Davies, Maxwell: The Lighthouse

On a routine tour of duty in December 1900 the supply ship Hesperus discovered the Flannan Isles lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides to be empty, the three keepers apparently having disappeared into thin air. Peter Maxwell Davies’ haunting and thrilling chamber opera The Lighthouse is heard here in its classic première recording. It shows what might have become of the three men, marooned in their storm-bound tower and overwhelmed by ghostly visions and crazed desperation, creating a dramatic imagining of a story which remains a mystery to this day.