On Sunday night it was the World Premiere of a new opera co-produced by the Edinburgh International Festival and Scottish Opera, written by composer Missy Mazzoli & librettist Royce Vavrek, called The Galloping Cure.
The work is based on Franz Kafka’s short story A Country Doctor. This is part of the Anderson Opera Series and is a co-production by Opera Ventures Productions and Scottish Opera.
The story is an allegory of the current opioid crisis where the local doctor works diligently for the people in her town to relieve their pains. But a chancer brings a magic carousel that relieves the ills which the residents experience.
The catch is that the ride is addictive and it extracts a terrible price on those who succumb to its enchantment. And in the process the doctor becomes complicit is the harm perpetrated on those she is meant to serve.
The music is dynamic, the staging dazzling, the singing superb, the emotion deep. But I feel it was an assembly of almost two disparate parts. At the interval I felt that the story would have been better served by traditional drama, but the second half was truly operatic.
And I need to admit my mild prejudice against opera in English which coloured my perception of the production. Nonetheless it is spectacular and should be seen.
