It is fitting for the final words of a Sunday afternoon concert to invoke Glory to the Eternal One. It is, perhaps, less expected when it is a concert performance of a Debussy opera. 

For the second in Scottish Opera’s season of concert performances of lesser-known works by well-known composers, music director Stuart Stratford chose L’Enfant Prodigue, the young Debussy’s winning entry in the Paris Conservatoire’s Prix de Rome.

Strictly speaking, the piece is a scène lyrique in one act, describing the home-coming of the Prodigal Son through three characters – Lia the mother, Siméon the father and Azaël the son. For so early a piece by the composer, it is charming and remarkably effective.

After a shepherd’s pipe opens the piece, Claire Rutter ‘s opening air conveys the anguish of the mother still lamenting her absent son. Her husband (Ashley Holland) exhorts her to get over it and come to see the young folks enjoying themselves. The processional music for the invisible young people has a rather jaunty rhythm reminiscent of a camel train, befitting the Middle Eastern location, and overlaid with jolly dance music.

Meanwhile, a stranger arrives, and sings a lament about how he has missed all this – yes, it’s a rather tatterdemalion Azaël, gorgeously sung by Luis Gomes. But he is exhausted, and lies down at the roadside – in fact, Gomes stands with his eyes closed. When Lia comes back, she does not initially recognise him; when she does, Rutter shrieks most convincingly.

They duet, rejoicing in their re-discovery with a mixture of repentance and forgiveness. Then Siméon comes in – Holland is excellent at conveying the disbelief of the father, who probably really wants to believe his son has returned, but can’t quite ... It probably does not help that his wife is harassing him to forgive his son. When he does overcome his disbelief, he commands general rejoicing.
The father then starts a hymn to the Eternal One, to which mother and son add a refrain. It is rather foursquare, albeit with a fugal passage in the middle, but is sung with fervour.

The first half of the concert comprised Debussy’s Prélude de l’après-midi d’un faune, followed by incidental music by Sibelius for the Finnish premiere of Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas and Mélisande. In all three pieces, there was delicious playing from the orchestra of Scottish Opera, conducted by Stuart Stratford, who also introduced the pieces from the podium with almost boyish enthusiasm.