Want a crash course in the Scottish composer James MacMillan? Try this “sacred opera” from 1993. Here’s music of elemental power, rooted in old European harmonies and plainchant, but also infused with Eastern wisdom. Here is passion and pain, and a burning Roman Catholic faith, though the opera’s story also resonates as universal myth. MacMillan conducts Netherlands Radio forces in a vivid performance, softened only by the choir’s muted articulation. The splendid filler is the less aggressive Sun-Dogs.
(BIS; out now)