It was known as the isles at the end of the world.
Now St Kilda, the lonely archipelago whose last inhabitants were evacuated in 1930, is to be the focal point of a new £1m opera which will unite five European countries.
On June 22 and 23, St Kilda, A European Opera, will be performed simultaneously in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and in Studio Alba, in Stornoway.
The opera, which will feature music by Jean-Paul Dessy and David Graham and live and recorded footage from the islands, including spectacular film of dancers gyrating on ropes suspended from its famous high cliffs, has received significant funding from the European Commission and the Scottish Executive.
The executive has put up £100,000 while the maximum possible grant of £595,000 has come from the European Commission's culture fund - towards an overall budget of £1.35m. The cliff dance footage was performed by members of the French company Retouramont, and was shot by Keith Partridge, who helped film docu-drama Touching the Void. The shows will be linked by live satellite images from the islands to each of the participant countries.
Scotland's Gaelic arts agency, Proiseact nan Ealan (PNE), has led a consortium of arts companies to stage the opera, and there will be traditional Gaelic singers performing in each venue to a script and libretto by Iain Finlay Macleod.
In France the opera will be staged in Le Phenix, Valenciennes, in Belgium in Le Manege in Mons, the Theatre Kontrapunkt in Dusseldorf, Germany and Hallstatt in Austria. The performance will also be broadcast on the internet by the BBC.
The opera was launched last night at Scotland House in Brussels, Belgium.
Malcolm Maclean, of the PNE, said: "St Kilda's isolated location and unique cultural and natural heritage make it a wonderful subject.
"The simultaneous performances in five countries break new ground in creative collaboration, live theatre and the resurgence of the Gaelic arts.
"It also reminds us that the Celtic languages, such as Gaelic, were once heard all across Europe and retain a fascination for European audiences."
Mr Maclean said that although his prime focus was on getting the performances off the ground, the opera could be shown elsewhere in the future in different forms.
He added: "With some large venues in Europe, especially France and Germany, and the webcast, thousands of people will get to see the opera.
"The original idea was by a producer called Lew Bogdan, who was inspired by St Kilda and suggested we create a work of art around it. It sounded like a crazy idea but we believed it was the kind of craziness that should be encouraged. It will be a spectacular multi-media experience."
Mr Bogdan said: June will see the culmination of a dream I had five years ago. That dream has grown into this hugely ambitious work of major European significance, which has been fulfilled only through the hard work, dedication and joint working of our European partners."
Patricia Ferguson, Minister for Culture, said: "This innovative project will offer audiences across Europe an insight into a fascinating chapter in Scotland's history, which has been treated here to a fresh interpretation for theatregoers in the 21st century. St Kilda is a first for the Gaelic language and culture - a European opera, which will greatly increase the profile of the language at home and abroad and demonstrates that Gaelic has an important contribution to make to mainstream Scottish and European arts today."
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An Island's Story
- St Kilda lies 41 miles out into the Atlantic due west of the Hebrides
- It is Britain's only double Unesco World Heritage Site
- St kilda is the site of Europe's most important seabird colony with more than a million birds
- The last of its native human population was evacuated in 1930
- Simple stone tools found on Hirta, the main island, suggest Bronze Age travellers may have visited St Kilda from the Western Isles 4000 to 5000 years ago
- Norse occupation is confirmed by archaeological finds of brooches and vessels, and by the use of Norse place names such as Oiseval, the east hill, and Ruaival, the red hill
- At one time it was estimated that each person on St Kilda ate 115 fulmars every year. In 1876 it was said that the islanders took 89,600 puffins for food and feathers
- St Kilda was bequeathed to the National Trust for Scotland by the 5th Marquis of Bute in 1957
- Today, three organisations, the National Trust for Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the MoD, work together to take care of the islands
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