La bohème livestream concert programme

PUCCINI
LA BOHÈME

IRISH NATIONAL OPERA
PRINCIPAL FUNDER
GIACOMO PUCCINI 1858-1924
LA BOHÈME
1896
CORPORATE
PARTNER
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BORD GÁIS ENERGY THEATRE
OPERA IN FOUR ACTS
Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica after Henry Murger’s book
Scènes de la vie de bohème.
First performance, Teatro Regio, Turin, 1 February 1896.
First Irish performance, in English, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, 25 August 1897.
SUNG IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes, including 20 minute interval after Act II.
A separate studio recording is being made for future release.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Ronan O’Reilly and all at the Artane School of Music, Stephen
Faloon, Claire Whelan and all at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.
Gavin Quinn, Aedín Cosgrove and Pan Pan Theatre.
PERFORMANCE 2021
Livestream from Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin
Saturday 13 March
03

SYNOPSIS
The opera is based
on Henry Murger’s
Scènes de la vie de
bohème (Scenes of
Bohemian Life) and
depicts life in the
Latin quarter in Paris
around 1830.
ACT I
We find ourselves in a garret where the artist Marcello is painting a
picture while Rodolfo, a poet, is busy on the last act of his new drama.
It is very cold and as they have no fire they use the manuscript of
Rodolfo’s play for fuel. The unexpected happens. After Colline,
a philosopher, arrives with books he hasn’t been able to sell, he
is followed by the musician Schaunard, who brings home food
and wine and relates the story of his good fortune. The others are
too hungry to listen, but just go on eating and drinking. They are
interrupted by a knock at the door. It is the landlord Benoît, who is
calling to collect the rent. The bohemians sit him down and ply him
with enough drink to get him drunk. He tells them about some of his
amorous episodes, and when he incidentally remarks that he is a
married man, they fake indignation and throw him out. The quartet
decide to spend the rent money on dinner at the neighbourhood’s
Café Momus. Three of them head off while Rodolfo remains to put
the finishing touches to his drama. He makes little progress, and
indeed is rather glad to find his work interrupted by the entrance
of the seamstress Mimì, a neighbour, whose candle blew out as
she was going upstairs. Rodolfo lights it and she goes off, only to
return again, saying she has forgotten her key. Then both candles
go out, and the pair stumble against one another in their search
for it. Rodolfo finds the key and conceals it in his pocket so they
can spend more time together. They start sharing parts of their
life-stories. From outside they hear the voices of Rodolfo’s friends
calling. The two, who have fallen for each other, decide to go
together to the café. They leave, declaring their everlasting love.
ACT II
We are brought to the Café Momus, which is situated in a busy street.
There is a great crowd of people, buying and selling. The bohemians
are enjoying the good things provided by the café. Musetta, an old
flame of Marcello’s, arrives with her latest
conquest, Alcindoro, a rich, elderly sugardaddy.
After several vain attempts to attract
Marcello’s attention, she pretends to suffer from
the effects of a tight shoe, and while her new
admirer is away at the shoe-makers to have the
shoe stretched, Musetta and Marcello become
reconciled. When the time comes to pay the bill
they realise that that Schaunard’s money is all
gone. Musetta solves the problem by leaving
her rich admirer to settle it. They all traipse off
following a band which is passing down the
street. After they’re gone, the old man arrives
back with Musetta’s shoe. The waiter hands him
the bill. Alcindoro is staggered by the amount.
ACT III
We are at a toll gate on the Orléans road into
Paris. It is early morning and the pedlars are
arriving, each declaring to the guards the
contents of their baskets. The snow is falling,
covering the steps of the little tavern where
Marcello has been hired to paint signs for the
innkeeper. Rodolfo is staying at the inn, but
the course of his love for Mimì has not run
smoothly, and they broke up the previous night.
Mimì comes to see him, and, encountering
Marcello, tells him of her troubles. As they talk
Rodolfo is heard approaching from the inn.
Mimì conceals herself behind a tree. Rodolfo
tells Marcello he wants a separation from Mimì.
But he gets no sympathy from his friend, who
instead upbraids him for stubbornness and
bad temper. Rodolfo then seeks to explain
his conduct by revealing the fact that Mimì
is too delicate, and, in fact, is dying from
consumption. The unfortunate Mimì overhears
all this and her coughing betrays her presence.
Rodolfo is stricken with remorse and pity,
and although the lovers patch things up, they
agree they will part in the spring. Musetta, in
the meantime, has another violent quarrel with
Marcello and leaves him in anger.
ACT IV
We are back in the garret in the Latin quarter.
Again we see Marcello seeming to paint and
Rodolfo seeming to write poetry. They are both
out of sorts, so when Schaunard and Colline
arrive with the dinner, they are glad of an
excuse to abandon all pretence of work. The
four engage in a burlesque of a great banquet,
and when their fun is at its climax, Musetta
and Mimì appear in the doorway. Mimi,
who had taken a new lover, some well-to-do
individual, has left him to return to spend her
last moments with Rodolfo. Her disease has
left her with scarcely strength enough to climb
the stairs. They assist her to bed, and when
Rodolfo and Mimì are left alone they recall
their past happiness. Gradually Mimì sinks
and dies in the arms of her lover.
Adapted from Irish composer Harold R White’s
Stories of the Operas, printed for the Carl Rosa Opera
Company, the company which gave the Irish premiere
of La bohème in 1897.
04
05

A YEAR OF REINVENTION
FERGUS SHEIL
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
DIEGO FASCIATI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
We’re delighted to welcome you to our socially-distanced concert
performance of Puccini’s La bohème with our regular partners at
Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. We had originally planned a fully-staged
production by director Orpha Phelan and designer Nicky Shaw,
the team who brought us such a magical vision of Rossini’s La
Cenerentola in November 2019. Circumstances don’t allow this just
now, although we will return to it later. Instead we have kept the cast
together to bring you tonight’s livestreamed concert performance.
The performance has involved exceptionally meticulous preparation.
It could only have been achieved in a large venue like Bord Gáis
Energy Theatre. We have the orchestra on the stage (everybody a
minimum of two meters from each other), the chorus in the stalls
(distanced from each other and the stage), the children’s choir in
the circle, and the marching band for the second act occupying
two boxes within the theatre. Singers who travelled from abroad
were quarantined and tested, performers were kept apart by using
different entrances and exits to the theatre. Everyone and everywhere
was regularly sanitised, and even toilets were strictly allocated.
The act of coming together to make music was only possible by
making sure nobody could come close to anybody else.
It’s just 12 months since our daily lives became dominated by the
effort of dealing with the pandemic. For many of us it’s been a year
like none other in terms of lost loved ones, disrupted livelihoods,
and unparalleled separation and isolation. Cultural life, too, was
hit early and hard and, like other arts organisations, Irish National
Opera has had to cancel everything that was originally planned
for performance since March 2020. And we’re still facing an
immediate future in which uncertainty remains the only certainty.
Yet for INO the past year turned out to be a time of busy reinvention,
of feverish behind the scenes activity, of planning with ever-shifting
sands, and of projects that have had to be continually adapted to
the unpredictability of the world in which we have been living.
Last March, the speedy and supportive intervention of the
Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon meant that, unlike some
long-established international companies, we were able to pay
cancellation fees to the artists that had been rehearsing our
production of Bizet’s Carmen. Happily, that production is not lost.
It is currently rescheduled for our next season.
Early in the pandemic, we turned our focus to a series of online
concerts, Friday Opera Sessions, in partnership with Insituto
Italiano di Cultura, Dublino. Singers and pianists made recordings
remotely in their own homes, an undertaking that turned out to
be a logistical and artistic challenge beyond what anyone had
imagined in advance. But it all helped keep a sense of operatic
community in a difficult time.
We could not perform Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio,
but we reimagined the opera as an innovative eight-part online
mini-series, Seraglio. It was mini only in the sense that it consisted
of excerpts. Seraglio employed a full cast, the Irish National Opera
Chorus and the Irish Chamber Orchestra – 55 artists, all making
recordings in their own homes. Later in the year we managed to
livestream a concert performance of this remarkable score from
the National Opera House, Wexford.
The optimism of the summer allowed us to hope we could
bounce back in September and present our 2019 world premiere
06
07

production of Brian Irvine and Netia Jones’s Least Like The Other.
Brian and Netia’s opera, performed by a single singer and three
actors, is a technical tour-de-force. It created a real buzz at its
premiere at the Galway International Arts Festival, and we are
longing to share it more widely with audiences. We rehearsed up
to dress rehearsal for performances at the Dublin Theatre Festival
last year, but eventually could not perform. We did, however, make
a ground-breaking new version of the piece with pre-recorded
orchestra and hi-tech 16-channel surround sound, and we also
filmed the work for a future installation version. We will share this
remarkable opera with you at the earliest opportunity.
Our November 2020 production of Rossini’s epic William Tell – the
first in Dublin since 1877 – is now also rescheduled to a future
season. In its place we pivoted to another project, one no less
ambitious although artistically completely different. Within the
span of six months we commissioned 20 Shots of Opera, 20 new
short operas, rehearsed, recorded, filmed, edited and released
them online. We engaged an enormous community of talent –
over 160 individuals – with everyone working in very small groups
in controlled environments. These short operas attracted huge
national and international acclaim, including a five-star review from
The Observer. We are grateful to all the artists and technicians who
collaborated with us to realise this project so imaginatively. And we
thank the many generous donors who further supported us last year
by commissioning some of the works.
For the moment, all of our work has to take place online. This
includes everything from coaching sessions for the artists in our
ABL Aviation Opera Studio to writing and design workshops for
participants in Out of the Ordinary, our community virtual reality
opera, which has been shortlisted for a 2021 Fedora Digital Prize.
We will announce new projects and productions for the first part of
the year shortly, and our hope is that health regulations will allow
us to present live performances to live audiences in the second
half of this year.
We have not been working alone. We applaud the extraordinary
achievements of the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht,
Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, on behalf of the arts sector.
Her efforts to save, protect and support the arts have been both
timely and far-sighted. The Arts Council is our principal funder.
We are grateful not only for the council’s financial investment but
also for all the guidance, support, flexibility and understanding it
has provided since the very start of the pandemic. Finally, a thank
you to our donors who continue to support the cause of opera
in Ireland with their generous donations, and to all those who
continue to send us messages of support and encouragement.
Your generosity makes a world of difference.
We hope you enjoy Celine Byrne’s first time to sing Mimì – her
favourite role – with an Irish opera company every bit as much as
we have enjoyed bringing her performance to you.
In the final months of the year we also managed to livestream a
series of concerts from historic buildings in collaboration with the
Office of Public Works. These featured three of our top artists –
mezzo-sopranos Sharon Carty, Tara Erraught and Paula Murrihy.
FERGUS SHEIL
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
DIEGO FASCIATI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
08
09

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Dominica Williams, Javier Ferrer & Sophia Preidel in INO, United Fall 7 Galway International
Arts Festival’s production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, July 2018. Photo by Pat Redmond.
10
23 11

CAST IN ORDER OF SINGING
Marcello David Bizic Baritone
a painter
Rodolfo Merūnas Vitulskis Tenor
a poet
Colline John Molloy Bass
a philosopher
Schaunard Ben McAteer Baritone
a musician
Benoît Eddie Wade Baritone
their landlord
Alcindoro Eddie Wade Bass
a state councillor and Musetta’s admirer
Mimì Celine Byrne Soprano
a seamstress
Musetta Anna Devin Soprano
a grisette
Parpignol Fearghal Curtis Tenor
an itinerant toy vendor
Doganiere David Howes Bass-Baritone
a customs official
Sergente Rory Dunne Bass-Baritone
a customs sergeant
COVERS
CREATIVE TEAM
Conductor
Production & Lighting Designer
Assistant Conductor & Chorus Director
Répétiteur
Assistant Répétiteur
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA CHORUS
Soprano
Lorna Breen
Rheanne Breen
Kelli-Ann Masterson
Maria Matthews
Muireann Mulrooney
Lauren Scully
Mezzo-sopranos
Margaret Bridge
Madeline Judge
Aebh Kelly
Sarah Kilcoyne
Bríd Ní Ghruagáin
Katie Richardson
McCrea
Sergio Alapont
Sinéad McKenna
Elaine Kelly
Aoife O’Sullivan
Luke Lally Maguire
Tenor
Ciarán Crangle
Fearghal Curtis
Keith Kearns
Philip Keegan
Richard Shaffrey
Jacek Wislocki
CHILDREN’S CHORUS INDEPENDENT THEATRE WORKSHOP
Iñaki Calvo
Kate Carbery
Catherine Coll
Saibh Collier
Genevieve Costello
Doherty
Amy Deane
Tom Egan (soloist)
Lexi Forde
Emma Griffin
Priya Hobson
Joya Hobson
Aibhin Hughes
Elijah Kenny
Katie Alma Lynch
Lucy Mahon
Ellen McAuliffe
Tess Mullarkey
Bass
Desmond Capliss
Rory Dunne
Jakob Mahase
Matthew Mannion
Kevin Neville
Fionn Ó hAlmhain
Ruby Mulligan
Arthur Peregrine
Eve Traynor
Mimì Rachel Goode Soprano
Musetta Kelli-Ann Masterson Soprano
Colline David Howes Bass-Baritone
12
13

IRISH NATIONAL OPERA ORCHESTRA
STAGE BAND
First Violin
Sarah Sew (leader)
Lidia Jewloszewicz-Clarke
David O’Doherty
Siún Milne
Emily Thyne
Anita Vedres
Jane Hackett
Cliodhna Ryan
Maria Ryan
Cillian Ó Breacháin
Second Violin
Larissa O’Grady
Aoife Dowdall
Christopher Quaid
Christine Kenny
Justyna Dabek
Katie O’Connor
Rachel Du
Robert Mahon
Violas
Adele Johnson
John Murphy
Lisa Dowdall
Nathan Sherman
Karen Dervan
Anna Gioria
Cellos
Ailbhe McDonagh
Yue Tang
Yseult Cooper-Stockdale
Aoife Burke
Paula Hughes
Alona Kliuchka
Double basses
Dominic Dudley
Aura Stone
Maeve Sheil
Paul Stephens
Flutes
Susan Doyle
Lina Andonovska
Piccolo
Kieran Moynihan
Oboes
Suzie Thorn
Jenny Magee
Cor Anglais
David Agnew
Clarinet
Conor Sheil
Suzanne Brennan
Bass Clarinet
Deirdre O’Leary
Bassoons
Ates Kirkan
Clíona Warren
Horns
Liam Duffy
Hannah Miller
Jacqueline McCarthy
Peter Mullen
Trumpets
Niall O’Sullivan
Charles Cavanagh
Eoghan Cooke
Trombones
Ross Lyness
James Doherty
Niall Kelly
Bass Trombone
Paul Frost
Timpani
Alex Petcu
Percussion
Richard O’Donnell
Maeve O’Hara
Caitríona Frost
Brian Dungan
Harp
Dianne Marshall
Piccolo
Naoise Ó Briain
Katie Hyland
PRODUCTION TEAM
Production Manager
Rob Usher
Stage Managers
Sophie Flynn
Stephanie Ryan
Deputy Stage Manager
Anne Kyle
Technical Stage Manager
Adrian Leake
Italian Coach
Annalisa Monticelli
Audio Production
Ergodos
Audio Recording Engineer
Simon Cullen
ADDITIONAL THANKS
Photography
Shane McCarty
Ros Kavanagh
Trumpet
Darren Moore
Glen Carr
Broadcast Facilities
Streamcast
Broadcast Director
Bob Corkey
Stream Production
Seismic Events
Lighting Programmer
Eoin McNinch
Chief Electrician
Simon Burke
Stage Crew
Sean Dennehy
Grace Halton
Richard Lambert
Gus McDonagh
Davey Carpenter
Promotional Video
Mark Cantan
Gansee Films
Graphic Design
Alphabet Soup
Snare Drum
Rónán Scarlett
Kevin Corcoran
Chaperone
Gillian Oman
Children’s Chorus Assistants
Clarice Makarevitch
Tara Rice
Subtitles Operator
Conleth Stanley
Subtitles Translation
Simon Rees
Programme edited by
Michael Dervan
Ticketing
DICE
14
15

BIOGRAPHIES
SERGIO ALAPONT
CONDUCTOR
SINÉAD McKENNA
PRODUCTION
& LIGHTING DESIGNER
ELAINE KELLY
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
& CHORUS DIRECTOR
AOIFE O’SULLIVAN
RÉPÉTITEUR
Spanish-born Sergio Alapont
is noted for his passionate and
inspirational conducting. He
divides his work evenly between
symphonic and operatic and enjoys
a successful career in concert and
in the opera house. Orchestras he has conducted
include Orquestra Sinfònica de Barcelona i Nacional
de Catalunya, Bilbao Symphony, Copenhagen
Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia,
Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Orquesta de
València, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Orchestra
della Toscana, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali,
Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and Royal
Scottish National Orchestra. Other recent highlights
include Lehár’s The Merry Widow at Fondazione
Arena di Verona, Mozart’s Idomeneo at Opéra
national du Rhin in Strasbourg, Mascagni’s Cavalleria
rusticana at the Illica Festival, Bellini’s Norma in
Ferrara and Treviso, Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia
at Den Norske Opera in Oslo, Verdi’s Attila at Teatro
Massimo Bellini of Catania, Cagnoni’s Don Bucefalo
at Wexford Festival Opera, Rota’s Il cappello di paglia
di Firenze at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
and Wexford, Donizetti’s Poliuto at Teatro Nacional
de São Carlos of Lisbon, Martín y Soler’s Una cosa
rara at Palau de Les Arts in Valencia and Puccini’s La
rondine at Minnesota Opera. He studied in Valencia,
Madrid and Munich before continuing his training
with Donato Renzetti at the Conservatory of Music in
Pescara. He also studied with Jorma Panula, Helmuth
Rilling, Marco Armiliato, Semyon Bychkov and
Antonio Pappano. He won the Best Conductor Award
at the GBOscars in 2016 and is making his INO debut
in La bohème.
Sinéad McKenna has received two
Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards for
Best Lighting Design and a Drama
Desk nomination for Outstanding
Lighting Design for a Musical. She
previously designed Offenbach’s
The Tales of Hoffman and Vivaldi’s Griselda for Irish
National Opera. Other designs for opera and music
include Mozart’s Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute and
The Marriage of Figaro (Opera Theatre Company);
Verdi’s La traviata (Malmö Opera); Britten’s The Rape
of Lucretia (Irish Youth Opera) and A Midsummer
Night’s Dream (Opera Ireland); The Wizard of Oz and
Prodijig (Cork Opera House) and Angela’s Ashes: the
Musical. Film and TV credits include Grace Jones:
Bloodlight and Bami (Blinder Films), Bovinity (Tommy
Tiernan) and Fitting In (Des Bishop), among others.
She recently designed the set and lighting for Mark
O’Rowe’s The Approach (Landmark Productions) and
has designed lighting for numerous other Landmark
productions. She has worked extensively with Druid
Theatre, the Abbey Theatre, the Gate Theatre, West
Yorkshire Playhouse, Dundee Rep, Cork Opera
House, The Everyman, Cork, Rough Magic, Cahoots,
CoisCéim Dance Theatre, Decadent Theatre, Gare St
Lazare Ireland, Lyric Theatre, Belfast, Fishamble, The
Corn Exchange, THISISPOPBABY, Siren Productions,
Second Age, The Performance Corporation, Semper
Fi and Gúna Nua.
Elaine Kelly is a multi-awardwinning
choral and orchestral
conductor based in Ireland. She
is the ABL Aviation Opera Studio
conductor for the 2019-20 season
during which she is assistant
conductor and chorus director for INO productions.
She is currently the conductor of the University of
Limerick Orchestra, and musical director to the
highly-successful choir, Cantate. She was musical
director of the Dublin Symphony Orchestra from
2017-19. In 2014 she won first prize in the inaugural
ESB Feis Ceoil Orchestral Conducting Competition.
In concert, she has conducted the RTÉ Concert
Orchestra, Cork Concert Orchestra, CSM Symphony
Orchestra, Cork Fleischmann Orchestra and
the Fleischmann Choir. She was also assistant
conductor for Opera Collective Ireland’s production
of Handel’s Agrippina with the Irish Chamber
Orchestra, in association with Northern Ireland
Opera. She is a graduate of the CIT Cork School of
Music (CSM). She completed her BMus Degree in
2011 and continued her studies in CSM, achieving a
First Class Honours Masters Degree in Conducting.
Aoife O’Sullivan was born in Dublin
and studied at the College of Music
with Frank Heneghan and later at
the RIAM with John O’Conor. She
graduated from Trinity College
Dublin with an honours degree in
music. In September 1999 she began her studies
as a Fulbright scholar at the Curtis Institute of Music
and in 2001 she joined the staff there for her final two
years. She was awarded the Geoffrey Parsons Trust
Award for accompaniment of singers in 2005. She
has worked on the music staff at Wexford Festival
Opera, and on three Handel operas for Opera Theatre
Company, Orlando, Xerxes, and Alcina, and for Opera
Ireland on Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and
Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also
worked at the National Opera Studio in London and
was on the deputy coach list for the Jette Parker
Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House
Covent Garden. She has played for masterclasses
including those given by Malcolm Martineau, Ann
Murray, Thomas Allen, Thomas Hampson and Anna
Moffo. She worked on Mozart’s Zaide at the Britten
Pears Young Artist Programme and on Britten’s
Turn of the Screw for the Cheltenham Festival with
Paul Kildea. She has appeared at the Wigmore Hall
in concerts with Ann Murray (chamber versions of
Mahler and Berg), Gweneth Ann Jeffers, Wendy Dawn
Thompson and Sinéad Campbell Wallace. She is now
based in Dublin where she works as a répétiteur and
vocal coach at TU Dublin Conservatoire and also
regularly for INO.
16
17

BIOGRAPHIES
LUKE LALLY MAGUIRE
ASSISTANT RÉPÉTITEUR
CELINE BYRNE
SOPRANO
MIMÌ
ANNA DEVIN
SOPRANO
MUSETTA
MERŪNAS VITULSKIS
TENOR
RODOLFO
Dublin-born pianist Luke Lally
Maguire, who is a current member
of Irish National Opera’s ABL
Aviation Opera Studio, began
playing piano at the age of thirteen.
In September 2020, he graduated
with a First Class Honours in the Bachelor of Music
performance degree from TU Dublin Conservatoire
(formerly DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama)
where he studied piano under Mary Lennon. He has
also taken part in piano masterclasses and lessons
with Christopher Elton, Barry Douglas, Vanessa
Latarche, Simon Trpčeski, Leon McCawley, Hilary
Coates and Thérèse Fahy. He is an experienced
performer and a multiple prize-winner for both solo
and collaborative performance in major Irish national
competitions and festivals including Feis Ceoil and
Sligo Feis Ceoil where, in 2019, he was awarded the
€1,000 Piano Bursary sponsored by Eileen and Ray
Monahan. He is in demand as a vocal accompanist
and his keen interest in vocal performance has led
to him performing in vocal masterclasses with Orla
Boylan, Patricia Bardon and Julian Hubbard. In 2019
he acted as répétiteur and harpsichordist for TU
Dublin Conservatoire’s production of Purcell’s Dido
and Aeneas. He is passionate about piano pedagogy
and currently teaches piano in the Newpark Academy
of Music, Blackrock.
Celine Byrne, who won First Prize
and gold medal at the Maria
Callas International Grand Prix in
Athens in 2007, is an INO Artistic
Partner and made her company
debut in the title role of Puccini’s
Madama Butterfly in 2019. Recent performances
include Magda in Puccini’s La rondine (Minnesota
Opera), Madama Butterfly (Staatstheater Kassel), Die
Marschallin in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier (Santiago),
Marietta/Marie in Korngold’s Die tote Stadt (RTÉ
NSO), Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Israeli
Opera), the title role in Puccini’s Tosca (Mikhailovsky
Opera, St Petersburg), Liù in Puccini’s Turandot (Oper
Leipzig and Deutsche Oper am Rhein), Elisabeth in
Verdi’s Don Carlo (Deutsche Oper am Rhein) and
Mimì in La bohéme (Hamburg State Opera). She
made her operatic debut as Mimì with Scottish Opera
in 2010. She made her debut at the Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden, in Dvořák’s Rusalka in 2012,
taking over the role at short notice. She returned to
sing First Flower Maiden in Wagner’s Parsifal followed
by Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen and was due to perform
Liù in Turandot. Engagements lost due to the Covid-19
pandemic include her debut at the Opéra national
de Paris, Mimì in La bohème) with Opera Hong Kong
and concert appearances in Bangkok with Marcello
Alvarez and several concerts with José Carreras, with
whom she performs regularly. Future engagements
include Liù in Turandot (Oper im Steinbruch at St
Margarethen), Madama Butterfly (Bregenz Festival)
and Micaëla in Carmen (INO).
Irish soprano Anna Devin is widely
admired for her “impeccable
Baroque style” (Bachtrack), “vocal
control...artistry and musicodramatic
intelligence” (Opera
News) and as “an ideal interpreter
of Handel’s ‘sex-kitten’ roles” (Opera magazine).
The 2019-20 season saw her perform Almirena in
Handel’s Rinaldo with Glyndebourne on Tour and
Michal in Handel’s Saul in the Théâtre du Châtelet
in Paris. She also sang Handel’s Gloria with the
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and returned to
Zurich Opera House for a gala concert of works by
Zelenka with La Scintilla and Riccardo Minasi. House
debuts in 2017-18 included Madrid’s Teatro Real (as
Celia in Mozart’s Lucio Silla) and Händel-Festspiele
Karlsruhe (in the title role of Handel’s Semele ). She
has also sung at the Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden, La Scala, Milan, Welsh National Opera,
Scottish Opera, Opera Collective Ireland, the Handel
Festival in Göttingen, Early Opera Company and
Mozartwoche Salzburg. Her appearance as Clotilde
in Handel’s Faramondo for Brisbane Baroque earned
her the Best Supporting Singer in an Opera at the
2015 Helpmann Awards, Australia. Orchestras she
has worked with include the Vienna Philharmonic,
Hallé, RTÉ NSO, Ulster and Minnesota orchestras
and Houston, Charlotte and Seattle symphonies. She
has given masterclasses at the Royal Irish Academy
of Music and coached at the Royal Academy Opera
Course, London. In addition to her work on stage, she
is an Ambassador for the British Dyslexia Association.
She made her INO debut in 2019 as Pamina in
Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
Merūnas Vitulskis is considered
one of the most charismatic and
versatile Lithuanian singers of his
generation. Recent and upcoming
engagements include Pinkerton
in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly
(Lithuanian National Opera, Staatstheater Kassel,
Opera North, Opéra de Lille, Ópera de Oviedo),
Alfredo in Verdi’s La travaita (Lithuanian National
Opera, Teatro di San Carlo, Naples), Rodolfo in
Puccini’s La bohème, Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene
Onegin (Lithuanian National Opera), and Cavaradossi
in Puccini’s Tosca (Vilnius City Opera). He has also
appeared with ABAO Bilbao Opera, St Margarethen
Summer Festival and Teatro Verdi, Trieste, as
Alfredo; Theater Klagenfurt as Macduff in Verdi’s
Macbeth; and Oper Graz and Aalto Theater Essen
as Rodolfo. He graduated from Kaunas Vaizganto
high school where he had already begun to sing in
the seventh grade, encouraged by music teacher
Giedre Druskienės. He developed his musical skills
at Gruodis Conservatory (2004-6) and continued
his studies and graduated at the Music Academy
with the vocal teacher Ohn Antanavicius. He has
had great success in singing competitions, winning
the first prize at the Stasys Baras Competition for
Singers (2009), a diploma at the 19th international
Societa Umanitaria Competition in Milan and the
first prize at the Zenonas Paulauskas Competition for
Young Singers. He sang his many of his major roles
for the first time at the Lithuanian National Opera,
where he worked as soloist from 2010, and he made
his international operatic debut as Sir Hervey in
Donizetti’s Anna Bolena at St Moritz in Switzerland.
He makes his INO debut in La bohème.
18
19

BIOGRAPHIES
DAVID BIZIC
BARITONE
MARCELLO
BEN McATEER
BARITONE
SCHAUNARD
JOHN MOLLOY
BASS
COLLINE
EDDIE WADE
BARITONE
BENOÎT, ALCINDORO
Serbian baritone David Bizic
studied at the opera studio of Israeli
Opera and won second prize at the
prestigious 2007 Plácido Domingo
Operalia Competition. He made his
debut at the Metropolitan Opera
in New York in 2014, singing Albert in Massenet’s
Werther alongside Jonas Kaufmann and Sophie Koch,
and reprised the role the following season. He also
returned to New York as Marcello in Puccini’s La
bohème, to Toulon as Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir
d’amore, sang Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen in Dijon
and made his Italian debut in the same role at the
Macareta Festival. He has also sung Sharpless in
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in New York, the title role
in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in Metz and Reims,
Enrico in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in Toulon,
Lescaut in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in Barcelona
and Escamillo in Carmen in Tel-Aviv. Praised for his
interpretation of Mozart, he has sung the title role
in Le nozze di Figaro (Angers, Nantes, Strasbourg,
Toulon, Monte-Carlo, Bordeaux, Geneva, Gent),
Publio in La clemenza di Tito (Avignon, Strasbourg,
Montpellier), Masetto in Don Giovanni (Paris, Aixen-Provence
Festival, Madrid), Leporello in Don
Giovanni (Toulouse, Rennes, Montpellier, Moscow,
Berlin, Valencia, Paris, Los Angeles, Chicago, Vienna),
the title role in Don Giovanni (Maribor, Rouen) and Il
Conte Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro (Saint-Étienne).
Concert appearances include Fauré’s Requiem,
Schubert’s Mass in A-flat, Haydn’s Nelson Mass,
Falla’s La vida breve, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony,
and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem. He makes his
INO debut in La bohème.
Northern Irish baritone Ben
McAteer trained at the National
Opera Studio, London, and on the
Guildhall School of Music & Drama
opera course. Before embarking
on a musical career, he studied
chemistry at the University of St Andrews. Recent
operatic highlights include Eisenstein in Johann
Strauss’s Die Fledermaus and Marullo in Verdi’s
Rigoletto for Northern Ireland Opera, Marcello in
Puccini’s La bohème for Lyric Opera Productions,
Fritz/Pierrot in a concert performance of Korngold’s
Die tote Stadt for the RTÉ NSO, Earl of Mountararat
in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe at English National
Opera, Count Almaviva in Mozart’s The Marriage
of Figaro and Father in Humperdinck’s Hansel
and Gretel for INO, Father in Hansel and Gretel for
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Pangloss & Voltaire
in Bernstein’s Candide for West Green Opera and
the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra, and Grand Inquisitor
in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers for Scottish
Opera. For Scottish Opera he also created the role of
James in Stuart MacRae’s The Devil Inside, for which
he won Outstanding Performance in an Opera at the
My Theatre Awards in Toronto. He also sang the title
role in Le nozze di Figaro and toured as Guglielmo
in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte and Pish-Tush in Gilbert &
Sullivan’s The Mikado. Notable concert performances
include the world première of Mark-Anthony
Turnage’s At Sixes and Sevens with the London
Symphony Orchestra, Orff’s Carmina Burana at the
Barbican, and performances of Vaughan Williams’
Fantasia on Christmas Carols and Copland’s Old
American Songs with the Ulster Orchestra.
John Molloy is one of Ireland’s
leading basses and hails from Birr.
He studied at the DIT Conservatory
of Music and Drama, the Royal
Northern College of Music in
Manchester and the National
Opera Studio in London. He made his Irish National
Opera debut in 2018 as Antonio in Mozart’s The
Marriage of Figaro. Roles he has undertaken for Opera
Theatre Company include Sparafucile in Verdi’s
Rigoletto, Trinity Moses in Weill’s Mahagonny, the
title role in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Zuniga
in Bizet’s Carmen and he also appeared in Stephen
Deazley’s children’s opera BUG OFF!!! Other roles
include Alidoro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Scottish
Opera), Guccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (Royal
Opera House, London), Masetto in Mozart’s Don
Giovanni (English National Opera), Arthur in Peter
Maxwell Davies’s The Lighthouse and Figaro in
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (Nationale Reisopera,
Netherlands), Le Commandeur in Thomas’s La cour
de Célimène (Wexford Festival Opera), Angelotti in
Puccini’s Tosca, Luka in Walton’s The Bear, Banco in
Verdi’s Macbeth and Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’elisir
d’amore (OTC and NI Opera), Raimondo in Donizetti’s
Lucia di Lammermoor (Opera Holland Park), Leporello
in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Sarastro in Mozart’s Die
Zauberflöte, Bonze in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly
(Lyric Opera Productions), Snug in Britten’s A
Midsummer Nights Dream (Opera Ireland) and Henry
Kissinger in John Adams’s Nixon in China (Wide Open
Opera). Concert repertoire he has sung internationally
includes Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Verdi’s
Requiem, Mendelssohn’s St Paul, Haydn’s Creation,
Handel’s Messiah and Stravinsky’s Renard.
British baritone Eddie Wade
studied in London at the Guildhall
School of Music and Drama, and
the National Opera Studio. He was
awarded both First Prize and the
Verdi/Wagner Prize at the National
Mozart Competition in 1996, and in the same season
made his Royal OperaHouse debut as the Mandarin in
Puccini’s Turandot. His many varied roles with leading
companies include Peter in Humperdinck’s Hänsel
und Gretel, Baron Douphol in Verdi’s La traviata,
Fouquier-Tinville in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier and
Julio in Thomas Ades’s The Exterminating Angel
(Royal Opera House); Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama
Butterfly (Danish National Opera); Prince Arjuna in
Philip Glass’s Satyagraha, Mereia/Lepidus in Detlev
Glanert’s Caligula (EnglishNational Opera); Peter in
Hänsel und Gretel, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly,
Melot in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Marcello in
Puccini’s La bohème, Baron Douphol in La traviata,
Sprecher in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Conte Almaviva
in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Stárek in Janáček’s
Jenůfa (Welsh National Opera); Sharpless in Madama
Butterfly, the title role in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and the
Executioner in James MacMillan’s Inés de Castro
(Scottish Opera); Duclou in Leoncavallo’s Zazà (Opera
Holland Park); Sonora in Puccini’s La fanciulla del
West and Donald in Britten’s Billy Budd (Opera North);
Baron Douphol in La traviata (Glyndebourne Festival
Opera and Glyndebourne on Tour). Conductors he
has worked with include Charles Mackerras, Mark
Elder, Antonio Pappano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Maurizio
Benini, Carlo Rizzi, Philippe Auguin, Andris Nelsons,
Jakub Hrůša and Mark Wigglesworth. He makes his
INO debut in La bohème.
20
21

BIOGRAPHIES
FEARGHAL CURTIS
TENOR
PARPIGNOL
DAVID HOWES
BASS-BARITONE
DOGANIERE
RORY DUNNE
BASS-BARITONE
SERGENTE
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA
ORCHESTRA
Fearghal is from Dublin and is a
graduate of the DIT Conservatory of
Music and Drama, Dublin, and the
Royal Academy of Music, London.
In 2018 he created the role of
Stephen Dedalus in Eric Sweeney’s
Ulysses (Bloomsday Festival) and in 2017 sang the
role of Taoiseach in the first modern performance of
Robert O’Dwyer’s Eithne (Opera Theatre Company).
He has sung in a number of INO productions,
including Mozart’s The Magic Flute (First Armed Man/
chorus), Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (ensemble), Verdi’s
Aida (chorus), Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann
(Spalanzani/chorus), and also in the chorus of the
award-winning production of Donnacha Dennehy
and Enda Walsh’s The Second Violinist (Landmark
Productions/Wide Open Opera). He has also sung
Box in Sullivan’s Cox and Box and the title role in
Rameau’s Pygmalion (Opera in the Open), Prologue/
Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Orpheus/
Mercury in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld
(DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama), and Apollo/
Spirit/Pastore/Ensemble in Monteverdi’s Orfeo
(OTC), while he was an OTC Associate Young Artist
in 2012-13. In concert he has also performed
works by Handel, Bach, Marc-Antoine Charpentier,
Mendelssohn, Schumann, Monteverdi and Barber.
David Howes is a bass-baritone
from Limerick where he studied
with Olive Cowpar. He completed
his BMus at the DIT Conservatory of
Music and Drama and now studies
with Robert Dean in London. He
is a current member of Irish National Opera’s ABL
Aviation Opera Studio and was a member of the
inaugural Wexford Factory at last year’s Wexford
Festival Opera, and also of the Northern Ireland
Opera Studio. He created the roles of Jack and
Flynn in Andrew Synnott’s Dubliners (Opera Theatre
Company/Wexford Festival Opera), and has performed
the title roles in Verdi’s Falstaff (Wexford Factory),
Hans Krása’s Brundibár (Killaloe Chamber Music
Festival), and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (ZêzereArts
Festival, Portugal). Other roles include Count Ceprano
in Verdi’s Rigoletto (OTC), Buff in Mozart’s The Opera
Director (Irish National Opera), Prince Yamadori in
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Marchese d’Obigny
in Verdi’s La traviata (Lyric Opera Productions),
Sciarrone in Puccini’s Tosca (Wexford Festival Opera
ShortWorks), Noye in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, Father
Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and
Quince in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
In August he will perform Badger and Parson in
Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen at Longborough
Festival Opera. In recital he has performed at Kilkenny
Arts Festival and the National Concert Hall, and
oratorio performances include Verdi’s Requiem and
Beethoven’s Choral Symphony (Co-Orch Dublin),
Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria,
Haydn’s Creation, Handel’s Messiah, and Requiems
by Saint-Saëns and Brahms (Dún Laoghaire Choral
Society).
Dublin-based bass-baritone Rory
Dunne first trained as an actor
in the Bull Alley Theatre Training
Company Dublin, before going on
to the TU Dublin Conservatoire,
where he received a First Class
Honours BMus degree. In recent years he has been
a member of Irish National Opera’s ABL Aviation
Opera Studio, the Wexford Factory (Wexford Festival
Opera’s professional development academy), and has
been engaged as a company artist with Cork Opera
House. He has recently won both a 2021 Blackwater
Valley Opera Festival Bursary Award, and a 2020 PwC
Ireland and Wexford Festival Opera Emerging Young
Artist bursary. He also won Navan Choral Festival’s
Young Opera Voice Competition in 2019, as well as
competitions in Feis Ceoil, Sligo Feis Ceoil, Northern
Ireland Opera’s Glenarm Festival of Voice and several
internal competitions in TU Dublin, including the
Conservatoire’s Gold Medal. His roles include the
title role in Verdi’s Falstaff (Wexford Factory/RTÉ),
Valentine Greatrakes in Raymond Deane’s Vagabones
(Opera Collective Ireland), Colline in Puccini’s La
bohème (Lyric Opera Productions) and The Mikado
in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado (Cork Opera
House), and covering Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen
and Father in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (Irish
National Opera). He makes his INO stage debut as the
Sergeant in La bohème.
The Irish National Opera orchestra is made up
of leading freelance musicians based in Ireland.
Members of the orchestra have a broad range of
experience playing operatic, symphonic, chamber
and new music repertoire. The orchestra plays for
contemporary opera productions – Thomas Adès’s
Powder Her Face and Brian Irvine’s Least Like The
Other – as well as chamber reductions of larger
scores – Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann and
Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. The orchestra
appeared in its largest formation to date in INO’s 2019
production of Rossini’s Cinderella/La Cenerentola at the
Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin. The orchestra has
performed in 17 venues throughout Ireland.
22
23

ALL ABOUT MIMÌ AND ME
Celine Byrne tells Michael Dervan about a great love-affair
Avi Klemberg as Rodolfo and Celine Byrne as Mimì
in Scottish Opera’s 2010 production.
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
HOW DO YOU RELATE TO THE
CHARACTER MIMÌ?
Before I answer that, I have to tell you that my
love-affair with La bohème has been a big part of
my life. It was my debut in 2010. It was also the
last thing that I did before the lockdown, I sang it in
Hamburg with Stephen Costello, and then I went to
do it in America. Then, when I came back to Ireland
for rehearsals for Irish National Opera’s Carmen,
there was the lockdown. So it was the last thing I
performed on stage and it’s now going to be my
first time back with a live orchestra, conductor and
singers since the lockdown. So I’m very excited.
And it was the first and only opera that my father
came to see, as well. He got so emotionally involved
in it he couldn’t separate the character from me,
and when I died on stage he swore to God that he’d
never come to another opera again.
Mimì is two characters in Henri Murger’s book,
Scènes de la vie de bohème. Francine and Mimì
become one character in the libretto for the opera.
I identify a lot with her, and not always the way that
directors would like me to. When she meets Rodolfo
a lot of directors want to play that old-fashioned
and coy. Like she’s very shy. And actually she’s not.
She’s very... I won’t say calculated, but she knows
what she’s doing. She’s forward. She has a little bit
of a cheeky side that I don’t think we see enough of
in many productions. I identify with her with regard
to the fact that she’s playful. I’m very playful and
very childish. I think you’ve observed some of the
rehearsals that I’ve been in, and you can see that I’m
always trying to have a bit of fun. I just love the fact
that Rodolfo is a poet. And yet when she speaks,
she’s more poetic than he is, even though he’s the
poet. I love her poetry. I have the gift of the gab,
and when I talk I can talk for hours and hours and
go on and on, and I feel Mimì is like that as well.
I think she’s sweet, and she’s innocent, but not in
a sense that she’s naive. I think she’s innocent as
in she has an open heart. Everything that she feels
she wears on her sleeve. And I’m like that.
HOW DO YOU RELATE TO HER ACTUAL
SITUATION IN THE OPERA?
Well, I relate to that being an actress and I
have to act that part. Because, obviously I’m
not dying of tuberculosis, I’ve no underlying
sinister disease. That’s where my acting comes
in. That’s my job, to portray that character. I
identify with her personality, but there’s nothing
else I can relate to in her position in life.
DO YOU RELATE TO HER RELATIONSHIP?
Yes. I can with how she falls in love so quickly. I
can see how that can happen. Love at first sight.
It’s a chemical reaction. It’s the endorphins
being released when she sees him. She’s excited
at him. Because she’s so open, I can see how she
would fall in love so easily. Then, because she’s
so reactive in her emotion, when he shows that
he’s jealous, I can see how it doesn’t work out,
either. It’s a very short relationship. There’s only
three months between the time they get together
and the time they break up.
DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME
YOU HEARD ANY OF HER ARIAS?
Yes. I started singing late in life as everybody
knows. I had my first singing lesson at 18 and I
went to college when I was 23. The first music
I was introduced to was Puccini, because my
voice was a little bit more mature, because
of my age and where it was colour-wise. I
remember listening to Sì, mi chiamano Mimì
for the first time and thinking, I can’t learn this
aria, it’s too long. [She laughs] I’d only started
singing. I didn’t know the language. I’d lived in
Italy for a year, so I only had very basic Italian.
So I thought, O my God, this aria is so long. But
I always wanted to sing it, because I heard so
many people sing it, it’s so popular.
Everybody kept saying to me when I was in
college, Oh, Celine, you are going to be a great
Mimì and a great Countess, they were telling
me all these roles, and I was, like, Oh, thank
you, thank you. And then I was going home,
researching – what are these roles, who are
these people. I listened to a lot of recordings
of La bohème, and I fell in love, I have to say,
with the recording of Jussi Björling and Victoria
de los Angeles. I just think that she was so
wonderful in the drama. I think Maria Callas is a
wonderful interpreter of music. She’s amazing.
That’s why I fell in love with Maria Callas, she’s
there on my wall – she points to a poster – but
she never sang Mimì on stage.
You can hear in a way with Victoria de los Angeles
the effect of her being on that stage doing this
25

Avi Klemberg as Rodolfo and
Celine Byrne as Mimì in Scottish
Opera’s 2010 production.
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
role so many times, like when she was singing –
Celine sings Mimì asking Sono andati? (Have they
gone?) as she’s left alone with Rodolfo in Act IV –
I was feeling every breath and feeling every sigh
in the music with her, without getting too much.
I’m not one of these singers who go on about
the nuances of the music and the wonderful
orchestration and all that. I’m more of a realist.
I live in the real world. I like to talk about music
in a real way that people can communicate with
me on the same level. The majority of people
who come to see us are not musicians. They just
want to see an opera. It was just the feeling of it.
You feel the music. And she sang it in a way that
really touched me.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST TIME YOU HEARD
THE OPERA LIVE IN THE OPERA HOUSE?
I saw it for the first time in Covent Garden,
when I was there covering the role of Donna
Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and I sat in for a
rehearsal. The boys impressed me. I saw these
four boys come together. Obviously they’re hired
in to sing and to act the roles of friends. But they
really looked like they were friends. I was so
convinced by this story. I just thought, I want to
be part of that gang. It was the old production,
which is now gone. [She’s talking about John
Copley’s production, which was first seen in
1974 and last seen in July 2015].
WHAT WAS THE FIRST TIME YOU
PERFORMED THE ROLE YOURSELF?
In 2010 with Scottish Opera. That was my stage
debut, my first job ever. It was the first opera
in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre [or the Grand
Canal Theatre, as it was called back then] and
I’ve sung in the Bord Gáis every season since.
I’m the only singer who’s sung in the Bord Gáis
every season since it opened.
That was a wonderful experience with Scottish
Opera. It was during the ash cloud as well – the
ash cloud created by the eruption of the Icelandic
volcano Eyjafjallajökull in March 2010 which
caused huge disruption to air travel. That was a
crazy time, I remember, because I nearly missed
the last performance in Inverness because I’d
gone home during a break in the run. It took me
13 hours to get back, because I had to go by boat
from Belfast to Stranraer, and then try and get all
the way to Inverness, up in the Scottish highlands.
WHAT WAS THE JOURNEY LIKE,
COMING TO YOUR FIRST OPERA ROLE?
It was amazing. I thought, wow, I have a job. It
was my first professional job and I thought it was
a huge role to get. I felt very privileged. And I
still feel very privileged when the phone rings or
when I get an e-mail about a job offer. I was so
delighted. I was nervous, because the conductor,
Francesco Corti, was Italian and I thought, Oh
no! I’ll say a word wrong and he’s going to kill me.
[She laughs] It was a most wonderful experience.
I didn’t know what to expect, so I was just myself.
THAT PRODUCTION WAS RESET IN
20TH-CENTURY AMERICA, NO?
I don’t know where it was set. There was no
specific place. The guy who directed it was
a Tony Award-winner and it was a modern
production, so there were no candles, there was
electric cable. Look, I’m there to work. I’m there
to do my job. So I just did what I was told by the
director, because that’s his job. And I did my
job. That’s the way I approached everything.
HOW DIFFERENT HAVE YOUR MIMÌS
BEEN IN DIFFERENT PRODUCTIONS?
Very. The best one to date was Hamburg.
A, because of the prestige of the house, it is
so prestigious to sing there. B, because the
production was just so beautiful. The set was
one big house divided into different rooms, and
then that house went up and down, so the first
level then became the ground level. It was just
very beautiful and very simple. And of course
the singers around me were great. I just loved
that it was traditional, in a way.
Then of course I rehearsed the John Copley,
which was very traditional as well, but I would
say it was a little bit old-fashioned. Even though
I thought it was presented so beautifully, it was
more like presenting art than presenting a real
person.
The very first one I did, of course, it wasn’t
traditional. But I enjoyed singing it. You can’t
deny the music, no matter what production
you’re in. You can’t deny the sumptuous music.
Puccini loved the soprano voice, and I had the
privilege to be the soprano in that production.
I did another modern production, in Russia, in
Moscow, the Novaya Opera. I enjoyed that as
well, but that had a Doppelgänger, and I didn’t
like that. Whatever about having a memory and
looking back in the First Act or the Second Act
or the Third Act, where you remember breaking
up with Rodolfo, you remember meeting him,
that’s OK. But it did not work, and I had to fight
with my own soul, in a way, in the Fourth Act.
Because you can’t really be a Doppelgänger
and stand by and sing this touching Fourth Act
26
27

Johannes Leiacker’s set for Hamburg
Staatsoper’s production of La bohème,
directed by Guy Joosten and with
costumes by Jorge Jara.
while somebody else is acting it. You can’t. It
has to be one. Because the connection with how
you’re feeling has to be portrayed. And having a
Doppelgänger, I was singing it and quasi feeling
it, reminiscing. But I still did it, because it’s my
job, and I gave it 100 percent, and people liked it,
and that’s all that matters in the end.
YOUR WORK GETS FILTERED NOT JUST
THROUGH DIRECTORS’ IDEAS BUT ALSO
THROUGH A CONDUCTOR’S APPROACH.
HAVE CONDUCTORS TAKEN VERY
DIFFERENT MUSICAL APPROACHES?
Yeah, I have to say. In Hamburg Pier Giorgio
Morandi was fantastic. He knew the opera
inside out and he was breathing with the singer,
the orchestra was breathing with the singer.
There was time taken where you needed time.
There was a wonderful flow, so you could
actually express the emotion where you needed
to. It was beautiful. Really beautiful.
YOU’VE MENTIONED VICTORIA DE LOS
ANGELES ALREADY. ARE THERE ANY
OTHER MIMÌS THAT REALLY MATTER
TO YOU IN THE SAME WAY?
I can’t say. I only have a number one. I don’t
have a number two or number three.
CAN WE PLAY FANTASY OPERA FOR
A MOMENT? IF YOU COULD SPLIT
YOURSELF UP INTO MULTIPLE
PEOPLE, EACH OF THEM WITH ALL
THE REQUISITE SKILLS, AND NOT JUST
SING IN LA BOHÈME, BUT CONDUCT,
DIRECT IT AND DESIGN IT, WHAT MIGHT
IT LOOK LIKE AND SOUND LIKE?
Well, you see, I’m a traditionalist. I know it’s
wonderful to bring music into the modern day
and everything. But we have modern opera for
that. I think it’s wonderful to have a balance
between romantic music, classical music and
I’ve seen some of the Mozart operas being
reinvented, like Kasper Holten did a wonderful
Don Giovanni, which I was proud to be part of.
I think when you touch on Puccini ...maybe it’s
because I’m so in love and so connected to the
body of work. He wrote I think eleven operas and
I’ve sung nine. I just think that if I was to conduct
it... I’m going to be biased now and I’m going to
say that the conductor who’s conducting this
one is going to be the best, because he’s a Puccini
expert, Sergio Alapont. Or Royal Opera House
music director Antonio Pappano. The production
would be traditional. The setting wouldn’t change.
The music is amazing, but we have to be true to
the libretto. There’s no point talking about a candle
and then trying to bring it into the modern day.
It doesn’t work. So it has to fit with the libretto.
Just don’t touch it. Don’t mess with it.
ANY SPECIFIC THINGS YOU WISH
PEOPLE WOULDN’T DO?
I wish tenors would sing the Act I aria in C rather
than D flat, because the lower key is the one
that Puccini originally wrote it in. Like, what
are they trying to prove? I also think at the end,
the Sono andati?, there’s a lot of repeated bits
that need time. Specifically, there’s one part
where she says, “My name is Mimì” and she
repeats it twice, she sings it up the octave and
then she drops it down the octave. I think it has
only happened on a few occasions where I have
won the battle and I’ve got to sing it my way.
Because normally you’ve got to sing what the
conductor wants. It’s so important when she’s
singing up the octave that she’s singing, saying,
Oh I remember I said this, and then she’s sick,
she’s dying, so she takes a moment, she gives
it all her energy, and then it kind of hits her that
she’s ill again, and he needs that moment, and
wants to say it again. She needs a moment, and
then she drops down the octave. It’s quite clear
in the music to me, that the reason she says it
twice and an octave apart is because she loses
the energy to finish what she’s saying. And then
she tries to compose herself and start again.
It’s important because it’s heartbreaking.
There are so many moments that you can really
captivate an audience with, without dragging
the music and making her die forever. She
doesn’t have to die forever. I’m not saying slow
the music down. But there are parts where
if you play them the right way you can really
captivate an audience, because you really do
feel it if you give the music time.
That time has to be given. It’s not only about
the director directing in a certain way, or how
it looks aesthetically with regard to the set,
or how it sounds in relation to the sonorous
sound of the orchestra, or how it’s shaped by
the conductor. It’s also about the expression
of the artist. About how I want to express
my Mimì, within the framework of what the
conductor wants me to portray in relation to the
characterisation as depicted by the director
and within the framework of how it looks
because of the set.
28
29

MUSIC FOR GALWAY & GALWAY 2020 PRESENT
Cellissimo –
Music for the Senses
First edition of Galway’s International Cello Triennale
25 – 31 MARCH 2021
Online for 2021
Seven days of all things cello and Galway
– concerts from breathtaking locations,
world premieres, exhibition, the GALWAY
CELLO – and Music for the Senses,
combining the best of international
music with the best of local produce.
Rediscover the cello at cellissimo.ie
ABL AVIATION OPERA STUDIO
ABL AVIATION OPERA
STUDIO ARTISTS
2020 – 2021
Rachel Goode
Soprano
Kelli-Ann Masterson
Soprano
Aebh Kelly
Mezzo-soprano
David Howes
Bass-baritone
Elaine Kelly
Conductor
Amanda Feery
Composer
Davey Kelleher
Director
Luke Lally Maguire
Répétiteur
ABL Aviation, the international aviation investment company,
took title sponsorship of INO Studio, Irish National Opera’s
mentoring programme, in September 2019, as part of a multiannual
agreement. The programme is now the ABL Aviation
Opera Studio.
Members of ABL Aviation Opera Studio are involved in all
of Irish National Opera’s productions, large and small. They
sing onstage in roles or in the chorus, understudy lead roles
– enabling them to watch and emulate great artists at work –
and, for non-singing members, they join in the world of opera
rehearsals as assistants.
Studio members also receive individual coaching, attend
masterclasses and receive mentorship from leading Irish and
international singers and musicians. Brenda Hurley, Head of
Opera at the Royal Academy of Music, London, is the vocal
consultant who guides our singers throughout the year. One
of Ireland’s leading theatres, The Civic, Tallaght, works with
the studio as a cultural partner, and the theatre’s artistic
director, Michael Barker-Caven, is the studio’s stagecraft
consultant.
Other areas of specific attention are performance and
language skills, and members are assisted in their individual
personal musical development and given professional career
guidance. They benefit from Irish National Opera’s national
and international contacts and ABL Aviation Opera Studio
also develops and promotes specially tailored events to help
the members hone specific skills and showcase their work.
For information contact Studio & Outreach Producer
James Bingham at james@irishnationalopera.ie
31

THE FIRST IRISH MIMÌ?
Michael Dervan puzzles over who might claim to have been the first Irish singer to take on the role of Mimì.
Cecile Lorraine photographed by
Grouzelle Studios Sydney in 1901
in connection with Musgrove Grand
Opera Company performances of
either Gounod’s Faust or Verdi’s
La forza del destino in Australia.
The inscription reads, “À Monsieur
Thompson avec mes meilleurs vœux
et remerciements pour sa gentillesse,
Bien à vous, Cécile Lorraine, 1901.”
Gerald Marr Thompson was drama,
music and art critic of the Sydney
Morning Herald.
Who was the first Irish Mimì? Was it the great Margaret Burke-
Sheridan, who sang the role at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome
in February 1918? Indisputably yes, if your perspective is
performances on major European stages. At home in Ireland
Veronica Keary performed the role for the Dublin Operatic
Society in 1934 and she was followed in 1938 by May Devitt,
who would also give a string of performances for the Dublin
Grand Opera Society in the 1940s.
But there may be a case for a different singer, for Cecile Lorraine,
the soprano who sang Mimì for the Carl Rosa Opera Company, the
company which gave the first English performance in Manchester
in April 1897, and the first Irish performance the following August.
Dublin actually heard the work before the British capital. The work
was not heard in London until the following October.
Cecile Lorraine was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1868 or
1869 and died in Hollywood, California, in 1941. In late 19thcentury
newspapers she is described as having been born to
English parents, to have trained in Europe, most notably under
Mathilde Marchesi in Paris; and her career also took her beyond
Europe and the US to Australia and New Zealand. She seems
to have gravitated away from opera and towards the world of
musical comedy, and obituaries describe her as a voice teacher.
So, is there any Irish connection apart from her being the
first singer ever to perform Mimì in Ireland. Well, maybe. Neil
Gould’s book about the Dublin-born composer, conductor and
cellist Victor Herbert (Victor Herbert, A Theatrical Life), has
some information about an occasion when Cecile Lorraine
and Victor Herbert worked together. In 1938 the singer wrote
about it to the composer’s daughter.
Dear Miss Herbert:
In the year 1899 I sang two concerts with the
Pittsburgh Symphony orchestra, your father the
conductor. When I arrived for rehearsal... I was
given a seat on the stage and when the orchestral
number was terminated your father came over to
bid me welcome and repeated, “Lorraine–Lorraine–
French?” “No,” I replied, “Irish!” Whereupon he gave
me a good hearty handshake, and told me I was
thrice welcome.”
How did it come about that someone born in Boston to
“English” parents would describe herself as Irish? The clue
may be in the surnames of her parents. Her father was a
Reilly, her mother a Hathaway. If indeed her father was Irish
that connection would today make her Irish enough to don
the jersey and play international football for Ireland. And that
would surely also make her the first Irish soprano ever to sing
the role of Mimì.
Her singing of the role at the Gaiety Theatre in 1897 was
warmly praised by Irish music critics. The response to
Puccini’s music was more divided. Here some excerpts from
the reviews of the Carl Rosa production that were printed
the morning after the first night in The Freeman’s Journal
(relatively sympathetic to Puccini) and the Irish Independent
(decidedly against the composer and the work).
32
33

Freeman’s Journal
26 August 1897
THE CARL ROSA OPERAS
“LA BOHEME.”
Last night the new opera of “La Boheme,” by Puccini, was
performed for the first time at the Gaiety Theatre by the Carl Rosa
Company. The House was crowded in every part, only standing
room being available to those who had not secured seats or who
came late. A sketch of the opera has already been given, the
“Bohemians” being four reckless, adventurous youths and two
fair but frail girls; and whilst from the characters and situations
no one would expect any very profound or, indeed, impassioned
music – though, indeed there are some tender love passages – on
the other hand the work is very interesting because it is intensely
modern in style and manner if not exactly of an original type.
There is no overture but merely two or three bars of introduction,
and then music and singers dash in media res, and Rudolph and
Marcel are seen in their garret burning with enthusiasm for their
respective arts of poetry and painting and shivering with physical
cold. Throughout the scene, during their dialogue and after they
are joined by their friends and the fainting Mimi, the musical
treatment is in that style of melodious recitative or declamation,
changeful and fitful, which distinguishes the modern operatic
manner from the old-fashioned arias of prolonged and complete
form. The orchestration is altogether to match, highly seasoned
with kaleidoscopic changes and harmonious discords, and
occasionally developing progression that would make the hair of
the musical formalists of ancient date stand on end. But one good
feature about the orchestration is that though it is thus highly
coloured and seasoned is is never obstreperous, nor does it at
any time drown the voices ...Mdlle Cecile Lorraine gave an artistic
representation of the part of Mimi. The pathetic character of the
role found in her a good exponent, and the vocal music of the part
was rendered with tact and tenderness...
Irish Independent
26 August 1897
THE CARL ROSA OPERA CO.
“LA BOHEME.”
...The Carl Rosa Company has introduced us to so many sterling
works that when they hold forth promises of any new production
we look naturally for an opera that is well worth hearing. But if the
traditions of the company are to be maintained in this respect
we are inclined to think that they had better leave such works
as “La Boheme” severely alone so far as their Dublin season
is concerned. The audience last night listened patiently to the
performance, and quite recognised whatever merit it possessed.
But it were a hard task to conceive a colder welcome to a new
work than the audience last night gave Puccini’s masterpiece.
Indeed although the curtain was rung up again at the conclusion
of more than one act, the audience remained almost cruelly
impassive, and one knew not whether to interpret their deep
silence as an indication of emotions that were far too joyous and
too deep for utterance, or of disappointment such as paralyses all
one’s energies. The fact is that Puccini’s work is not as clever as
it has been said to be... Miss Cecile Lorraine, a promising young
artist, with a very sweet and pleasant voice, made her debut
last night in the character of Mimi. She sang and acted ably:
but we could have wished to hear her in a part that gave more
opportunity for the display of her fine voice...
34
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38

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