The Vanishing Bridegroom, Peacock Theatre, London, review: An ideal showcase for graduating young singers

The British Youth Orchestra perform Judith Weir’s Scottish folk opera to celebrate their 30th anniversary

Alexandra Lowe (The Wife) was a standout star with her rich soprano (Robert Workman)

The Celtic mists were swirling round the Peacock Theatre in Holborn with Judith Weir’s The Vanishing Bridegroom, put on by the British Youth Opera celebrating their 30th anniversary year.

This is a one-act opera written by the new Master of the Queen’s Music in 1990, consisting of three episodes culled from Scottish folktales woven into a single narrative.

It provides an ideal showcase for graduating young singers, many doubling or tripling roles among the 26 named parts, plus chorus. Standouts include Alexandra Lowe’s rich soprano, Ian Beadle, David Horton and Timothy Edlin, who plays a doctor, enthusiastic policemen and finally the charismatic stranger – revealed to be the very devil himself.

Correspondingly ideal is its ingenious production, with cleverly varied lighting by David Howe amid Andrew Riley’s craggily effective set, where hanging ropes suggest dark woods or the chorus becomes animated nature to evoke a difficult highland hike.

It’s no surprise to discover that director Stuart Baker is a founding member of Third Hand, the UK’s only dedicated puppet opera company; not only in his use of a puppet to represent a growing girl, but in his perfect understanding of the eloquence of movement to strip action back to a sort fable truth of essentials, which in its way perfectly suits Weir’s music, shimmering with imagination and hidden wisdom.