Opera Scotland

Let's make an Opera (Little Sweep) 1965Dundee Repertory Theatre Company

Read more about the opera Little Sweep

This was a treat for the local theatre audience in Dundee, with the local Rep company providing the facilities and a couple of members of the professional company, Bryan Jonson and Geoffrey Hayes.  Along with local amateurs and a squad of seven local children, they provided a hugely enjoyable evening.  The uncredited sets and costumes were simply taken from the theatre's own stock.

At the centre of all was the conductor David Duke. In the first half he cajoled and coaxed enthusiastic results from the audience in their songs, backed by two excellent local musicians at the pianos.  The important percussion part was played by Pamela Dow, a principal with the SNO.

Although billed as a production by 'Dundee Repertory Company' it was in effect the debut of a new amateur group in the city, which would be properly launched later in the year as the New Opera Company, mounting a double-bill of Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors with Susanna's Secret by Wolf-Ferrari.  How tragic that the whole enterprise was cut short by the untimely death, the following year, of the livewire, inspirational conductor David Duke.

One curiosity about this performance is that later in 1965, the original librettist, Eric Crozier, became dissatisfied with his work and considered it had not worn well.  No effective revision seems to have been carried out, however, and the original Let's Make an Opera! format appears to have disappeared from view, with later performances concentrating on The Little Sweep.