It was a Burns’ Night to remember for the 70 Ayrshire primary children who drank in the pub, louped in the ruined kirk and went to the races at Ayr, all under the baton of Scottish Opera for All in the Magnum Theatre at Irvine.

The adventure started in Atlanta, Georgia, last July. Allan Wilson, the then arts minister and MSP for Cunninghame North, was talking to the World Burns Federation Conference, expressing a half-formed aspiration to find ways of making Scotland more proud of Burns. Hardly was he back home before the North Ayrshire and East Ayrshire councils’ arts teams were remembering the success of their recent partnership with SOFA over The Turn of the Tide and suggesting a similar venture.

The Scottish Executive could not but sign up to the scheme and in mid-October composer Karen MacIver and librettist Ross Stenhouse went to work on The Tale o’ Tam, an operatic version of Tam o’ Shanter. It was composed in the same helter-skelter way that it was performed: at “a wild gallop” was SOFA supremo Jane Davidson’s phrase.

As soon as the choruses were written, they were taped and despatched to the waiting chorus of North Ayrshire and of St John’s Primary in Stevenston and Kirkstyle Primary in Kilmarnock. In January, the children had two weekends of intensive workshops with SOFA director Elena Goodman, whose secret is that she can swiftly and comprehensively turn willing groups into compelling stage companies, bristling with energy and exactitude.

So it happened with The Tale o’ Tam, in the harmonious stage picture of Ayr market place, in the riotous gaiety of the ale house and desecrated nave and in the coup de theatre when the cry of “Weel done, Cutty Sark!” turns the devilish reel into a frantic day at the races. Wit and humour abound, with Ross Stenhouse poking sly and affectionate fun at the genre as well as giving a more contemporary angle on the narrative.

Given the urgency of the commission, Karen MacIver had the inspired choice of harp, violin and cello for her mini-orchestra. The players came from the Scottish Opera orchestra and the two principal singers from the Opera Chorus.

Tenor Paul Featherstone is almost a regular in such SOFA productions, but he is seldom asked for so much of his acting and dancing skills, having to bend double to dance a reel with a partner half his size, singing as he whirls “My love is but a lassie yet”.

The performance was finished in half an hour and all the audience wanted was for them to do it all over again. But that was held off until the following night, in the Palace Theatre, Kilmarnock, for another happy audience.

Alcohol abuse, Satanism, a hint of paedophilia - if it wasn’t opera, they would never get away with it.

Scottish Opera for All, tel 0141 332 9559