The King and His Shadow (2017)
An opera for two voices in one act to a libretto by Peter Davidson
bass-bar, ten, vln, b cl.
Commissioned by Aberdeen City Council for the Silver City Stories project 2017
Duration:
6′
First Performance:
1 – 2 July 2017
Mercat Cross, Aberdeen, UK
Score
Programme note
The King and His Shadow is a short, ‘pop-up’ opera that was commissioned for the Aberdeen ‘Silver City Stories’ project which aimed to celebrate events from the city’s past. The opera brings one of my historical passions, the Jacobite Risings in the eighteenth century (this being the earlier one in 1715), to prominence with this brief re-enactment of the dramatic proclamation of James Francis Stuart (the ‘Old Pretender’) by The Earl Marischal and his men. As with all the Jacobite Risings, it was doomed to failure, but the romantic notion of this event still resonates today, and Peter Davidson’s evocative libretto captures this beautifully.
PAC
