How important is it to create atmosphere before a show starts?
The Immortal Hour takes place in a spooky enchanted wood, and as the audience enters the Finborough is lit by very low green-and-blue lights. It certainly creates atmosphere, although it's mainly one of confusion, as people struggled to find an empty seat in the near-darkness
1, and one lady tried to sit down in the aisle next to me, falling over and needing me and one of the musicians to help her back to her feet. Still, the forest in Rutland Boughton and Fiona Macleod's operetta is a dangerous one, and how better to establish that than by crippling the audience? Macleod was, in fact, a man called William Sharp, and Fiona seems to have been a fully-fledged alter-ego rather than just a pen-name. The bio notes are a bit vague on whether Sharp actually left the house dressed as Fiona, but he seems to have convinced W.B. Yeats among others that he was two different people. Part of Fiona's persona was as an expert on Celtic mythology, which is what she brings to this libretto.
