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If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Scottish Opera has some serious fans in South Africa.

The company's Five:15 project - which has been bringing together writers and musicians to create 15-minute operas - has been eyed up in a number of countries.

Cape Town has just finished hosting its own version (the slightly tailored Five:20 opera season) featuring, as the title suggests, five 20-minute operas by leading South African writers and composers.

In a nod to that inspiration, one of this year's Scottish contributions - Sublimation - a collaboration by composer Dr Nick Fells and author Zoe Strachan - was performed as part of the festival.

So far, the Scottish scheme has included contributions from Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Craig Armstrong, Ron Butlin, Bernard MacLaverty, Lyell Cresswell, Zinnie Harris and Louise Welch and sold out almost every performance.

It's attracted the attention of opera companies and festivals in Russia and Canada and, of course, in South Africa.

It comes at a difficult time for the company, which faces 4% cuts in its Scottish government funding, and potentially much more from local authority funding sources.

It's already lost its chorus and, earlier this year, began negotiations to make its orchestra part time too.

So it's a quieter, more subdued company which begins the build up to its 50th anniversary in the 2011/2012 season.

And while other countries may be singing the praises of Five:15, it'll be 2012 before Scottish audiences get another chance to see the project in action.