What do you love about composing for the stage?

Fundamentally I love writing for the stage for the same reason that I love conducting it: it demands so much more than sheer craftsmanship or skill. It also requires humility, collaboration, and a willingness to be hugely self-critical. Music can absolutely enhance text, add rhythm and character, and drive a story – but the relationship must be carefully controlled. It is this element of problem-solving that I love most.

Why do you think opera is so suited to political satire?

Opera has had a long and enormously fruitful relationship with satire. Many of the satires still thrive today because the cold, hard truth is that nothing much has changed; the characters and events are just as relevant now as they were two or three hundred years ago. Good satire often relies on caricatures and exaggeration to make its point – and what genre is better suited to the larger-than-life than opera, with its enormous stages, sets, and orchestras?

How does the experience of composing for the stage compare to working as a repetiteur?

I think that my work as a repetiteur has had a huge bearing on my composition work. Writing well for the stage is a difficult thing to do, and so having a repertoire at my fingertips that encompasses some of the most successful operas and stage works (as well as some of the less successful ones!) has proved to be quite handy. So much of our time as repetiteurs is spent troubleshooting. In that sense, I suppose I’m already one step ahead when I’m writing my own music – I can use my repetiteur brain to sidestep problems before I’ve created them. Plus, through working with fantastic singers every day, one gets a fairly clear sense of what repertoire they collectively enjoy.

Scottish Opera premieres your new work with librettist Emma Jenkins on 14 May. What’s your collaborative process?

This is the third piece that Emma and I have worked on together, although A Matter of Misconduct! certainly represents a lot of firsts for us. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in crime than Emma. She is the most fantastic librettist, and her words are so innately musical and rhythmic that for the most part, her libretto rather sets itself. Emma is also the most fantastic sounding-board for ideas – totally honest, but never judgemental. That sort of blunt honesty is essential to a good writing partnership.

After A Matter of Misconduct! what are your future plans?

At least a week away – somewhere hot! I don’t think I’ve really stopped since early 2023. But in the longer term, I am hugely fortunate to have my job on the music staff at Scottish Opera, and so I plan to stay there in the immediate future. However, I’m excited to see where the composition road might lead. In an ideal world, I would love to combine the two jobs going forward – if I am lucky enough to write another piece after this one! ON