“It is one of the most interesting, well sung and well produced pieces of opera that has been seen on the Scottish stage for quite a few years.” – Opera Britannia 2016

Tapestry Opera presents the North American premiere of THE DEVIL INSIDE, a new co-production by Scottish Opera and Music Theatre Wales. The latest work from Britain’s trailblazing librettist-composer team, Louise Welsh and Stuart MacRae, THE DEVIL INSIDE is a modern Faustian tale, “finely paced” and “immaculately crafted” according to a 5-star review in The Guardian (UK). THE DEVIL INSIDE marks the first time Scottish Opera has been presented in North America and the first time a UK Opera company has been presented in Toronto in over a hundred years.

Inspired by The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson, THE DEVIL INSIDE is an imp in a bottle who can grant every conceivable desire. The bottle can be bought and sold, but only at a lower price each time.  And anyone who dies while in possession of the bottle goes straight to hell . . . forever. A compelling look at human nature from love and selflessness to greed and mass consumption.

“This is a brilliant new work that makes you think. It is spine tingling opera.” – Opera Britannia 2016

Tapestry Opera and Scottish Opera have been collaborating together since 2009 following Tapestry Opera’s international LibLab: Composer-Librettist Laboratory. THE DEVIL INSIDE is their third of four collaborations, the first being Pub Operas in 2011, followed by M’dea Undone, which had its world premiere May 2015 at Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto. Tapestry will be premiering their fourth collaboration, the co-commission Rocking Horse Winner, this May.

THE DEVIL INSIDE is also the third collaboration between Librettist Louise Welsh and composer Stuart MacRae. Ghost Patrol (2011), which followed their first partnership Five: 15 Operas Made in Scotland (2009), was a critical success and winner of the exclusive 2013 South Bank Sky Award for Opera. Also a British crime writer, Louise Welsh is the author of six novels including The Girl on the Stairs (2012) and A Lovely Way to Burn (2014). Scottish Composer Stuart MacRae was writing powerfully expressive works in his mid-twenties receiving commissions from such organizations as the BBC and the London Sinfonietta and being appointed as Composer-in-Association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. His 52 completed compositions include works for opera, theatre, orchestra, ensembles and soloists.

Ghost Patrol’s director Matthew Richardson and conductor Michael Rafferty lead the cast of mezzo-soprano Rachel Kelly, a recent graduate of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden’s Jette Parker Young Artist Programme; baritone Ben McAteer, a 2015/16 Scottish Opera Emerging Artist; tenor Nicholas Sharratt (The Pirates of Penzance 2013, Ghost Patrol 2012); baritone Steven Page (The Rake’s Progress 2011, The Pirates of Penzance 2013); and players of the Scottish Opera Orchestra.

Tapestry Opera continues to drive the evolution of opera with an innovative 36th season, which concludes with the world premiere of ROCKING HORSE WINNER, another Scottish Opera co-commission, May 27 – June 4 at Berkeley Street Theatre-Downstairs.