THE performance could hardly be described as powerful or electrifying - but that was not the fault of the performers.
Few people could have stopped legendary Irish warrior Finn MacCool, until he came up against ScottishPower.
The premier of a Gaelic opera, Anturus, inspired by an episode in the legend of Finn MacCool, progressed no further than its opening chorus at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow on Saturday night, when the lights went out.
Emergency power kept the audience from being completely in the dark, but it was not sufficient to perform William Sweeney's opera.
A cable fault had put the area in darkness, and while Scottish-Power worked to repair the fault, the audience of 500 remained in its seats. But after half-an-hour the company, Paragon Ensemble, decided with temperatures dropping, to bring the curtain down on the whole sorry episode.
The cable fault was repaired an hour later.
Though members of the audience can claim their money back, it is hoped that Anturus - an updating of the story of Diarmad and Grainne, involving street gangs and drug pushers, with words by Aonghas Macneacail, writer in residence at Skye's Gaelic college - may yet have a Glasgow performance, possibly on Tuesday next week.
This, however, will depend on the company receiving a guarantee of the #9000 compensation it will need for the cancellation of Saturday's event.
Meanwhile, what was originally intended to be the work's second performance - at the Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, tonight - will become its premiere with Davies as conductor and a cast including Alan Oke, Wilma MacDougall, and Robin Greenway.
A spokesman for ScottishPower apologised for the inconvenience, and said he could understand the frustration of the cast and audience, but pointed out the fault was an unfortunate unpredictable incident.
ScottishPower does not offer compensation unless power has been disrupted for at least 24 hours.
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