Mary, Queen of Scots7
Musgrave (based on the play Moray by Elguera)

Scottish-American composer Thea Musgrave is still working today at the age of 94. Her first opera, Mary, Queen of Scots, premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 1977, conducted by the composer herself. Just one year later it made its American premiere at Virginia Opera, and that production is preserved in a live recording that was re-released to great acclaim in 2018. The opera was seen at San Francisco in 1979 and New York City Opera in 1981, but has not been fully staged in this country since then.

To be fair, it is a massive work. Its three acts clock in at just under two-and-a-quarter hours, which isn’t too lengthy by opera standards, but the piece calls for 12 named roles and a chorus of at least 32! Musgrave condensed the work into a chamber version in 2016 that’s shorter (under two hours) and calls for less personnel (10 singers, no chorus, but still requires supers). Regardless of the version, Mary, Queen of Scots has so much to offer. As Gramophone reviewed, “It has nearly everything: radiant melodies, especially the Queen’s lullaby for her infant son (later James I of England), vibrant set pieces, as in the ballroom and council scenes, and a compelling plot.”

The opera starts at Mary’s return to her home country from France after the death of her mother. Not fully aware of the rising political and religious tensions plaguing the kingdom, she arrives a devout Catholic in a Protestant country. Her new rule is further complicated by the men surrounding her: her half-brother James, the leader of the Protestants; her husband, Darnley, who dies mysteriously; and a soldier, Bothwell, whom she later marries. The opera centers on these relationships and ends with James forcing Mary to abdicate the throne, leaving her baby and country behind as she flees to England. 

Musgrave not only dramatizes the personal and religious conflicts in her libretto, but also in her music. TIME magazine called this a “masterly touch” in its review of the American premiere, specifically naming a dance in Act I where Mary’s courtier Bothwell interrupts her pavane with a Scottish reel. TIME said, “The roistering tune and sinister tremolo accompaniment overwhelm the lutelike Renaissance melody of the dance—and the musical battle foreshadows real ones to come.” Overall, Musgrave writes in a “tonal, if frequently spiky and harmonically pungent musical language,” as Clive Paget explains in Limelight magazine.

Joe Cadagin of San Francisco Classical Voice calls Musgrave’s opera a sort-of prequel to Donizetti’s more popular operatic treatment, Maria Stuarda, but with greater historical accuracy. He notes that when Mary debuted in Scotland, Musgrave and her opera were part of a larger movement amongst her British composer contemporaries: “reclaiming national heroes from the bel canto tradition.” This nationalist project – both in composing Mary and in the opera’s plot itself – continues to resonate today, as does the discord of a nation torn between clashing values. In an interview with Musgraves in 2017, Frank J. Oteri mentioned that global independence movements make this piece relevant and timely today, and Musgrave named Scottish independence and Brexit. While the U.S. isn’t quite at the precipice of separating today, we do face similar circumstances as Mary did hundreds of years ago: a divided populace, each side looking to political leadership to unify the people and strengthen the nation. As Mary learns, and as we all know too well, the political becomes personal, and the personal can become violent, dividing families and even ending lives.