IN a rare example of serious opera being premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and true to the festival spirit, Manifest Destiny tackles the most controversial current topic - the reasons for and motives behind suicide bombings.
The opera focuses on a young Palestinian poet's decision to become a bomber, and its aftermath.
As well as addressing the role of the US in the world, the conflict in the Middle East and the situation at Guantanamo Bay, its main female character, enraged by what she regards as injustice in her homeland and around the world, decides to end her life as a "martyr".
Dic Edwards, its author, yesterday admitted the work, with music by Keith Burstein, could prove controversial in the aftermath of the attacks in London, but said: "This is the first opera in existence to deal with these issues."
Manifest Destiny is at the St George's West venue run by the Assembly Theatre Company, from August 6 to 29.
Edwards and Burstein decided to make the opera after meeting through Artists Against the War, a group set up following the 9/11 attacks in the US and the conflict in Afghanistan.
Burstein is known for works which follow current affairs, writing a requiem for the victims of the Marchioness boat disaster on the Thames in 1989 and, in 1994, A Live Flame in honour of the late John Smith, MP, leader of the Labour party.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article