Thea Musgrave Opera Returning to SF Opera

Mary, Queen of Scots, a full-length opera was composed by Thea Musgrave (herself a Scot, as well as the author of the libretto) in 1977. It was first performed at the Edinburgh International Festival for that year. The following year it was given its United States premiere by the Virginia Opera. Peter Mark was the Artistic and General Director of this company from 1975 to 2010. He was also Musgrave’s husband at the same time that she was a faculty member at the University of California in Santa Barbara. This led to San Francisco Opera (SFO) giving Mary, Queen of Scots its West Coast premiere in April of 1979, the performance taking place at the Curran Theatre.

Soprano Heidi Stober in the title role of Mary, Queen of Scots (photograph by Ellie Kurttz, courtesy of the English National Opera)

Next month, this opera will return to SFO performing at the War Memorial Opera House. Most narratives about Mary involve the tension between her and her cousin, Elizabeth I, Queen of England. Elizabeth never appears in this opera. Instead, she has to contend with three men, all of whom think that they can appropriate her authority. In Musgrave’s opera, Mary is a soprano, who will be sung by soprano Heidi Stober. The three ambitious men are Mary’s husband Lord Darnley (tenor Christopher Sokolowski), James Stewart, Mary’s half-brother and Early of Moray (baritone Thomas Mole), and James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell (tenor Thomas Kinch). It is also interesting to observe that Mary has four ladies-in-waiting, all of whom are named Mary: Mary Seton (mezzo Sadie Cheslak), Mary Beaton (soprano Sofia Gotch), Mary Livingston (soprano Mary Hoskins) (obviously with no connection to Jack Benny!), and Mary Fleming (mezzo Alexa Frankian).

Staging will be directed by Stewart Laing, who will be making his SFO debut. Also making an SFO debut will be the conductor, Clelia Cafiero. There will be two Sunday afternoon performances at 2 p.m. on September 20 and October 4. The remaining performances will be at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 24, Saturday, September 26, Tuesday, September 29, and Friday, October 2. A single Web page has been created for purchasing tickets for all six of these events.