The Gentle Shepherd
Ballad Opera by Allan Ramsay

Orchestra Concerto Caledonia. Musical Director David McGuinness, Director Andrew McKinnon
Cast: Jamie MacDougall, Iain Mossman, Mhairi Lawson, Cora Bissett, Jim Byars, Dave Anderson, Estrid Barton, Hope Ross, Brian Ferguson, James Bryce, Rose McBain
Venue Queen's Hall
Address Clerk Street, Edinburgh
Reviewer Iain Gilmour

The Gentle Shepherd is an enjoyable, if overlong, romp of a Restoration play lifted above the general run by the quality of Ramsay’s language and old Scottish folk melodies.

In this pastoral 18th Century tale of young love, hidden identities, loyal servants, a disguised laird returning from exile to a Pentland village – reputedly based on Carlops, just south of Edinburgh – virtue predictably wins through in the end. The rollicking, almost rocking, playing of the baroque-style Concerto Caledonia enlivened the essential drabness of a concert performance without props or stage sets.

“A good wee orchestra,” said a pleased member of the audience after the two-and-a-half hour performance. “It had just the right tone,” said another.

The ten cast, mainly well-known Scottish actors and actresses rather than singers, lined up across the back of the stage, moving front of stage for solos or duets. But unlike most concert performances of opera, they both sang and acted their parts, despite carrying around an unwieldy score.

The scheming love-lorn buffoon Bauldy – Brian Ferguson – drew laughs a-plenty. Dave Anderson, as the trusted loyal old shepherd Symon, and James Laird, complete with outrageous false beard as the returning laird Sir William Worthy, hammed up their lines beautifully.

All the actors made more than passable attempts at singing.But the vocal honours undoubtedly go to the only professional singers in the cast – Jamie MacDougall as Patie, the gentle shepherd of the title and Mhairi Lawson as his beloved Peggy, the foundling who in the end turns out to be of noble birth.

© Iain Gilmour. August 2001