Scotland's tragic queen: Louisa Petaï & Louis Mander's Eight Days evokes the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots at Tête à Tête

Eight Days: Louis Mander - Louisa Petaï - Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival at the Cockpit (Photo: Claire Shovelton)

Eight Days: Louis Mander, Louisa Petaï; Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival at the Cockpit
Reviewed 9 September 2026

An impressive achievement as Louis Mander's evocative and dark-toned music colours and shapes Louisa Petaï's remarkable incarnation of the tragic queen. 

When it comes to opera, composer Louis Mander is remarkably prolific: his latest, Eight Days is his fourteenth and I caught his operetta The Dowager's Oyster at Grimeborn way back in 2016 [see my review]. Eight Days is for soprano and chamber ensemble, with a libretto by Louisa Petaï who also sings the solo role. The opera debuted on 9 September 2026 at the Cockpit Theatre, as part of Tête à Tête. Louis Mander conducted with an ensemble featuring Kiana Umali Garvey (violin), Theadora Griffiths (viola), Max Chen (cello), Jack Cherry (double bass). And the work was produced by Cantata Dramatica.

Eight Days is a chamber piece with the title referring to the final eight days of Mary, Queen of Scots' life. Petaï's libretto is based on Mary's letters and the work is divided into short scenes each representing one of the days, and each having a particular theme - Mary's satirical embroidery of a cat and mouse (referring to her relationship with Elizabeth), a prayer for her son (King James VI of Scotland), her relations with her husbands (Lord Darnley and the Earl of Bothwell), and a final plea to her brother-in-law, Henri, King of France (Mary's first husband was Henri's elder brother).

The opera largely focuses on Petaï's voice, with her addressing us either singing or occasionally speaking. Added to this is a recorded soundtrack of her reading various letters and, sometimes, other voices. But what concerns the librettist and composer is not so much the outward drama of Mary's life as her inner turmoil. Her participation in the various plots against Elizabeth is touched on, but always from Mary's point of view, protesting her innocence. This is Mary very much as the tragic figure, the pawn in Elizabeth's game. The real Mary, perhaps requires a little more nuance and historical perspective.

Mander's music is tonal, and he uses his four instruments and an ever-changing and ever moving ensemble. A quartet featuring just one violin and a double bass alongside the cello means that there was often a dark tint to the music. I noticed that Mander rarely allowed the violin to really soar above Petaï's mezzo-soprano voice, there was a controlled mellowness to the sound world. Sometimes he evoked a consort of viols and I did wonder whether it might be profitable to rewrite the piece for voice and viols! 

The writing is melodic, though Mander uses evocative fragments and motifs rather than big tunes. The constantly shifting textures of the accompaniment moved through styles, from the aforementioned consort to folk and popular, evoking period rather than copying it. Occasionally, he thinned the textures down, and these moments were all the more telling, allowing focus on Petaï. 

Her part was a sort of continuous lyric arioso, melodic yet not quite memorable. A meandering lyric recitative fitting the texts of Mary's letters, and allowing space for Petaï to emote. A couple of moments veered into aria, the cat embroidery for one. The form rather mitigated against the idea, but I did rather wish for a couple of big, unrealistic arias!

As Mary, Petaï gave a remarkable performance and as a piece of drama she was completely compelling and believable. Petaï drew you into this woman's world, and you didn't care what she might or might not have done. However, a big problem for me was that this was a piece about Mary's words, the text from her letters, and Petaï's diction was just not adequate enough for me to apprehend the words fully (there were no surtitles). Occasionally, when instrumental textures thinned, things worked and showed us what we were missing.  

Overall this was an impressive achievement, with Mander's evocative and dark-toned music colouring and shaping Petaï's remarkable incarnation of the tragic queen. 

Eight Days: Louis Mander - Louisa Petaï
Tête à Tête (Photo: Claire Shovelton)

There is a further performance on 19 September 2026 at St Mary’s Church, Fotheringhay, the very location where Mary would have spent her last night before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle

Eight Days
Composer & Conductor: Louis Mander
Librettist & Producer: Louisa Petaï
Mary, Queen of Scots: Louisa Petaï
Voice Actor/Dramaturg/Sound Design: Kieran Rayner
Production Assistant: Olga Lavant
Production Assistant: Dominic Bujega-Lane
Costume: Natalia Zinkevych (Fiorentina Costuming)
Wig: Brandon Marchant
Make-up Consultant: Sara Sorrenti

Musicians
Violin: Kiana Umali Garvey
Viola: Theadora Griffiths
Cello: Max Chen
Double Bass: Jack Cherry

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