is torn to pieces by his own hounds.

The music is subtle and atmospheric (not as violent as one might expect) and it is good to see it being revived. The music director is Esther Swift, who plays the clarsach, along with Claire Telford (violin).

Continuing the animal theme, the company is also giving performances of The Seal-Woman - an operatic folk-tale from the 1920s with text by Markorie Kennedy-Fraser and Music by Granville Bantock.

The original plan was to perform Acteon as a promenade production in the Explorers' Garden, adjacent to the theatre.  However Storm Floris has caused severe damage to the garden, and plans may be changed.  The garden is currently closed.