A Dialogue of Opposites (2013)
Soprano, Baritone and Piano
This was the second collaborative project with librettist James Leonard at the Encouraging New Opera workshops. The story of this piece originated while on a walk through Haughton Park in Alford, Aberdeenshire. The park has lots of deciduous woodland, and as I was walking, I was thinking about the philosopher David Hume, who would most likely have taking such walks in this part of the world, thinking about aesthetics as he goes. I then thought of the fairy Queen Mab, who is the creator of dreams according to Shakespeare, and I had the idea to put the two characters together in the same area. It made for a particularly comic set-up, especially when taken into accout Hume's fully rational, agnostic views, which make him disbelieve in seeing Mab, even though she is actually there. In short, this opera deals with what is perceived as real and how dreams could be real.
James emphasised these dilemmas in his libretto, which includes some of Hume's aphorisms, as well as some chanting in Scottish Gaelic.
The opera was written over the second half of 2013.