Perth Festival: Scots Opera Project: The Seal Woman
Perth Theatre Joan Knight Studio - 21/05/23
Ulrike Wutscher, contralto | Sioned Gwen Davies, mezzo | Colleen Nicoll, soprano | David Douglas, tenor | Michael Longden, bass/baritone | Hebba Benyaghla, piano
The Scots Opera Project’s adapted revival of Marjory Kennedy-Fraser and Granville Bantock’s 1924 Celtic folk opera, ‘The Seal Woman’, received the first of two Perth Festival outings on the night of Sunday 21st May, in the Joan Knight Studio of Perth Theatre, a relatively intimate performance space in comparison with the Main Auditorium, in a manner analogous to the New Auditorium of Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall. The original instrumental scoring of flute, cor anglais, clarinet, horn, timpani, harp and strings was rendered in piano reduction, performed with great virtuosity and stamina by Hebba Benyaghla.
Marjory Kennedy-Fraser’s libretto revolves around the legend of the ‘selkie’, a supernatural seal-like creature who, under a full moon, can shed her seal-skin and manifest as a mortal woman. If separated from her seal-skin, she cannot return to the sea and must live as her alter ego until reunited with her skin under a full moon some seven years later. Hebridean Gaelic songs collected by Kennedy-Fraser and published in anglicised (and somewhat romanticised) form feature in the score as some of the choruses and arias. Music criticism has not been kind to her brand of ethnomusicology, with accusations of cultural appropriation and other failings being levelled. However, the listener who is willing to overlook these shortcomings can enjoy a well-crafted operatic narrative, held together by Bantock’s imaginative, evocative music. Forbearance, as often with opera, is amply rewarded.
In the first of two acts, set on a rocky Hebridean shoreline, the chorus, a fishing community, prepare to return from a fishing trip on a rocky island, the lyrics sung to a waulking song melody. The Cailleach (contralto Ulrike Wutscher) worries about the Islesman’s (tenor David Douglas) apparent obsession with the selkie legend, his friend the Fisherman (bass/baritone Michael Longden) concurs and when he appears, their fears would appear to be justified. David’s rendering of Kennedy-Fraser’s version of ‘Bheir Mé Ó’ was very lovely (though, as a fluent speaker of Irish, I abhor the anglicised lyrics). The island folk disperse. The Seal-Woman (mezzo Sioned Gwen Davies) and her older Seal-Sister (soprano Colleen Nicoll) appear, shed their seal-skin cloaks and dance and sing in the moonlight. The older selkie is concerned by her sister’s apparent fascination with mortal men. The Islesman, who has tarried after his kinfolk’s departure, happens upon them and grabs their seal-skin cloaks, declaring his admiration for their beauty. The younger selkie being clearly less averse to his advances, the older negotiates her escape, significantly carrying away both cloaks.
The second of the two acts is a domestic scene, 7 years later. We learn through the Fisherman and the wise old Cailleach (full marks for her portrayal of arthritic elderliness) of the Islesman and Seal-Woman’s domestic circumstances. They are married and she has borne him a daughter, Morag. She increasingly favours chores that take her away from the house towards the shore. The Seal-Sister returns with her sister’s seal-skin cloak and conceals it in Morag’s toy basket. The Seal-Woman sings of her longing for the sea, discovers the cloak, dons it and makes her escape diving from the headland. The Islesman is broken-hearted.
This folk opera is a hidden gem, as is the production. The music is captivating and the pervasive Celtic twilight ambience is attractive, if that is your kind of thing – it most definitely is mine.