Down in the Valley 2023Scottish Opera Young Company
Read more about the opera Down in the Valley
In recent seasons, Scottish Opera's Young Company has made something of a speciality of unearthing the little known works of Kurt Weill. Down in the Valley is a taughtly presented, short drama, lasting barely forty minutes. Here they preceded it with an even briefer piece, a recent work by Henry McPherson, entitled Maud. The two works, presented without an interval, made for an excellent early evening entertainment.
The venue was, again, Scottish Opera's Production Studios at Edington Street. But this time the performing space was much more suitable than the open-air Covid friendly space used before. We had a very good studio theatre in the form of the orchestra's rehearsal space - a well-proportioned room with an excellent acoustic and accommodation for a decent-sized audience, some at tables, with others behind on a raised platform.
The company's musical director, Chris Gray, as before, conducted an excellent, idiomatic, musical performance. The staging was directed with appropriate economy by Flora Emily Thomson, relocated from the American mid-west to a 1930s Hebridean community (Maud was given a more primitive version of the same place).
Three of the leading roles were taken by singers familiar from previously, and Luke Francis, Imogen Bews and Anna Sophia Montgomery have successfully moved uo to more prominent parts. Excellent newcomers included Joshua Campbell as a community leader, essentially a priest. Helena Engebretsen was also particularly good.
