Bruce 2024Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Read more about the opera Bruce
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s PhD composer and pianist Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin, from Kazakhstan, will premiere his one-hour opera, “The Bruce,” written for the 750th anniversary of the birth of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, in four landmark Scottish churches this year.
Four performances are to be given - on February 17 in Glasgow Cathedral, on February 21 at St Giles in Edinburgh, on February 24 at St Salvators in St Andrews and on March 3 in Dunfermline Abbey.
The composer is a 24-year-old Kazakh, Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin The libretto is drawn from John Barbour's poem in early Scots.
“I have worked with leading linguists and historians to establish and investigate the historical context as well as a pronunciation of Early Scots and we have done a substantial amount of work on decoding the text in both a metaphorical and direct way,” he noted.
According to the release, the opera performances are free to attend, but tickets must be booked in advance - through Eventbrite. Donations are requested.
Abdyssagin, 24, is called the Kazakh Mozart. At 10 years old, he wrote music mature composers could be proud of. At 13 years old, he became an undergraduate student at Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory. At 17, he became a graduate student of Kazakh National University of Arts and completed an internship at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. At 18, he defended his master’s dissertation. At 20, he completed postgraduate studies at three prestigious universities in Italy.
