Jeanie Deans
Music by Hamish MacCunn · libretto by Joseph Bennett · premiered 1894
Jeanie Deans is an opera in four acts by Hamish MacCunn (1868–1916) set to a libretto by Joseph Bennett which is loosely based on Walter Scott's 1818 novel, The Heart of Midlothian and is named after its heroine, Jeanie Deans. The opera was commissioned by the Carl Rosa Opera Company and first produced at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh on 15 November 1894 to great acclaim. The ending of the opera, in which Jeanie's sister, Effie Deans is freed from Tolbooth prison, is not in Scott's novel. The crowd scene in fact refers back to the beginning of the novel where the Porteous Riots are described. The plot of the opera, therefore, ends with the freeing of Effie, and the lives of Jeanie and her sister afterwards are not dealt with.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Jeanie Deans (opera)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Hamish MacCunn, né James MacCunn (22 March 1868 – 2 August 1916) was a Scottish composer, conductor and teacher. He was one of the first students of the newly founded Royal College of Music in London, and quickly made a mark. As a composer he achieved early success with his orchestral piece The Land of the Mountain and the Flood (1887), and, later, his first opera, Jeanie Deans (1894). His subsequent compositions did not match those two successes, and although he continued to compose throughout his life, he became best known as a conductor and teacher. He held teaching appointments at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music. As a conductor MacCunn served as musical…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Hamish MacCunn", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.