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Imogen Bews as 'Wise Woman' in Maud | Photo: Sally Jubb

You have to hand it to the singers in Scottish Opera Young Company, they certainly enjoy, and indeed rise, to a challenge. Last year the 17-21 year old singers brilliantly performed, in Scots dialect, the world premiere of Rubble – a heart-wrenching work about abused teenagers in a 1980s care home.

This year, they’re back with another fantastic ensemble and an equally hard-hitting double bill, this time on the theme of mob rule in small-minded communities. Henry McPherson’s Maud is a contemporary take on a folk tale. Maud is a young girl – the title role is sung by three singers: Elinor Gent, Maria Wotherspoon and Anna Sophia Montgomery ­­– who ventures into the woods and discovers what she thinks is a magical creature. The forest’s Wise Woman (Imogen Bews) warns Maud there will be consequences, despite her good intentions. When Maud’s parents (Anne De Putter and Luke Francis) discover the creature is a dragon they encourage the whole village to hunt it down before triumphantly drowning it, despite Maud’s pleas.

Director Flora Emily Thomson drew everyone into this tense drama by placing the action in close proximity to the audience and having the masked cast move in and around them. It was a giddy 30 minutes or so compared with Down in the Valley which was more evenly paced. Given the similar themes of the two short operas, Thomson segued between them with the cast taking down the scenery and changing costumes as they sang the final few minutes of Maud. Moving straight on did continue the mood but at the expense of confusing some of the audience who didn’t get a sense of where one work ended and the next began.

The cast of Down in the Valley | Photo: Sally Jubb

And there was no happy ending in Down in the Valley either. The love story between Jennie Parsons (Helena Engebretson) and Brack Weaver (Luke Francis) was doomed from the opening bars with Weaver on death row for murdering his rival for Jennie’s affections, Thomas Bouché (Imogen Bews). In a lengthy flashback, we get the story of the couple’s courtship and the fight started by the Bouché which ends in his death and Weaver’s imprisonment. But he manages to escape for a final meeting with Jennie before the sheriff and his posse capture and kill him.

The haunting musical theme which twists in and out of this tragic story gives it a sense of unity and claustrophobia. It also gave space for some touching passages, particularly the duets between Engebretson and Francis while Bews as the arrogant whisky swigging Bouché was superb. There were also strong support from Ruaraidh McBain as troublemaker Jack Garston in Maud and Joshua Campbell as the community leader in Down in the Valley.  

All of the company turned in fabulous performances, relishing the chance to engage with operas suitable for their young voices and gain valuable industry experience. The music was vibrant too with conductor Chris Gray and a small but tight-knit ensemble of two keyboards, violin and percussion, bringing plenty of verve to these multi-textured scores.