Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Three Queens From The Opera
Michael Scott presents
Genre: Music, Musical Theatre, New Writing
Venue: Stockbridge Church
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Put together with passion, love and flair, two sopranos and an alto, each with strong, accurate voices and a natural affinity for commedia dell’arte (or acting the goat if you’re more prosaically minded) create a very enjoyable and professionally delivered piece of pastiche operatic musical theatre.
Review
Take a group of like-minded opera aficionados, sprinkle on a dollop of creativity and, lo and behold, you’ve got a perfect pastiche of life as a Queen in the Op-er-a. Well, two Queens and Cinders, a late subbie for the Queen of Spades who got red carded at the last moment. Or is that “black” carded?
The brainchild of lyricist/director Michael Scott, Three Queens From The Opera is a delightful diversion into opera familiars (and a few other musical genre) with the added bonus of freshly minted new lyrics, extolling the virtues of Queendom, life in a castle and, erm, love. Well, they had to throw in that last bit given that Cinderella runs off with her very own Prince Charming. Eventually.
Our three stage charmers are The Queen of the Night, Lady Macbeth and the aforementioned Cinderella, each of whom has a different take on Queendom. Starting with a frightfully witty bit of badinage playing on the snobbishness endemic in the genre, we move swiftly on to a series of cleverly scripted arias, pausing occasionally for a bit more of that splendid banter, creating space within the fifty minute show as well as helping signpost what’s about to happen.
You’ll recognise a lot of the music; Nessun Dorma, naturally; that tune from the Fruit and Nut advert, better known perhaps as the Danse des mirlitons from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker; then there was that annoying warble that assails you every time you step aboard a British Airways plan, again, better known as Lakmé’s Duo des Fleurs.
Credit should also be given for an inventive take on When I Am Laid In Earth from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, nominally a poignant expression of love, loss, and the tragic consequences of betrayal but given a rather lighter touch in this version.
And whilst opera and operetta did the heavy lifting throughout this very entertaining, tightly staged and powerfully sung show, there was time to dip into other musical genres with a parody of Feelings (Morris Albert, remember him from the distant 1970’s?) standing out.
It was such a shame, then, that our singers had to deal with clunky (MIDI file generated?) backing tracks. That forced our trio to follow the accompaniment, rather than the latter tagging along with the former. Three Queens surely merited a live pianist, suitably decked out in white tie and tails. Next time, perhaps.
But what of our Queens? Jennifer Murray (Queen of the Night, soprano) was absolutely spot on as the epitome of haughty grandeur, splendidly condescending and patronising in her treatment of the proles (basically us, the poor sods in the audience) and with a great line in put downs, deployed to considerable effect when the poor harassed sound man cueing up the aforementioned backing tracks hit the wrong button. The scars will heal, sir, the scars will heal.
Elaine Young (Lady Macbeth, alto) was a joy to behold from start to finish. Sporting a Glaswegian accent that was think enough to cut with a knife, she exhibited perfect comic timing, delivering put downs and gags with a panache redolent of the late, great Dame Edna, although Young can actually sing, her splendid alto tones bouncing off the walls of the cavernous Stockbridge Church.
Completing the trio was Caroline Warburton (Cinderella) who carried off what might be described as the role of ingenue with grace and aplomb, convinced as she was that she would ultimately marry into Queendom when her Prince Charming finally got around to popping the appropriate question.
You sometimes find with opera that the singing is great and the acting a bit dodgy. Or vice versa. Not here though. Two sopranos and an alto, each with strong, accurate voices and a natural affinity for commedia dell’arte (or acting the goat if you’re more prosaically minded) created a very enjoyable and professionally delivered piece of musical theatre.
The whole thing looked and sounded like it had been put together with passion, love and flair so hats off to this hard-working troupe for creating something that will live long in the memory, and for all the right reasons.
