Sweet Sounds in Wild Places

A new partnership between Scottish Opera, The Abbotsford Trust & Live Borders

Sweet Sounds in Wild Places, Scottish Opera’s 21/22 community project, worked with music, creative writing, film, and photography to empower those identifying as female who have been struggling with various life and work challenges during lockdown. The project helped build creative skills as well as increasing self-confidence and self-expression through engagement with the arts.

Inspired by Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor, the workshops explored loneliness, isolation, and lack of empowerment as well as the impact, for good and bad, that landscape and environment can have on mental health and well-being.

‘...it’s asked me to look at deeper aspects of myself… speaking about it in a group environment has actually been quite cathartic. And I think it’s got it out of me instead of being stuck in me.’
— Participant, Sweet Sounds in Wild Places

‘I’d been feeling hopeless and directionless since the pandemic... I found new, creative and fun ways to explore and express difficult experiences in a supportive group... A truly transformative project.’
— Participant, Sweet Sounds in Wild Places

Kindly supported by The Cruden Foundation and Scottish Opera's Education Angels

Exhibition

Sweet Sounds in Wild Places

After creative workshops in Autumn 2021 and Spring 2022, we were delighted to stage an exhibition of original work created by the group of women from the Scottish Borders for this project. The participants’ original art was on display at Theatre Royal, Glasgow between 27 October and 5 November 2022. Taking place in the Upper and Dress Circle Foyers, the visuals, recordings and 3D clay models displayed were made as creative responses to The Bride of Lammermoor during the Sweet Sounds in Wild Places workshops.

Exploring the characters of Lucy/Lucia, Sweet Sounds in Wild Places was displayed in four acts, a format that mirrors a common structure for many operas and plays, that sketches the arc of the story, each with a distinctive theme and focusing on a different subset of art, media, music and creative writing.

The exhibition explored the issues of loneliness and lack of empowerment, as well as the impact, for good and bad, that landscape and environment can have on mental health. The project aimed to provide a safe space for people to rebuild their confidence and emotional resilience, reflect on their own experiences during lockdown, demonstrate how opera can be used as a tool to raise awareness of issues around women’s wellbeing, and find innovative ways to address health inequalities amongst the Scottish population.