Three men in a lonely lighthouse disappear without a trace. What happened? In this tightly constructed 80-minute chamber opera (inspired by a historical incident), Peter Maxwell Davies dials the suspense to the max and then keeps going. A burly all-male trio of singing actors has huge opportunities, but the orchestra—a mere dozen players—is, shall we say, beyond instrumental in creating the ever-shifting atmospherics. For an immersive frisson, the Long Beach Opera is staging the piece at the Aquarium of the Pacific. —M.G.