Pupils’ sinister finale thrills opera crowd
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
SOPRANO stars of the future took a massive "leap" towards their dream when they created an original piece of opera in just 12 hours.
Thurso High pupils successfully rose to the challenge of producing the work in just one day on Wednesday, February 29.
Scottish Opera invited 37 youngsters to take part in Create an Opera, using the leap day as an incentive for the teenagers to produce their very own piece of music and theatre.
The event took place in Skinandi’s nightclub where pupils spent the day writing scripts, music and creating costumes and background scenery to help tell the story.
A crowd of almost 200 people filled the venue at 8pm to see if the students had successfully met their challenge.
The pupils did not disappoint as they performed their work of Nisseriss to a sell-out crowd, thrilling and frightening their audience throughout their 20-minute stint on stage.
Eden Court creative worker David Hunter wanted to put the students under real pressure to create a great piece of work and said they didn’t disappoint.
"It’s funny how things never turn out quite how you think they would," he said. "What surprised and delighted the production team was the energy, commitment and enthusiasm the participants showed during the day. With a total of 37 pupils involved there was never going to be a dull moment.
"We honestly thought that we would have to really work at keeping the participants going, but it was them that kept us going during the 12-hour project. It would have been easy to have not done a show at all and just created the opera but the participants learned so much under the stress of performing, it brought out the best in everyone."
Nisseriss unfolded in a series of three flashbacks starting with teenagers breaking into a derelict building on February 29 when they meet an old tramp played by Myfanwy Morgan.
She tells them the legend of Nisseriss, a malevolent being who makes people disappear and captures their souls.
A fire nearly destroys the building and one of the performers, played by Maeva Donaldson, is taken by Nisseriss.
The second flashback features a Second World War air-raid shelter where an army officer, played by Alan Mowat, is taken from his sick bed never to be seen again.
The final one features a nightclub in the 1970s that is the venue for a wedding dance. On this occasion the bride, played by Lara Dasar, is Nisseriss’s victim.
The old tramp recalling these events turns out to be none other than Nisseriss who forces the children to choose which one will be taken. But they deliberate too long and all three are taken by the lost souls who have appeared on stage for a very sinister finale.
Scottish Opera composer Alan Penman was on hand to help the orchestra write the music and said he was astounded by the level of pupils’ talent.
"There’s not that many groups of young people who could take part in a project like this," he said.
"To write and perform an opera in 12 hours requires larger amounts of creativity, energy levels, positive attitudes, maturity and teamwork.
"However, the group on this project undoubtedly ticked all these boxes, and I knew this straight after meeting them.
"As I left Thurso, foremost on my mind was what we could have achieved if we had a whole week as with a group like this, the possibilities are endless."
