Nicola Lisle looks forward to the unveiling of a new opera in Abingdon later this month

Thomas Hardy has been given a musical makeover in a new one-act opera coming soon to the Unicorn Theatre in Abingdon.

The Three Wayfarers was written by Reading composer John Whittaker, and is based on Hardy’s play of the same name and on the original short story, The Three Strangers, which Hardy himself adapted for the stage on the advice of J.M. Barrie.

A typical Hardy pastoral tale, it is set in a shepherd’s cottage where a christening is taking place. As three strangers arrive seeking shelter, it soon transpires that one of them is a sheep-stealer on the run from the law. The convict’s identity is only revealed at the end.

So what inspired John to give the story new life as an opera?

“It was chance, really, because I’d read all of Hardy’s novels so I thought I’d try some of his poems,” he says. “Then I came across this play which I wasn’t aware of at all. When I read it through, I thought this would make a nice little opera.

“What attracted me was that it starts with a folk dance, which is part of my background as a folk musician as well as a classical one. There’s a song in it too, which reads like a folk song. So I thought I could do something with this.”

Once the opera was complete, John was keen to find someone willing to perform it. His first port of call was Opera Anywhere, whose founders, Mike and Vanessa Woodward, seized on it with enthusiasm.

“We liked the folk music influence in it because we’re interested in folk music ourselves, and we thought that would particularly work with the nature of the story,” says Vanessa. “So that’s what attracted us to it.”

The opera is scored for 14 singers and a ten-piece orchestra (six strings and four woodwind), and is a fusion of traditional folk tunes and operatic music, with the influence of Vaughan Williams never far away.

Interestingly, Hardy gave each of his two versions slightly different perspectives, as John explains: “In the story version there’s a scene at the end where they’re out catching the sheep stealer, and the rest is in the cottage. It’s also like a whodunit. You don’t know until the end of the story who the sheep stealer is.

“In the play version, the sheep stealer declares himself to the audience, and gets them on his side. I have mainly used the play, but I thought the whodunit version was better, so I have referred to both.

“The whodunit version has more suspense, in a theatrical sense, because the audience is guessing right to the end,” adds Mike. “So it’s more exciting.”

The special workshop performance at the Unicorn is a way of gauging public opinion and, it is hoped, attracting sponsors so that the opera can tour around Oxfordshire and beyond.

Also included are some of John’s settings of Shakespeare songs, sung by baritone Oskar McCarthy, and Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel, sung by baritone Miles Horner.

“The Unicorn Theatre really lends itself to this particular story,” Mike says of The Three Wayfarers. “It’s going to be so atmospheric. I’m really excited about it.”

Opera Anywhere: The Three Wayfarers
Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon
Saturday, February 21, at 7.30pm
Tickets: 01865 735910 or ticketsource.co.uk/date/116598
n Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon
n Saturday, February 21, at 7.30pm
n Tickets: 01865 735910 or ticketsource.co.uk/date/116598