The Abbot of Drimock
(1955) an opera in one act
Duration 50'
Orchestration 0111/1000/2perc/pf(cel)/str(1.0.0.1.0)
7 Singers
Libretto: Maurice Lindsay, based on one of J. M. Wilson's Tales of the Border

Premiere: 22 June 1958, concert performance, London
Park Lane Opera Group, Myer Fredman, conductor

Publisher:  Chester Music Ltd

Composer's Note:

This is first opera was composed very shortly after my return from Paris (1955), where I had been studying with the renowned Nadia Boulanger for the previous four years.

The story was taken from J. M. Wilson's Tales of the Scottish Border.  The parallel to Gianni Schicchi will be obvious to any opera lover, but in fact this version of the story predates Puccini by many years. They share a common source…Dante's Inferno, though in this opera the date is mid-sixteenth century and set in prereformation Scotland.

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