Born to a position of extreme power but personally ill-equipped to deal with the challenges, Mary Stuart was a tragic figure.
Her story is told in Mary Queen of Scots, a historical masque by Jonathan Cweorth performed by the Rare Byrds as part of ''Scots Rant'', an evening of early Scottish music for the Dunedin Celtic Arts Festival.
It's conceived as a section of a larger work about Renaissance queens he hopes to write, according to Cweorth, who also directs the show.
''I'd read about John Knox and his invective against female monarchs and I realised there were quite a few female rulers about the same time, despite all the obstacles that were in the way of women getting into power,'' he said.
Among them were Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth and Mary Tudor of England, and Catherine de Medici in France.
''Not only did they face all the same social and political upheavals their male counterparts faced, there were a whole series of other difficulties for females in that position of supreme power.
"It was interesting to see how differently each of those women negotiated those challenges and the degrees of success and failure.''
Mary, the daughter of James V of Scotland, became queen of Scotland while an infant, but spent most of her childhood in France as she was betrothed to Francis, the dauphin.
She led a charmed life, feted at the French court, the subject of encomiums and poetry in praise of her. However, Francis died about a year and a-half after their marriage and his coronation. She was about 16 at the time, Cweorth says.
''She was packed on a ship and bundled off to Scotland landing in the fog, and from then on things went downhill for her. She's a wonderful dramatic subject because of those contrasts in her life.''
John Knox, the Protestant reformer, would visit her and reduce her to tears, rebuking her for dancing and wearing fine clothes, which must have come as a shock after life at the French court. As a Catholic, she was a rallying figure for the faithful, who also wanted to see her on the throne of England, but she had to contend with the dour Protestant lords in Scotland who despised her, including her half-brother the Earl of Moray, Cweorth says.
Mary was unable to handle the politics of Scotland, made a couple of disastrous marriages, and was deposed in favour of her infant son, James VI.
She escaped to England to throw herself on her cousin Queen Elizabeth's mercy, and was imprisoned.
''If she'd been cannier about her dealings with Elizabeth and not threatening her throne ... it wasn't Elizabeth who wanted her dead anyway, it was Elizabeth's counsellors.
Elizabeth did everything she could to keep her alive, so Mary really did push her luck too far.''
That monarchs in those days lived on a knife edge between total power and total disaster fascinates Cweorth.
''There was no between, and I don't think we are used to living with those extremes. Psychologically, there was a kind of bravery in the face of total disaster that one does admire. People who can make jokes on the scaffold are pretty impressive. Death was a lot closer and life a lot more violent.''
Cweorth set his libretto to Scottish tunes of the period, an interesting writing challenge, trying to fit in with existing rhyme schemes and working in a period flavour, he says. He is delighted to have Dunedin soprano Ana Good playing Mary Stuart.
Good was educated in Auckland, went to Melbourne on a singing scholarship, but interrupted her singing career when she married and came to Dunedin in the 1970s.
However, she has since done a lot of singing with various groups and has explored a range of music, from Gaelic songs (three will be included in this concert), Sephardic and early Spanish music, and Romantic and modern works.
She founded the Lyric Trio with Joyce Whitehead and Rebecca Maurice, which performed around Dunedin and toured Otago.
Later, she was one of the founders of Panache, a group of 15 women performers and writers who performed a wide range of work, from Flowers like Rain, on the poetry of Ruth Dallas for the first Otago Festival of the Arts, to shows on Hildegarde of Bingen, Scott of the Antarctic, and collaborations with jewellers, designers, and several New Zealand composers.
She has performed pieces by Gillian Whitehead in unlikely places, such as on a beach to greet the new millennium, or on a boat in Oamaru harbour.
In 2008, she started singing with the early music group Rare Byrds, lead by Cweorth.
''Early music is what I most enjoy. It's a freer form of music. You just have the basics.
"You don't have composers breathing down your neck; it's less prescriptive.
"Nobody has any examples of early singers: instruments they have, and music, but not voices.
"Early music has so much colour, it was an escape from often dreadful lives,'' she says.
Good also loves the costumes and masques that Rare Byrds includes in its performances and concerts and is enjoying singing the lyrics Cweorth has written for the masque.
''They do what lyrics should do, they allow you to imagine a wider, deeper dimension to the character and allow the character to grow.''
Good says she didn't know a lot about Mary Queen of Scots but learning about the early French beginnings explained a lot to her.
''What interested me about her was when the end came and things became really tough, it was religion and her belief in Catholicism that she turned to.
''I find it quite easy to identify with those heady early days as a girl when the world was at her feet and she was the toast of the French court, then the harsh reality of ruling the Scottish nation.''
On a recent trip to Europe, Good visited Holyrood Palace and saw the cramped dark, cold quarters Mary occupied.
The austerity must have been so depressing and frightening, she says.
When she's not singing, Good manages Literacy Aotearoa in Dunedin and runs a bed and breakfast on Otago Peninsula.
Dunedin Celtic Arts Festival programme
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13
1pm: Celtic Shenanigans, Otago Museum
2pm: Scoil Clairseach Harp School, Otago Museum
4pm: Irish Sesuin, Inch Bar, Gardens corner
5pm: ''Celtic Spirit Artworks'', exhibition opening, Bellamy's Gallery, Macandrew Bay, featuring works by Ron Esplin, Chris O'Regan and Pauline Bellamy, runs until October 27
7.30pm: Festival opening, New Edinburgh Folk Club, Erin Street and friends, Pioneer Women's Hall, Moray Pl
MONDAY, OCTOBER 14
12.15pm: First Church daily Celtic service, Moray Pl. Daily until October 18.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15
8pm: Erin Street, Albar, Lower Stuart St
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 16
6pm: Liam McIlvanney book launch, University Book Shop
7.30pm: Rare Byrds, Scots Rant, Dunedin Gasworks Museum, Braemar St
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17
7pm: The Fox and the Dove, the story of St Columba, St Paul's Cathedral
7.30pm: Macbeth, Globe Theatre, London St, runs until October 26
FRIDAY OCTOBER 18
2pm: Celtic Connections at Toitu, guided tour
8pm: Enda Kenny and Lindsay Martin in concert, Knox Church
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19
10am: Lindsay Martin fiddle workshop, Northeast Valley Baptist Church hall1pm: Celtic knot drawing workshop, Toitu Otago Settlers Museum
2.30pm: Lecture: Prof Peter Kuch, ''The Irish and the Dunedin Stage in 1862'', Toitu Otago Settlers Museum
8pm: Town Hall Ceilidh, Dunedin Town Hall
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20
10am: Celtic worship service, Knox Church, George St
1pm: Irish Beat Dance and Music Show, Toitu, Otago Settlers Museum
3pm: Workshop of Early Settlers Dances, Toitu, Otago Settlers Museum
7.30pm: New Edinburgh Folk Club, festival closing featuring Jock Walton's Accordion Crimes, Pioneer Women's Hall, Moray Pl
For more information, go to www.dunedincelticarts.org.nz
See it
Scots Rant: Scottish Musick of the Renaissance and Baroque, featuring the premiere of Mary Queen of Scots, an historical masque, at Dunedin Gasworks Museum, Braemar St, Dunedin, on Wednesday, October 16, at 7.30pm.
Bookings from: ignatius@dunedinblog.co.nz.
