About the work
Chamber opera with prologue by Peter Maxwell Davies to his own libretto, first performed on 2 September 1980 at the Moray House Gymnasium in Edinburgh during the Edinburgh Festival, performed by the ensemble The Fires of London. The work is based on the real disappearance of three lighthouse keepers on the Scottish island of Eilean Mòr in December 1900.
Plot
In the prologue, three officers testify before a board of inquiry about finding the lighthouse deserted on their arrival. The same three singers then take on the roles of the missing keepers, whose final hours in the gathering fog are marked by mounting fear, memories of their past, and a vision of a threatening supernatural presence.
Cultural significance
For the opera's stark, oppressive sound world, Davies deliberately chose unfamiliar timbres such as guitar, crotales, a flexatone and a detuned piano to avoid the sound of a conventional orchestra. Thanks to its small cast of just three singers, The Lighthouse became one of Davies's most widely performed stage works, receiving more than 80 productions by the turn of the millennium.