Listen to composer Alan A Craig interviewed on SAGA FM (Jan 07) PART ONE
Listen to composer Alan A Craig interviewed on SAGA FM (Jan 07) PART TWO PRESS REVIEWS
Susan Mansfield's feature on the opera (The Scotsman, 14/9/07)
"A moral tale about a bloody feud - as told by Wee Folk
COMPOSING a new opera and taking the project to fruition outside the major musical institutions takes determination and a certain amount of ingenuity. But young composer Alan Craig is blessed with both.
This 30-year-old from Glasgow will see his hard work rewarded when his one-act opera The Nicht's the Nicht is broadcast tonight on ClassicFM, a milestone on a journey which has taken him all the way from Perthshire to the Czech Republic.
He is delighted that the opera, written for baritone, tenor, orchestra and children's chorus, will now reach a wider audience. "In broadcast terms, this is probably the best it could get," he says. "This is a small work, but it's trying to achieve big things."
The story of The Nicht's the Nicht began when Jean Kidd, the founder of the RSNO Junior Chorus, now retired and living in Comrie, Perthshire, set about looking for music to use with a local children's drama group. Finding little to challenge them beyond their comfort zone, she raised funding locally to commission Craig, who is head of music at Langside College in Glasgow, as well as being a composer and pianist, to write a new one-act opera for them.
The children themselves proposed the story, which is based on a real-life 17th-century feud between the clans MacNab and MacNeish: a treacherous and dramatic winter attack ending in a bloody massacre. The Scottish historian Ronnie Armstrong was recruited to write the libretto.
"We put The Nicht's the Nicht together over about a year," says Craig. "Ronnie takes great pleasure in saying it's probably the only opera ever written by e-mail. He would send me bits by e-mail and I would put the music to it.
"As we were writing, the children were rehearsing. They had no formal training, so Jean was teaching them how to sing, then how to sing opera, and then finally to sing this particular piece. It was quite an achievement."
Armstrong hit a bright idea for the opera's structure: a story within a story, told by a seanachaidh (clan storyteller) and a band of Wee Folk (the fairies of Scottish folklore), which made the bloodthirsty story into a moral tale.
"Ronnie's idea was a bit of genius," says Craig. "He wanted to examine the children's love of this story, and what would happen if they were to stand back for a moment and understand that these are real people who really died over something which was totally insignificant (the feud begins when the MacNeishes steal the MacNabs' Christmas whisky).
"By the end, when the Wee Folk have rapturously played out the story, they stand back and recoil as they realise that what they've been singing is a story about people being beheaded. The McNabs and the McNeishes are portrayed from the beginning neither as goodies or baddies. Each clan views itself as being superior to the other, but doesn't realise how similar they are."
By the time the opera had its first performance in Comrie in September 2001, world events had given its message a deeper significance still. "There was no way we could have known this would happen, but the premiere came just two weeks after the Twin Towers attack. It was very much in people's minds how easily the world could split into two factions, and that would lead to unnecessary bloodshed. It continues to be very relevant."
Craig wanted to write music with a flavour of Scottishness but avoiding a heather-and-haggis pastiche. The Nicht's the Nicht has a strong symphonic underpinning which means it has crossover appeal while retaining its musical integrity.
He says: "The majority of people love the sound of orchestral music, but their interest stops at the end of the 19th century. If you look at the number of people who buy film soundtracks, it proves the point that people are quite thirsty for music that has this breadth of expression and colour."
He was thrilled when a journalist asked him which traditional melodies he had used in The Nicht's the Nicht. Answer: none. He'd written it all himself. "The idea had been that people would feel a sense of connection with the music, so that was probably the biggest compliment I've had."
After the opera's warm reception in Comrie, he decided it deserved a wider audience and set about self-financing a recording, which is now out on CD. The orchestral music was recorded in Prague with the City of Prague Philharmonic, "great players who could play within a budget I could just about afford". Then he made separate recordings with the RSNO Junior Chorus and soloists, baritone Robert Kirk and tenor Mark Prendergast.
"It wasn't until I sent all the bits to the producer and he put it all together that I finally heard the opera the way that I hoped it would turn out right from the start. Generally as a composer you have an idea how your music should sound, but the problem is that if you want it to sound like that, you have to get the best people. Working from a limited budget, I was very grateful that I had the opportunity to do that."
He hopes that the opera will appeal to a diverse audience: "When we first performed it, I noticed that both those who were absolutely obsessed with Wagner and those who had never set foot in an opera house had a similarly good experience of it." And it was embraced, and sung, by maybe the toughest audience of all: young people.
"It was written to be listened to by both adults and children. It would nice to think that families might be able to sit down and enjoy something together which isn't just playing to the lowest common denominator."
• The Nicht's the Nicht will be the centrepiece to the Evening Concert on ClassicFM tonight . For more information and CDs see www.thenicht.com"
Michael Tumelty's review of the CD (The Herald, 31/3/07)
"Composer Alan Craig has produced an attractive, one-act children's opera in The Nicht's the Nicht which is based extensively on Scottish melodies and rhythms without being too eclectic or couthy. The tale, written by Ronald Armstrong, is told to a group of Wee Folk by a Storyteller (bass baritone Robert Kirk) and concerns the quarrels and conflicts between the MacNabs and MacNeishes, telt through lyrical little melodies with a Brittensque turn for children's chorus (superbly sung by Christopher Bell's Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus), and a warmly traditional orchestral accompaniment (with effects) played by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra."