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STRAUSS<br />
ELEKTRA<br />
KILKENNY ARTS FESTIVAL 2021
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA<br />
PRINCIPAL FUNDER<br />
RICHARD STRAUSS 1864–1949<br />
ELEKTRA<br />
1908<br />
CORPORATE<br />
PARTNER<br />
IN ASSOCIATION WITH KILKENNY ARTS FESTIVAL<br />
TRAGEDY IN ONE ACT<br />
Libretto by Hugo von Hoffmansthal after Sophocles’s Electra.<br />
First Irish performance, National Concert Hall, Dublin, 29 April 1988<br />
(in concert); Kilkenny, Castle Yard, 5 August 2021 (fully staged).<br />
SUNG IN GERMAN WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES<br />
Running time: 105 minutes without interval.<br />
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS<br />
Olga, Valerie, Céline, Pat, Aidan and all the team at Kilkenny Arts<br />
Festival. Ciarán Conroy and Anthony Drohan at Kilkenny Civic<br />
Trust; Sinead Gargan and all at Kilkenny Design Centre; Susan<br />
Holland and all at the Design & Craft Council of Ireland.<br />
PERFORMANCES 2021<br />
Thursday 5 August Castle Yard Kilkenny<br />
Saturday 7 August Castle Yard Kilkenny<br />
Tuesday 10 August Castle Yard Kilkenny<br />
Thursday 12 August Castle Yard Kilkenny<br />
Saturday 14 August Castle Yard Kilkenny<br />
03
DREAMING OF ELEKTRA<br />
FERGUS SHEIL<br />
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR<br />
DIEGO FASCIATI<br />
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR<br />
“Necessity is the mother of invention.” “Never waste a good<br />
crisis.” There are lots of clichés to explain unexpected turns of<br />
events. And perhaps the most unexpected in <strong>INO</strong>’s short history<br />
is the presentation of Richard Strauss’s epic <strong>Elektra</strong> in the middle<br />
of a pandemic. It still seems almost surreal that we have been able<br />
to find a way to approach this extraordinarily demanding operatic<br />
landmark in the middle of a social disruption when large groups of<br />
performers and audiences cannot face each other indoors.<br />
Before <strong>Elektra</strong> appeared on our radar, we had already been<br />
working to deliver a live webstream, three operas on film, an online<br />
concert series, a group of street art operas, a site-specific film<br />
project as well as indoor productions for later in the year.<br />
The link to <strong>Elektra</strong> appeared through the idea that the summer –<br />
even the unpredictable Irish summer – would be the best time to<br />
do something big and bold outdoors. We were delighted to find<br />
willing co-conspirators in Olga Barry and her team at Kilkenny<br />
Arts Festival. We went to see the Marble City’s Castle Yard and<br />
were immediately excited by the operatic possibilities which the<br />
space offers. It’s out of doors, but also enclosed. You can see the<br />
sky, yet it somehow still has the feeling of an intimate venue. And,<br />
of course, it’s also part of an environment dripping with history.<br />
Within minutes <strong>Elektra</strong> – an opera actually set in a courtyard –<br />
came brimming up in our thoughts.<br />
The opera was premiered in Dresden in 1909, a time when 19thcentury<br />
romanticism seemed to have already pressed opera<br />
to the limits of human possibility. Yet in <strong>Elektra</strong> Strauss pushes<br />
things even further. Although the work is shorter than many<br />
operas (around 105 minutes without interval), it packs a ferocious<br />
amount into every bar of the score. The singer in title role is<br />
onstage throughout and must scale peak after peak of contrasting<br />
emotions – notably sorrow, anger and longing – before her<br />
gruesome mission can be accomplished.<br />
The pandemic’s disruption of normal life has greatly shortened the horizons<br />
for planning opera. Given that and the sheer unpredictability of recent<br />
months, we are enormously indebted to Giselle Allen for taking on <strong>Elektra</strong>, a<br />
role new to her, at short notice and delighted to present her company debut<br />
in such thrilling style. We have no doubt she will be terrifying audiences for<br />
years to come in this opera! Giselle is joined by two international guests,<br />
Icelandic bass-baritone Tómas Tómasson and American tenor Peter<br />
Marsh, and a further ten outstanding Irish artists. Led by Máire Flavin and<br />
Imelda Drumm in the key roles of Chrysothemis and Klytämnestra, they are<br />
a testament to the strength of Irish vocal talent working today.<br />
The normal arena of work for everybody involved in tonight’s production<br />
is indoors, in the highly-controlled environment of a theatre. <strong>Elektra</strong>’s<br />
exceptionally large orchestral forces meant that pre-recording the<br />
contributions of the Irish National Opera Orchestra and Chorus presented<br />
the only way forward. Their performances, were captured at Dublin’s Bord<br />
Gáis Energy Theatre in the hottest and sunniest week of June. For everybody<br />
else, we signed away our souls to the devil and played Russian roulette<br />
with the Irish weather. We are enormously grateful to our creative team –<br />
director Conall Morrison, set and lighting designer Paul Keogan, movement<br />
director Liz Roche, costume designer Catherine Fay and sound designer<br />
Kevin McGing. They have all taken a great leap of faith with us to create an<br />
unforgettable operatic experience in circumstances that are novel for us all.<br />
None of this would have been possible without the enthusiasm and<br />
dedication our colleagues at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, nor without the<br />
willingness of you our audience in stepping into the unknown. In many ways<br />
a project as crazy and ambitious as this should not have been feasible.<br />
If there were a Guinness World Record entry for the <strong>Elektra</strong> planned and<br />
delivered in the shortest time, ours would surely be it. With the support of<br />
our individual donors and our core funding from The Arts Council, we have<br />
been able to make this particular and very crazy dream come true. Thank<br />
you all for coming, and hold on tight to your seat!<br />
FERGUS SHEIL<br />
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR<br />
DIEGO FASCIATI<br />
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR<br />
04<br />
05
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Image: Rachel Croash in Close by Hannah Peel from <strong>INO</strong>’s 20 Shots of Opera. Photo by Ste Murray<br />
06
ELEKTRA IN ITS OWN TIME<br />
The premiere of Strauss’s <strong>Elektra</strong> in 1909 was a media<br />
sensation. Critics from across Europe and the Americas<br />
turned up in Dresden to report on it. And the chasm<br />
between the coverage of conservatives and progressives<br />
was as wide as it was predictable. As scholar Bryan<br />
Gilliam put it, “<strong>Elektra</strong> made a powerful impression; no<br />
critic – pro or con – would deny that observation, but it is<br />
about all they could agree on.”<br />
It would be tempting to assume that in Ireland, where <strong>Elektra</strong> is<br />
only now being staged for the first time, the coverage would have<br />
more reactionary than progressive. The composer and critic WB<br />
Reynolds, who wrote under the nom-de-plume Rathcol in the<br />
Belfast Evening Telegraph, definitely was not. On Tuesday 5 January<br />
he previewed the opera in a column that was printed between<br />
advertisements for Sunlight Soap, Phosferine tonic and Beecham’s<br />
Pills. On Saturday 6 February, he wrote about<br />
the “great entertainment” he had had from<br />
the newspaper reports on the new work.<br />
“Some of them,” he wrote, “were in the style<br />
of a sensational murder report”.<br />
He praised the report in the Daily Telegraph<br />
(which ran to about 1,200 words), and also<br />
the Standard, where the review included<br />
“some of the ‘motives’ in musical type, one<br />
of which Reynolds included in his own coverage. “The most striking<br />
of these motives,” he wrote, “is that associated with <strong>Elektra</strong>’s hate, a<br />
thoroughly Strauss-like idea in which the essential expressive fact is<br />
not the vocal phrase, though that is characteristic to a great degree,<br />
but the long bass note in the orchestra. No one but Strauss would<br />
ever have thought of such a theme.”<br />
“Orchestrated in Strauss’s manner,” he went on, “this would<br />
have an hysterical, biting, strong quality about it that would tell<br />
tremendously. On paper, this combination of notes looks a bit<br />
impossible, even allowing for enharmonic notation; but, test it on<br />
the ear, and it will be found all right, especially the low E, which is<br />
really magnificent. Strauss gets these far-fetched combinations less<br />
from carrying abstract theory to extremes than from listening to<br />
the natural harmonics of a given note, and selecting his chord from<br />
them. Harmony a la harpe Aeolienne is his fount of inspiration. His<br />
genius lies in his absolutely happy and apt use of these materials.”<br />
Reynolds had fun with the turnout of critics. “One critic is bad enough<br />
sometimes: but 200! Then to imagine these 200 gentlemen, with<br />
perhaps a lady critic or two among them, rushing off to the nearest<br />
telegraph office to despatch their 200 opinions of the work to the<br />
remotest parts of Europe and the two Americas, all the jostling and<br />
babel of tongues, the fuss, the zeal, the wisdom, and the foolishness!<br />
Why, the thing is like comic opera: Strauss ought to write a burlesque<br />
operetta with a musical critics’ chorus in 200 parts.” Reynolds, who<br />
was friendly with James Joyce, set some of the poems of Chamber<br />
Music in 1910. Sadly, the settings have been lost.<br />
Also in 1910 the American music publisher Schirmer issued a<br />
defensively proselytizing short guide to the opera by Australian<br />
pianist and composer Ernest Hutcheson. As well as a detailed<br />
motivic analysis, he included the following background/synopsis of<br />
the opera and explanatory breakdown of it into scenes.<br />
“Agamemnon, on his return from the Trojan war, is treacherously<br />
murdered by his false wife Klytämnestra and Aegisth, her lover.<br />
Klytämnestra herself performs the deed, slaying Agamemnon<br />
with a hatchet while he is in his bath, the unmanly Aegisth<br />
merely assisting. The guilty pair then assume the government of<br />
08<br />
09
Mycenae, and Orest, the young son of Agamemnon, is banished. Chrysothemis<br />
and <strong>Elektra</strong>, the daughters, are virtually held prisoners in the palace. We gather<br />
that they are not allowed to marry, for their children would naturally, according<br />
to the Greek ethical code, become avengers of Agamenmon. <strong>Elektra</strong> makes<br />
no attempt to conceal her abhorrence of Klytämnestra and Aegisth, and is<br />
therefore subjected to every imaginable indignity; she is clothed in rags, beaten<br />
by Aegisth, threatened with the dungeon, and her food (after she has refused to<br />
eat with the servants) is thrown to her with that of the dogs. Chrysothemis, of a<br />
more time-serving disposition, is treated with leniency. It is the sacred obligation<br />
of Orest to avenge his father’s murder. Counselled by the oracle of Apollo, he<br />
comes to Mycenae with an old attendant, bringing a fabricated story of his<br />
own death. By this artifice the two easily gain admittance to the palace and kill<br />
Klytämnestra and Aegisth. Most of the retainers at once declare themselves for<br />
Orest, and he quickly makes himself master of the town, amid general rejoicing.<br />
<strong>Elektra</strong> sings a paean of triumph and performs a ceremonial dance in honour of<br />
Agamemnon’s memory, but her weakened frame succumbs to the emotional<br />
strain and she suddenly falls dead.<br />
“Broadly speaking, the music of <strong>Elektra</strong> may be divided into the following scenes:<br />
Introduction. Group of maids drawing water.<br />
1. <strong>Elektra</strong>’s monologue.<br />
2. Chrysothemis and <strong>Elektra</strong>.<br />
3. Klytämnestra and <strong>Elektra</strong> (at first with attendants, afterwards the two alone).<br />
4. Chrysothemis and <strong>Elektra</strong> (momentarily interrupted by two men-servants).<br />
5. <strong>Elektra</strong> and Orest.<br />
6. The Vengeance. <strong>Elektra</strong> alone, then with Chrysothemis and maids,<br />
afterwards <strong>Elektra</strong> and Aegisth.<br />
7. The Triumph. <strong>Elektra</strong>, Chrysothemis, Maids, Chorus behind the scene.”<br />
In spite of the fact that there had been nothing in operatic history quite like<br />
<strong>Elektra</strong> – or indeed Strauss’s earlier Salome – <strong>Elektra</strong> actually came under<br />
attack for plagiarism. The accusations were raised by the Italian scholar,<br />
composer and conductor Giovanni Tebaldini (1864–1952) in 1909. His article in<br />
Image: This caricature of Strauss by<br />
Franz Jüttner (1865–1925), published<br />
in 1910, is captioned “The ‘Elektric’<br />
Execution, by the musical executioner.”<br />
the Rivista Musicale Italiana was titled Telepatia<br />
musical? (Musical telepathy?). In it he traced<br />
what he saw as 48 borrowings from Cassandra<br />
by Italian composer Vittorio Gnecchi (1876–<br />
1954), an opera whose premiere had been<br />
conducted by no less a figure than the great<br />
Arturo Toscanini in Bologna in December 1905.<br />
Strauss, who was a pioneering proponent of<br />
composers’ rights, never responded publicly<br />
to explain any of the points of similarity. But<br />
he did raise the issue in a letter to his friend,<br />
the writer and critic Romain Rolland (1866–<br />
1944) in May 1909. In part, he wrote, “Do you<br />
know a better way to combat hate and envy<br />
than by maintaining a dignified silence? You<br />
of course know the story of Hercules and the<br />
Hydra? Concerning the case of Cassandra-<br />
<strong>Elektra</strong>, I had already decided not to reply<br />
to it since I did not yet know Mr Tebaldini’s<br />
publicity brochure for Gnecchi. Now that I<br />
know it, I will really be quiet.”<br />
Gnecchi’s Cassandra was given in concert,<br />
in Montpelliér in July 2000, and was staged<br />
at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania in<br />
January 2011. Radio France’s recording of<br />
the Montpéllier performance was issued on<br />
CD, and anyone curious about this decidedly<br />
Italianate work will find it currently available<br />
on streaming and download sites.<br />
MICHAEL DERVAN<br />
10<br />
11
CAST IN ORDER OF VOCAL APPEARANCE<br />
CREATIVE TEAM<br />
Erste Magd First Maid Doreen Curran Mezzo-soprano<br />
Conductor<br />
Fergus Sheil<br />
Zweite Magd Second Maid Raphaela Mangan Mezzo-soprano<br />
Director<br />
Conall Morrison<br />
Dritte Magd Third Maid Niamh O’Sullivan Mezzo-soprano<br />
Set, Lighting & Video Designer<br />
Paul Keogan<br />
Vierte Magd Fourth Maid Rachel Croash Soprano<br />
Costume Designer<br />
Catherine Fay<br />
Fünfte Magd Fifth Maid Emma Nash Soprano<br />
Movement Director<br />
Liz Roche<br />
Die Aufseherin The Overseer Mairéad Buicke Soprano<br />
Sound Designer<br />
Kevin McGing<br />
<strong>Elektra</strong> Giselle Allen Soprano<br />
Assistant Conductor & Chorus Director<br />
Elaine Kelly<br />
Chrysothemis Máire Flavin Soprano<br />
Répétiteur<br />
Aoife O’Sullivan<br />
Die Vertraute The Confidante Emma Nash Soprano<br />
Die Schleppträgerin The Train Bearer Rachel Croash Soprano<br />
Klytämnestra Imelda Drumm Mezzo-soprano<br />
Ein junger Diener A Young Servant Andrew Gavin Tenor<br />
Ein alter Diener An Old Servant Brendan Collins Baritone<br />
Orest Tómas Tómasson Bass-baritone<br />
Der Pfleger des Orest Orest’s Tutor Brendan Collins Baritone<br />
Aegisth Peter Marsh Tenor<br />
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA CHORUS<br />
Sopranos<br />
Rheanne Breen<br />
Ami Hewitt<br />
Kelli-Ann Masterson<br />
Maria Matthews<br />
Muireann Mulrooney<br />
Lauren Scully<br />
Mezzo-sopranos<br />
Margaret Bridge<br />
Amy Conneely<br />
Sarah Kilcoyne<br />
Bríd Ní Ghruagáin<br />
Katie Richardson<br />
McCrea<br />
Niamh St John<br />
Tenors<br />
Ciarán Crangle<br />
Fearghal Curtis<br />
Ben Escorcio<br />
Philip Keegan<br />
Richard Shaffrey<br />
Jacek Wislocki<br />
Basses<br />
Desmond Capliss<br />
Lewis Dillon<br />
Jeff Ledwidge<br />
Kevin Neville<br />
Fionn Ó hAlmhain<br />
David Scott<br />
12<br />
13
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA ORCHESTRA<br />
PRODUCTION TEAM<br />
First Violins<br />
Sarah Sew leader<br />
David O’Doherty<br />
Hugh Murray<br />
Anita Vedres<br />
David McElroy<br />
Maria Ryan<br />
Second Violins<br />
Larissa O’Grady principal<br />
Nicholas Rippon<br />
Emily Thyne<br />
Camille Farrer<br />
Cliodhna Ryan<br />
Aisling Manning<br />
Third Violins<br />
Aoife Dowdall<br />
Molly O’Shea<br />
Christine Kenny<br />
Justyna Dabek<br />
Christopher Quaid<br />
Katie O’Connor<br />
First Violas<br />
Adele Johnson principal<br />
John Murphy<br />
Benjamin Errington<br />
Aoife Magee<br />
Second Violas<br />
Lisa Dowdall<br />
Richard Hadwen<br />
Alison Comerford<br />
Abigail Prián Gallardo<br />
Third Violas<br />
Nathan Sherman<br />
Carla Vedres<br />
Kathrine Barnecutt<br />
Karen Dervan<br />
First Cellos<br />
David Edmonds principal<br />
Yue Tang<br />
Yseult Cooper-Stockdale<br />
Aoife Burke<br />
Second Cellos<br />
Niamh Molloy<br />
Paula Hughes<br />
Zoë Stedje<br />
Davide Forti<br />
Double basses<br />
Dominic Dudley principal<br />
Malachy Robinson<br />
Aura Stone<br />
Maeve Sheil<br />
Paul Stephens<br />
Alex Felle<br />
Harps<br />
Dianne Marshall principal<br />
Rhian Hanson<br />
Flutes<br />
Lina Andonovska principal<br />
Susan Doyle doubling piccolo<br />
Naoise Ó Briain doubling piccolo<br />
Oboes<br />
Suzie Thorn principal<br />
Jenny Magee<br />
David Agnew doubling cor anglais<br />
Clarinets<br />
Conor Sheil principal<br />
Suzanne Brennan<br />
Seamus Wylie doubling E flat clarinet<br />
Bass Clarinet<br />
Deirdre O’Leary<br />
Bassoons<br />
John Hearne principal<br />
Clíona Warren<br />
Sinéad Frost doubling contrabassoon<br />
Horns<br />
Hannah Miller principal<br />
Joseph Ryan<br />
Liam Duffy<br />
Dewi Garmon Jones<br />
Trumpets<br />
Darren Moore principal<br />
Pamela Snell<br />
Eoghan Cooke<br />
Glen Carr<br />
Paul Kiernan<br />
Nathan McDonnell<br />
Trombones<br />
Ross Lyness principal<br />
Kieran Sharkey<br />
Paul Frost<br />
Tuba<br />
Stephen Irvine principal<br />
Timpani<br />
Noel Eccles principal<br />
Mark McDonald<br />
Percussion<br />
Richard O’Donnell principal<br />
Brian Dungan<br />
Caitríona Frost<br />
Maeve O’Hara<br />
Production Manager<br />
Robert Usher<br />
Stage Manager<br />
Conleth Stanley<br />
Assistant Stage Manager<br />
Aidan Doheny<br />
Technical Stage Manager<br />
Adrian Leake<br />
Technical crew<br />
Brendan Cummins<br />
Stage Crew<br />
Abraham Allen<br />
Chief Electricians<br />
Pip Walsh<br />
Richard Lambert<br />
Lighting Programmer/<br />
Operator<br />
Eoin McNinch<br />
Lighting Crew<br />
Laura Rainsford<br />
Maeubh Brennan<br />
Sound Engineer<br />
Sean McKeown<br />
RF Technician<br />
Amir Carmel<br />
Mix Engineer<br />
Cian Murphy<br />
Sound Crew<br />
Darragh Finn<br />
Sound Assistants<br />
Jessica Hayes<br />
Kate Crook<br />
Video Technician/Programmer<br />
Michael Murray<br />
Video Crew<br />
Geoff Massey<br />
Maurice Veale<br />
Costume Supervisor<br />
Sinead Lawlor<br />
Costume Makers<br />
Esther O’Connor Murphy<br />
Denise Assas-Tynan<br />
Tailors<br />
Gillian Carew<br />
Jim Wallace<br />
Denis Darcy<br />
Textile & Breakdown Artist<br />
Molly Brown<br />
Milliner<br />
Laura Kinsella<br />
Wigs, Hair & Makeup<br />
Supervisor<br />
Carole Dunne<br />
Wigs, Hair & Makeup Assistant<br />
Tee Elliott<br />
Surtitle Operator<br />
Maeve Sheil<br />
Set and Scaffolding<br />
Shane McAuley –<br />
Sassy Event Services<br />
Cart Fabrication<br />
Eugene Finnegan<br />
Dumpster Fabrication<br />
Ian Thompson<br />
Electrics and Distribution<br />
Event Power<br />
Sound Equipment<br />
Mosco<br />
Lighting Equipment<br />
PSI & Cue One<br />
Video Equipment<br />
VisualX<br />
Transport<br />
Trevor Price<br />
ADDITIONAL THANKS<br />
Photography<br />
Ruth Medjber<br />
Ste Murray<br />
Graphic Design<br />
Alphabet Soup<br />
Programme edited by<br />
Michael Dervan<br />
14<br />
15
BIOGRAPHIES<br />
FERGUS SHEIL<br />
CONDUCTOR<br />
CONALL MORRISON<br />
DIRECTOR<br />
PAUL KEOGAN<br />
SET & LIGHTING DESIGNER<br />
CATHERINE FAY<br />
COSTUME DESIGNER<br />
Fergus is the founding artistic<br />
director of Irish National Opera<br />
and has also worked for all major<br />
Irish opera companies. He<br />
has conducted a wide-ranging<br />
repertoire of 35 different operas.<br />
Highlights include Verdi’s Aida, Brian Irvine and<br />
Netia Jones’s Least Like The Other – Searching for<br />
Rosemary Kennedy and Rossini’s La Cenerentola<br />
(Irish National Opera), Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde,<br />
John Adams’s Nixon in China, Rossini’s The Barber<br />
of Seville (Wide Open Opera), Mozart’s Don Giovanni<br />
and, in 2017, Robert O’Dwyer’s Irish-language<br />
opera, Eithne (Opera Theatre Company), the first<br />
modern performance of the work, which was<br />
subsequently recorded and issued on CD by RTÉ<br />
lyric fm. In the orchestral field he has appeared with<br />
the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra,<br />
the Irish Chamber Orchestra and other orchestras<br />
at home and abroad. He has toured the RTÉ<br />
National Symphony Orchestra throughout Ireland<br />
in Beethoven’s Choral Symphony and Mahler’s<br />
Resurrection Symphony. As a choral conductor he<br />
has worked with the State Choir Latvija (giving the<br />
world premiere of Arvo Pärt’s The Deer’s Cry) and<br />
the BBC Singers. Internationally he has fulfilled<br />
engagements in the USA, Canada, South Africa,<br />
Australia, the UK, France, Netherlands, Denmark,<br />
Sweden, Malta and Estonia. Before founding Irish<br />
National Opera he led both Wide Open Opera (which<br />
he founded in 2012) and Opera Theatre Company.<br />
He has been responsible for presenting over 60<br />
operas, designed for theatres, site-specific venues,<br />
online, and film, with a geographic reach all around<br />
Ireland as well as London, Edinburgh, New York,<br />
Amsterdam and Luxembourg.<br />
Conall Morrison is a director<br />
and writer. As well as numerous<br />
shows for the Abbey and Peacock<br />
theatres, he has directed for the<br />
Royal Shakespeare Company, The<br />
Globe Theatre, English National<br />
Opera, the Lyric Theatre, Landmark Productions,<br />
Fishamble Theatre Company, and Cameron<br />
Mackintosh. Some productions include: Verdi’s La<br />
traviata, Tarry Flynn, Antigone, Haughey/Gregory,<br />
Guaranteed, Hamlet, She Stoops to Conquer, The<br />
Crucible, Martin Guerre, Macbeth, The Taming<br />
of the Shrew, Translations, Dancing at Lughnasa,<br />
Borstal Boy, A Whistle in the Dark, Conversations on<br />
a Homecoming. He co-directed The Great Hunger<br />
with Caitriona McLaughlin in the grounds of IMMA<br />
for Dublin Theatre Festival 2020. He has written<br />
many original plays and adaptations, including<br />
Woyzeck in Winter, his own adaptation from Büchner<br />
and Schubert (Landmark/Galway International<br />
Arts Festival/Barbican Theatre) and The Travels of<br />
Jonathan Swift, adapted from Swift’s work, for the<br />
Blue Raincoat Theatre Company. During lockdown,<br />
he directed four radio plays for RTÉ: The Old Tune<br />
by Samuel Beckett; Strutting and Fretting by Chris<br />
McHallem; Hamlet, Prince of Derry and The United<br />
States vs Ulysses, both by Colin Murphy. He makes<br />
his <strong>INO</strong> debut with <strong>Elektra</strong>.<br />
Paul Keogan’s opera credits include<br />
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro<br />
(Irish National Opera), Monteverdi’s<br />
The Return of Ulysses (Opera<br />
Collective Ireland), Verdi’s Falstaff<br />
(Vienna State Opera), Mozart’s<br />
Die Zauberflöte (Korea National Opera), Piazzolla’s<br />
Maria de Buenos Aires (Cork Opera House), Poulenc’s<br />
Dialogues des Carmélites and Saint-Saëns’s Samson<br />
et Dalila (Grange Park Opera), Klaas de Vries’s Wake<br />
(Nationale Reisopera, Netherlands), Massenet’s<br />
Thérèse and La Navarraise, Foroni’s Cristina, regina di<br />
Svezia and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snegurochka (Wexford<br />
Festival Opera), Janáček’s The Makropulos Case<br />
(Opera Zuid, Netherlands), Shostakovich’s Lady<br />
Macbeth of Mtsensk, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s The<br />
Silver Tassie and Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking<br />
(Opera Ireland). His theatre and dance designs<br />
include De Profundis and Lady Windermere’s Fan<br />
(Vaudeville Theatre, London), The Plough and The<br />
Stars (Lyric Hammersmith/Abbey Theatre), Postcards<br />
from the Ledge (Landmark Productions), Katie Roche,<br />
Cyprus Avenue, Our Few and Evil Days, The Risen<br />
People and Drum Belly (Abbey Theatre), Hamlet, The<br />
Snapper, The Red Shoes, The Birds, Performances,<br />
Molly Sweeney (Gate Theatre), The Caretaker (Bristol<br />
Old Vic), The Gaul (Hull Truck), The Miser (Garrick<br />
Theatre, London), Tribes (Crucible, Sheffield), Double<br />
Cross, Here Comes the Night (Lyric Theatre, Belfast),<br />
A Streetcar Named Desire (Liverpool Playhouse), Far<br />
Away (Corcadorca Theatre Company), Big Maggie<br />
(Druid, Galway), No Man’s Land (English National<br />
Ballet), Cassandra and Hansel and Gretel (Royal<br />
Ballet) and Flight (Rambert).<br />
Catherine Fay designs costumes for<br />
theatre, dance and opera.<br />
She has worked on many<br />
productions over the years in a<br />
variety of venues, nationally and<br />
internationally. She made her<br />
<strong>INO</strong> debut with Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at Galway<br />
International Arts Festival in 2019. Other highlights<br />
include Handel’s Acis and Galatea (Opera Theatre<br />
Company), Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses<br />
(Opera Collective Ireland), The Plough and the Stars<br />
(Lyric Hammersmith/Abbey Theatre), Britten’s Owen<br />
Wingrave (Opera Collective Ireland/Opéra Bastille,<br />
Paris), Näher… closer, nearer, sooner (Liz Roche<br />
Company in association with the Goethe-Institut),<br />
Embargo (Fishamble Theatre Company, Dublin<br />
Theatre Festival), A Midsummer Night’s Dream<br />
(Rough Magic, Kilkenny Arts Festival), Romeo and<br />
Juliet (Gate Theatre). She holds the position of Chair<br />
of the Irish Society of Stage and Screen Designers<br />
(ISSSD). She is a graduate of NCAD and is presently<br />
studying for her MA, Art in the Contemporary World.<br />
16<br />
17
BIOGRAPHIES<br />
LIZ ROCHE<br />
MOVEMENT DIRECTOR<br />
KEVIN McGING<br />
SOUND DESIGNER<br />
ELAINE KELLY<br />
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR<br />
& CHORUS DIRECTOR<br />
AOIFE O’SULLIVAN<br />
RÉPÉTITEUR<br />
Liz is choreographer, co-founder<br />
and Artistic Director of Dublinbased<br />
dance company Liz Roche<br />
Company (formerly Rex Levitates).<br />
Since 1999 the company has<br />
produced and toured over 20<br />
of her choreographies, performing throughout<br />
Ireland and internationally at prestigious venues<br />
and festivals including the Baryshnikov Arts Centre<br />
New York, South Bank Centre London, Edinburgh<br />
Fringe Festival, Meet in Beijing Festival and<br />
Powerhouse Brisbane. She has been commissioned<br />
to make and work for dance companies, venues<br />
and festivals including the the Abbey Theatre,<br />
Dublin Dance Festival, Cork Opera House, the<br />
National Ballet of China, Goethe-Institut Ireland,<br />
the National Gallery of Ireland, Arcane Collective,<br />
Croí Glan Integrated Dance, Scottish Dance<br />
Theatre, Dance Theatre Ireland and CoisCéim<br />
Dance Theatre. Her work in opera includes Verdi’s<br />
Aida for Irish National Opera and National Opera<br />
of Korea, Richard Rodney Bennett’s The Mines<br />
of Sulphur for Wexford Festival Opera, Rossini’s<br />
Semiramide for the Rossini Opera Festival and Liceu<br />
Barcelona, Salieri’s Axur, re d’Ormus and Mozart’s<br />
Lucio Silla for Zurich Opera House, Lucio Silla at<br />
Opéra de Nice, and Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa and<br />
Queen of Spades, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of<br />
Mtsensk, Verdi’s Aida, Giordano’s Andrea Chénier,<br />
Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Verdi’s Don Carlos and<br />
Mark Anthony Turnage’s The Silver Tassie for Opera<br />
Ireland. Her choreography for theatre productions<br />
has been widely seen at the Abbey Theatre,<br />
Landmark Productions, Lyric Theatre, Belfast, Siren<br />
Productions, and Gate Theatre. In 2020 she was<br />
elected to Aosdána.<br />
Kevin has a long and varied career<br />
as a sound designer in theatre, live<br />
sound and recording. He is also<br />
active in system design, assembly<br />
and operation, logistics, project and<br />
team management for shows, events<br />
and tours. His production, designer, mix engineer,<br />
recording engineer and consultant credits include<br />
Brian Irvine and Netia Jones’s Least Like the Other<br />
(Irish National Opera), Riverdance 25th Anniversary<br />
Show, Aladdin (Gaiety Theatre), The Beacon (Druid/<br />
Gate Theatre), RIOT (THISISPOPBABY/Vicar Street),<br />
Riverdance – The Show (worldwide since 2005),<br />
Heartbeat of Home (Piccadilly Theatre, London), KHS<br />
350 Gala Concert (King’s Hospital School), Sive (Druid/<br />
Gaiety Theatre), The Rape of Lucrece (Gate Theatre),<br />
World Festival of Families (Tyrone Productions); The<br />
Snow Queen (Gaiety Theatre), Angela’s Ashes – The<br />
Musical (Irish tour), Jeff Dunham’s Relative Disaster<br />
(Netflix/Inevitable Pictures/Bord Gáis Energy Theatre),<br />
Giselle, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Bizet’s Carmen,<br />
Verdi’s La traviata, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and La<br />
bohème (Bord Gáis Energy Theatre), Heartbeat of Home<br />
(on tour), and Riverdance, Live at the Marquee, Cork.<br />
Elaine Kelly joined Irish National<br />
Opera’s ABL Aviation Opera<br />
Studio as a conductor in 2019.<br />
Since then she has worked as<br />
assistant conductor and chorus<br />
director on productions of<br />
Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Mozart The Abduction<br />
from the Seraglio, Puccini’s La bohème, Maxwell<br />
Davies’s The Lighthouse and Gerald Barry’s Alice’s<br />
Adventures Under Ground. She conducted the<br />
premiere of Amanda Feery’s As Above, So below at<br />
the 2020 First Fortnight Festival, and conducted<br />
nine new works by Irish composers in <strong>INO</strong>’s<br />
internationally-praised 20 Shots of Opera, the<br />
biggest single-event commissioning project in Irish<br />
operatic history, which was streamed worldwide<br />
last December. In 2014 she won the inaugural<br />
ESB Feis Ceoil Orchestral Conducting Competitoin<br />
which led to engagements with the RTÉ Concert<br />
Orchestra. She has also worked with the Dublin<br />
Symphony Orchestra (of which she was musical<br />
director from 2017–2019), Cork Concert Orchestra,<br />
CSM Symphony Orchestra, Cork Fleischmann<br />
Orchestra and the Fleischmann Choir, and in<br />
2015 was the assistant conductor for Irish Youth<br />
Opera’s production of Handel’s Agrippina. She is<br />
currently the conductor of the University of Limerick<br />
Orchestra and musical director to the awardwinning<br />
Cork-based choir, Cantate. She is a BMus<br />
and MA graduate of the MTU Cork School of Music<br />
where she studied conducting with Alan Cutts and<br />
violin with Colette O’Brien and Adrian Petcu. She<br />
has participated in masterclasses with and worked<br />
as assistant to many distinguished conductors.<br />
Aoife O’Sullivan was born in Dublin<br />
and studied at the College of Music<br />
with Frank Heneghan and later at<br />
the RIAM with John O’Conor. She<br />
graduated from Trinity College<br />
Dublin with an honours degree in<br />
music. In September 1999 she began her studies<br />
as a Fulbright scholar at the Curtis Institute of Music<br />
and in 2001 she joined the staff there for her final two<br />
years. She was awarded the Geoffrey Parsons Trust<br />
Award for accompaniment of singers in 2005. She<br />
has worked on the music staff at Wexford Festival<br />
Opera, and on three Handel operas for Opera Theatre<br />
Company, Orlando, Xerxes, and Alcina, and for Opera<br />
Ireland on Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and<br />
Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also<br />
worked at the National Opera Studio in London and<br />
was on the deputy coach list for the Jette Parker<br />
Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House<br />
Covent Garden. She has played for masterclasses<br />
including those given by Malcolm Martineau, Ann<br />
Murray, Thomas Allen, Thomas Hampson and Anna<br />
Moffo. She worked on Mozart’s Zaide at the Britten<br />
Pears Young Artist Programme and on Britten’s<br />
Turn of the Screw for the Cheltenham Festival with<br />
Paul Kildea. She has appeared at the Wigmore Hall<br />
in concerts with Ann Murray (chamber versions of<br />
Mahler and Berg), Gweneth Ann Jeffers, Wendy Dawn<br />
Thompson and Sinéad Campbell Wallace. She is now<br />
based in Dublin where she works as a répétiteur and<br />
vocal coach at TU Dublin Conservatoire and also<br />
regularly for <strong>INO</strong>.<br />
18<br />
19
BIOGRAPHIES<br />
GISELLE ALLEN<br />
SOPRANO<br />
ELEKTRA<br />
MÁIRE FLAVIN<br />
SOPRANO<br />
CHRYSOTHEMIS<br />
IMELDA DRUMM<br />
MEZZO-SOPRANO<br />
KLYTÄMNESTRA<br />
TÓMAS TÓMASSON<br />
BASS-BARITONE<br />
OREST<br />
Irish soprano Giselle Allen’s recent<br />
highlights include Anna Maurrant<br />
in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene at<br />
her artistic home, Opera North,<br />
where she also appeared in the<br />
title role in a new production<br />
of Puccini’s Tosca. At Welsh National Opera she<br />
received outstanding reviews as Magda Sorel in<br />
Menotti’s The Consul. She has appeared with RTÉ<br />
National Symphony Orchestra as Minnie in Puccini’s<br />
La fanciulla del West. Past success with Opera<br />
North include Mila in Janáček’s Osud and Santuzza<br />
in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana as part of The<br />
Little Greats, a series of six short operas presented<br />
on tour in the UK; she also sang the title role in<br />
Strauss’s Salome in concert at The Sage, Gateshead,<br />
garnering the admiration of colleagues and audience<br />
alike. Other career highlights include Ellen Orford<br />
in Britten’s Peter Grimes at Bergen International<br />
Festival under the baton of Ed Gardner, a role she<br />
previously sang at Opera North, Berlin’s Komische<br />
Oper and in the renowned 2013 Snape Maltings<br />
production on the beach at Aldeburgh (broadcast<br />
on BBC4 and released on DVD); and the roles of<br />
Gutrune, Gerhilde and Freia in Wagner’s Ring cycle<br />
in the celebrated Opera North production of 2016,<br />
which toured the UK and was broadcast live on<br />
BBC4. This year, she appeared as Miss Jessell in<br />
a new production by Andrea Breth of Britten’s The<br />
Turn of the Screw streamed and recorded for future<br />
release on DVD at La Monnaie in Brussels. She<br />
makes her <strong>INO</strong> debut as <strong>Elektra</strong>.<br />
With an engaging presence and<br />
delightful charisma Dublin-born<br />
soprano Máire Flavin represented<br />
Ireland at BBC Cardiff Singer<br />
of the World in 2011, when she<br />
was a finalist in the Song Prize.<br />
Recent operatic highlights include her Wexford<br />
Festival Opera debut, creating the role of Bianca<br />
in Andrew Synnot’s La cucina; Anna Sørensen in<br />
the British premiere of Kevin Puts’s Silent Night;<br />
Contessa d’Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro,<br />
and her role debut as Hanna Glawari in Lehár’s<br />
The Merry Widow (Opera North); her Austrian<br />
debut as Contessa d’Almaviva in Le nozze di<br />
Figaro (Salzburger Landestheater); Hannah in the<br />
premiere of Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s<br />
The Second Violinist and Contessa d’Almaviva in Le<br />
nozze di Figaro (Irish National Opera); and Mimi in<br />
Puccini’s La bohème (Cork Opera House). She has<br />
also performed lead roles with Théâtre des Champs<br />
Elysées, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Glyndebourne<br />
on Tour, Scottish Opera, Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing,<br />
Northern Ireland Opera, Opera Collective Ireland<br />
and Welsh National Opera. She has appeared in<br />
concert with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra,<br />
the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert<br />
Orchestra, and the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck.<br />
Future engagements see role debuts including the<br />
title role in a new production of Handel’s Alcina<br />
(Opera North), and Elena in a new production of<br />
Rossini’s La donna del lago (Buxton International<br />
Festival); she also performs in Viennese Whirl with the<br />
Orchestra of Opera North at Leeds and Huddersfield<br />
Town Halls.<br />
Imelda Drumm enjoys a successful<br />
international singing career. For<br />
over 30 years she has forged strong<br />
relationships with Glyndebourne<br />
Festival and Welsh National Opera<br />
in the UK and here in Ireland with<br />
Opera Ireland, Opera Theatre Company, Wide Open<br />
Opera, Lyric Opera Productions and Irish National<br />
Opera as well as the RTÉ National Symphony<br />
Orchestra and RTÉ Concert Orchestra. She has<br />
won many national and international awards. These<br />
include the UK Esso and Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks<br />
Glyndebourne Awards. She sang the role of Hansel in<br />
the 1999 Laurence Olivier Award winning production<br />
of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel at WNO. Her<br />
recordings include Hansel and Gretel for Channel 4<br />
TV, Janáček’s Jenůfa under Charles Mackerras, and<br />
Verdi’s Falstaff with Bryn Terfel for S4C. In 2017 she<br />
took the role of Nuala in a concert performance of<br />
Robert O’Dwyer’s Irish-language opera Eithne with<br />
the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra under Fergus<br />
Sheil, a CD of which was released on the RTÉ lyric fm<br />
label. Imelda, who was born in Laois and currently<br />
lives in Bray, is also staff lecturer in vocal studies<br />
at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. She takes a<br />
keen interest in vocal pedagogy and health, and her<br />
doctoral research investigated the action of female<br />
reproductive hormones on classical singers; it is<br />
available in TARA the research repository at Trinity<br />
College. She made her <strong>INO</strong> debut as Amneris in<br />
Verdi’s Aida at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in 2018.<br />
Following his studies in Reykjavik<br />
and at the Royal College of Music<br />
in London, Tómas Tómasson<br />
regularly guests in a vast repertoire<br />
at the most renowned houses and<br />
institutions worldwide, including<br />
the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Vienna<br />
State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper<br />
Dresden, Berlin State Opera, La Scala, Teatro<br />
dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro Real de Madrid, Gran<br />
Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Théâtre de la Monnaie,<br />
Brussels, Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam, Lyric<br />
Opera of Chicago and Los Angeles Opera. His<br />
concert repertoire includes key works, such as<br />
Verdi’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s<br />
Creation, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony and Mahler’s<br />
Symphony No. 8. He collaborated with conductors<br />
such as Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Antonio<br />
Pappano, Andris Nelsons, Simone Young and<br />
René Jacobs. In the 2018-19 season, he was seen<br />
and heard as Wotan in Wagner’s Ring at Grand<br />
Théâtre de Genève, and in the following season<br />
engagements included Wotan in Die Walküre and<br />
Tomsky in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades at<br />
Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, Amfortas in Wagner’s<br />
Parsifal in Palermo, Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila at<br />
Washington National Opera, and Dmitri Tcherniakov’s<br />
new production of Janáček’s The Makropulos Case at<br />
Zurich Opera House under the baton of Jakub Hrůša.<br />
In 2021 he returned to Grand Théâtre de Genève<br />
as Klingsor in a concert version of Parsifal under<br />
Jonathan Nott. Future engagements include the<br />
world premiere of Péter Eötvös’s Sleepless at Berlin’s<br />
State Opera with revivals in Geneva and Budapest,<br />
as well as Orest in <strong>Elektra</strong> at Opéra de Paris under<br />
Semyon Bychkov. Orest is his <strong>INO</strong> debut.<br />
20<br />
21
BIOGRAPHIES<br />
PETER MARSH<br />
TENOR<br />
AEGISTH<br />
DOREEN CURRAN<br />
MEZZO-SOPRANO<br />
ERSTE MAGD<br />
FIRST MAID<br />
RAPHAELA MANGAN<br />
MEZZO-SOPRANO<br />
ZWEITE MAGD<br />
SECOND MAID<br />
NIAMH O’SULLIVAN<br />
MEZZO-SOPRANO<br />
DRITTE MAGD<br />
THIRD MAID<br />
American tenor Peter Marsh has<br />
sung an astonishing number of very<br />
different roles in his career. Mime<br />
in Wagner’s Siegfried (available on<br />
CD & DVD on OehmsClassics), the<br />
Shabby Man in Shostakovich’s Lady<br />
Macbeth of Mtsensk, Oedipus in Stravinsky’s Oedipus<br />
Rex, Leukippos and Apollo in Strauss’s Daphne,<br />
the Captain in Berg’s Wozzeck, Caliban in Thomas<br />
Adès’s The Tempest, the Witch in Humperdinck’s<br />
Hänsel und Gretel, Pedrillo in Mozart’s Die Entführung<br />
aus dem Serail (available on DVD), and Matteo in<br />
Strauss’s Arabella. Other roles include the title role in<br />
Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg, Kimmo in Sallinen’s Kullervo,<br />
and the title role in Britten’s Peter Grimes. He enjoyed<br />
great success singing Walter in a new production of<br />
Weinberg’s Die Passagierin in Oper Frankfurt, which<br />
went on tour to the Festwochen in Vienna. He also<br />
performed the role at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv.<br />
Other engagements have taken him to the Seattle<br />
Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the<br />
Munich, Berlin, Dresden and Hamburg state operas,<br />
Düsseldorf, Brussels, Tiflis, Montepulciano, Tokyo<br />
and the Bregenz and Edinburgh festivals. Peter<br />
Marsh has been a member of the Oper Frankfurt<br />
ensemble since 1998. The role of Aegisth marks his<br />
debut with Irish National Opera.<br />
Derry-born mezzo-soprano Doreen<br />
Curran’s opera roles include the<br />
title role in Handel’s Radamisto<br />
(Northern Ireland Opera), Ottavia<br />
in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di<br />
Poppea (English National Opera,<br />
Opera Theatre Company, Aldeburgh and Buxton),<br />
Mercédès in Bizet’s Carmen (Glyndebourne Touring<br />
Opera and ATAO Tenerife), Blanche in Prokofiev’s The<br />
Gambler (Grange Park Opera), Tamiri in Vivaldi’s Farnace<br />
(Salzburg), Zoë in Respighi’s La fiamma, Ernestina in<br />
Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro and Clione in Fauré’s<br />
Penelopé (Wexford Festival Opera), Cherubino in<br />
Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (Garsington Opera and Savoy<br />
Opera), Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte (Holland<br />
Park Opera), Kate in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates<br />
of Penzance, Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro<br />
(English National Opera), Lola in Mascagni’s Cavalleria<br />
rusticana (Opera Northern Ireland), Suzuki in Puccini’s<br />
Madama Butterfly (Lyric Opera Productions, Dublin),<br />
Second Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and La Ciesca<br />
in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (Opera Ireland), Rosina in<br />
Rossini’s Barber of Seville (Opera Theatre Company and<br />
Armonico Consort), Madame Flora in Menotti’s The<br />
Medium, Mother in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel,<br />
Mrs Noye in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, Mary in Wagner’s<br />
The Flying Dutchman, Lady Macbeth’s Lady in Waiting<br />
in Verdi’s Macbeth (Northern Ireland Opera), and Third<br />
Secretary in John Adams’s Nixon in China (Wide Open<br />
Opera). She has also performed in concert with the<br />
London Philharmonic, RTÉ National Symphony, the<br />
RTÉ Concert, European Youth, Irish Chamber, Royal<br />
Liverpool Philharmonic and Ulster Orchestras and has<br />
given recitals internationally. She made her Irish National<br />
Opera debut in Madama Butterfly in 2019.<br />
Raphaela trained as a mezzosoprano,<br />
obtaining a recordbreaking<br />
First Class Honours<br />
Degree from the DIT Conservatory<br />
of Music and Drama in Dublin and a<br />
Post Graduate Distinction from the<br />
Flanders Opera Studio in Belgium. Her singing career<br />
has seen her perform across the UK and Europe and<br />
her roles have included Bradamante in Handel’s<br />
Alcina, Ottavia in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di<br />
Poppea, Marcellina in Mozart’s The Marriage of<br />
Figaro, Geneviève in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande,<br />
Idamante in Mozart’s Idomeneo, Glasha and Varvara<br />
in Janáček’s Katya Kabanová, Buttercup in Gilbert &<br />
Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, Euridice in Haydn’s L’anima<br />
del filosofo, Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and<br />
Mrs Lovett in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.<br />
Irish performances include the title role in Bizet’s<br />
Carmen, Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro,<br />
Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Tessa in Gilbert &<br />
Sullivan’s The Gondoliers, Bianca in Britten’s The Rape<br />
of Lucretia, Penelope in Monteverdi’s The Return of<br />
Ulysses, her <strong>INO</strong> debut as Third Lady in Mozart’s The<br />
Magic Flute, and Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel<br />
and Gretel. She has performed in concert with the<br />
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert<br />
Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Co-Orch and the<br />
Cork Fleischmann Symphony Orchestra. Away from<br />
home she has performed in at the Usher and McEwan<br />
Halls, Edinburgh, and Linbury Theatre in London. She<br />
also sings with leading choral societies in Ireland and<br />
Britain, regularly performing Verdi’s Requiem, Elgar’s<br />
The Dream of Gerontius and Handel’s Messiah.<br />
26-year-old Irish mezzo-soprano<br />
Niamh O’Sullivan, praised for her<br />
“bewitchingly beautiful, dark vibrant<br />
voice” (Süddeutsche Zeitung),<br />
studied at the Royal Irish Academy<br />
of Music in Dublin under Veronica<br />
Dunne. She was a member of the Opera Studio at<br />
the Bavarian State Opera from 2016 to 2018. Her<br />
numerous Munich appearances include Hänsel in<br />
Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Kate Pinkerton<br />
in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, the Secretary in<br />
Menotti’s The Consul and Flora in Verdi’s La traviata.<br />
She also travelled with the Bavarian State Opera for a<br />
concert performance of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier<br />
at Carnegie Hall under Kirill Petrenko. She made<br />
her <strong>INO</strong> debut as Tisbe in Rossini’s La Cenerentola<br />
in 2018. In concert, she has performed Elgar’s Sea<br />
Pictures as part of the Munich Festspiele; Mozart’s<br />
Requiem and Handel’s Messiah with the Münchner<br />
Hofkantorei; Cain in Alessandro Scarlatti’s oratorio Il<br />
primo omicidio; and Cousser’s serenata The Applause<br />
of Mount Parnassus at the Wigmore Hall. In the 2021-<br />
22 season, she will make her Zurich Opera House<br />
debut as Wellgunde in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and<br />
return to Irish National Opera to create the role of<br />
Alva in Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s The<br />
First Child, sing Asteria Vivaldi’s Bajazet (Irish tour and<br />
also at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre in<br />
London) and Mercédès in Bizet’s Carmen. She will also<br />
make her Wexford Festival Opera debut as Paulina<br />
in Goldmark’s Ein Wintermärchen before making her<br />
debut with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra as<br />
Ghiva in Wallace’s Lurline.<br />
22<br />
23
BIOGRAPHIES<br />
RACHEL CROASH<br />
SOPRANO<br />
VIERTE MAGD/DIE SCHLEPPTRÄGERIN<br />
FOURTH MAID/THE TRAIN BEARER<br />
EMMA NASH<br />
SOPRANO<br />
FÜNFTE MAGD/DIE VERTRAUTE<br />
FIFTH MAID/THE CONFIDANTE<br />
ANDREW GAVIN<br />
TENOR<br />
EIN JUNGER DIENER<br />
A YOUNG SERVANT<br />
BRENDAN COLLINS<br />
BARITONE<br />
EIN ALTER DIENER<br />
AN OLD SERVANT<br />
Dublin soprano Rachel Croash is a<br />
graduate of the Royal Irish Academy<br />
of Music and Maynooth University.<br />
She made her <strong>INO</strong> stage debut<br />
in Mozart’s The Opera Director in<br />
April 2018, returned as First Lady<br />
in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Kate Pinkerton in<br />
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and was one of the<br />
soloists in the premiere of Evangelia Rigaki’s This<br />
Hostel Life. Her 2017 performance as Úna in Robert<br />
O’Dwyer’s Eithne (Opera Theatre Company) was<br />
issued on CD on the RTÉ lyric fm label. She has<br />
been an Opera Theatre Company OPERA HUB artist<br />
and her numerous awards include two bursaries at<br />
Wexford Festival Opera in 2015. She was a finalist<br />
in the 9th Festspiele Immling International Singing<br />
Competition and was subsequently invited back to<br />
perform Amore in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Gilda<br />
in selected scenes of Verdi’s Rigoletto. Other opera<br />
roles include Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème, Mabel<br />
in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance and<br />
Valencienne in Lehár’s The Merry Widow (Lyric Opera<br />
Productions), Elvira in Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri<br />
and Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte (Blackwater<br />
Valley Opera Festival), Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze<br />
di Figaro and Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen (Cork<br />
Opera House), Reneé in Delius’s Koanga (Wexford<br />
Festival Opera), Serafina in Donizetti’s Il campanello,<br />
Dew Fairy in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and<br />
Annina in Verdi’s La traviata (Wexford Festival Opera<br />
ShortWorks), Mrs Coyle in Britten’s Owen Wingrave<br />
(Opera Collective Ireland) and Susanna in Wolf-<br />
Ferrari’s Susanna’s Secret (Opera Theatre Company).<br />
Cork soprano Emma Nash<br />
made her <strong>INO</strong> debut in Gluck’s<br />
Orfeo ed Euridice for which the<br />
Sunday Independent praised her<br />
“powerfully soaring Amore”. She<br />
graduated with distinction from the<br />
MA in Opera Performance course at the Royal Welsh<br />
College of Music and Drama, and is a winner of the<br />
PWC/Wexford Festival Opera Emerging Young Artist<br />
bursary and the University Concert Hall Limerick<br />
Rising Star Award. She created the role of Polly<br />
in Andrew Synnott’s Dubliners (Wexford Festival<br />
Opera ShortWorks/Opera Theatre Company), and<br />
also created roles in Tom Lane’s Irish Times Irish<br />
Theatre Award-nominated opera series, The Cork<br />
Opera House Trilogy. She is a regular collaborator<br />
with composer Irene Buckley and sang in her new<br />
score for Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc<br />
(Edinburgh International Film Festival, Union Chapel<br />
London, Cork French Film Festival) and in The<br />
Lament of Art O’Leary. Other notable roles include<br />
Cunegonde in Bernstein à la carte (Wexford Festival<br />
Opera ShortWorks), Yum-Yum in Gilbert & Sullivan’s<br />
The Mikado (Cork Opera House), Handmaiden<br />
in Cherubini’s Medea (Wexford Festival Opera),<br />
Valencienne in Lehár’s The Merry Widow (Cork<br />
Opera House), Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and<br />
Gretel (Wexford Festival Opera ShortWorks), Gilda<br />
in Verdi’s Rigoletto (Opera Theatre Company), Lucia<br />
in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia (Opera Collective<br />
Ireland), Storyteller in Brian Irvine’s The Oldest<br />
Woman in Limerick (Dumbworld/Wide Open Opera),<br />
Janthe in Marschner’s Der Vampyr (The Everyman/<br />
Cork Operatic Society), and Moppet in Britten’s Paul<br />
Bunyan (Welsh National Youth Opera).<br />
Andrew completed his Masters in<br />
Music Performance at the Royal<br />
Irish Academy of Music in Dublin<br />
in 2016, achieving First Class<br />
Honours under the tutelage of Mary<br />
Brennan. He is also a graduate of<br />
the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, where<br />
he attained First Class Honours in English Literature;<br />
he also holds an MPhil in Children’s Literature from<br />
Trinity College Dublin. He made his Irish National<br />
Opera debut in April 2018 as Curzio in Mozart’s<br />
The Marriage of Figaro. In October 2017 he created<br />
the roles of Alleyne, O’Halloran and Bob in Andrew<br />
Synnott’s Dubliners at Wexford Festival Opera,<br />
and later performed the work with Opera Theatre<br />
Company in Dublin. Earlier in 2017 he sang the role<br />
of Damon in Opera Theatre Company’s national tour<br />
of Handel’s Acis and Galatea with the Irish Baroque<br />
Orchestra. He made his Wigmore Hall debut in<br />
2016 as part of Irish Culture in Britain: A Centenary<br />
Celebration. At the Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2016 he<br />
sang the role of Arbace in a concert performance of<br />
Mozart’s Idomeneo, and he was also a winner of the<br />
2016 PwC Wexford Festival Opera Emerging Young<br />
Artist bursary. His notable oratorio engagements<br />
include Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Liszt’s Coronation<br />
Mass, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Choral),<br />
Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.<br />
2 (Lobegesang), CPE Bach’s Magnificat, Mozart’s<br />
Requiem, Haydn’s The Creation, Beethoven’s Mass in<br />
C, Bach’s St John Passion and the complete Mozart<br />
mass series of the Dún Laoghaire Choral Society.<br />
Brendan trained at the Cork<br />
School of Music and the DIT<br />
Conservatory of Music and Drama,<br />
and was granted a scholarship<br />
to study at the Opera Studio of<br />
La Monnaie de Munt in Brussels<br />
under renowned bass-baritone José van Dam. He<br />
made his Irish National Opera debut as Crespel in<br />
Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann in 2018, and<br />
returned to sing Yamadori in Puccini’s Madama<br />
Butterfly in March 2019. His repertoire of over<br />
60 roles includes the title role in Puccini’s Gianni<br />
Schicchi, Conte Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di<br />
Figaro, Marcello in Puccini’s La bohème, Escamillo in<br />
Bizet’s Carmen, Tonio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Alfio<br />
in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, Germont père<br />
in Verdi’s La traviata, Paolo Albiani in Verdi’s Simon<br />
Boccanegra, Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni,<br />
Pietro de Wisants in Donizetti’s L’assedio di Calais,<br />
Marullo in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Count Gil in Wolf-<br />
Ferrari’s Susanna’s Secret, in productions with Opera<br />
Theatre Company, Wide Open Opera, Cork Operatic<br />
Society, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, English<br />
Touring Opera, Scottish Opera, Longborough Festival<br />
Opera, Iford Opera and Northern Ireland Opera. He<br />
has performed at many of the world’s leading venues<br />
including the Royal Albert Hall in London, Brooklyn<br />
Academy of Music in New York, the National Opera<br />
House, Wexford, Kennedy Center, Washington DC,<br />
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Stephansdom,<br />
Vienna, Kajetanerkirche, Salzburg, Grand Théâtre<br />
de la Ville de Luxembourg, Opéra de Lausanne,<br />
Westminster Cathedral, London, and the Hong Kong<br />
Cultural Centre.<br />
24<br />
25
BIOGRAPHIES<br />
KILKENNY<br />
ARTS FESTIVAL<br />
MAIRÉAD BUICKE<br />
SOPRANO<br />
DIE AUFSEHERIN<br />
THE OVERSEER<br />
Irish soprano Mairéad Buicke has<br />
performed major roles with English<br />
National Opera, Grange Park<br />
Opera, Opera Theatre Company<br />
and Mid Wales Opera. She has<br />
worked with the directors David<br />
Alden, Jonathan Miller, Robert Carsen and John<br />
Copley and the conductors Edward Gardner, Laurent<br />
Wagner, Stephen Barlow and Gerhard Markson,<br />
and has performed with the London Philharmonic<br />
Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra,<br />
RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Orchestra of St Cecilia,<br />
Ulster Orchestra, English National Opera Orchestra<br />
and English Northern Philharmonia. Her operatic<br />
repertoire includes Mimì and Musetta in Puccini’s La<br />
bohème, Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, the title<br />
role in Puccini’s Tosca, Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen,<br />
Pamina and First Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute,<br />
Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata, Sylviane in Lehár’s<br />
The Merry Widow, Paquette in Bernstein’s Candide,<br />
Karolka in Janáček’s Jenůfa, Second Niece in Britten’s<br />
Peter Grimes, Antonia in Offenbach’s Les Contes<br />
d’Hoffmann, Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola and<br />
Mařenka in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride. In concert<br />
she has sung Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and<br />
Gretel and Second Niece in Britten’s Peter Grimes at<br />
the BBC Proms, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony and<br />
Music from Egmont, Ravel’s Shéhérazade, Handel’s<br />
Messiah, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, and the<br />
title role in William Vincent Wallace’s opera Maritana<br />
to celebrate the 275th anniversary of the Royal Dublin<br />
Society. She has also sung as a soprano soloist with<br />
the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s<br />
Fourth and Eighth Symphonies, as well as in RTÉ’s<br />
eight-part television series, The Mozart Sessions.<br />
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA ORCHESTRA<br />
The Irish National Opera Orchestra is made up of leading<br />
freelance musicians based in Ireland. Members of the<br />
orchestra have a broad range of experience playing<br />
operatic, symphonic, chamber and new music repertoire.<br />
The orchestra plays for contemporary opera productions<br />
– Thomas Adès’s Powder her Face and Brian Irvine’s<br />
Least Like the Other – as well as chamber reductions of<br />
larger scores – Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann and<br />
Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. The orchestra, which<br />
appeared in its largest live formation to date in Rossini’s<br />
Cinderella/La Cenerentola. at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre<br />
in Dublin in 2019, numbered even more – 79 players –<br />
for the sessions to produce the soundtrack for <strong>Elektra</strong>.<br />
The Irish National Opera Orchestra has been heard in<br />
17 venues throughout Ireland.<br />
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA CHORUS<br />
Irish National Opera Chorus is a flexible ensemble of<br />
professional singers that has ranged in number from<br />
four, in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, to 60, in Verdi’s Aida.<br />
The chorus is a valuable training ground for many<br />
emerging singers and has been heard in venues large<br />
and small throughout Ireland as well as internationally.<br />
The membership is mostly drawn from singers based<br />
in Ireland. Members are frequently offered solo roles,<br />
and for <strong>INO</strong>’s touring production of Offenbach’s The<br />
Tales of Hoffmann most were also heard in a principal<br />
role. Membership of Irish National Opera’s chorus<br />
is often a springboard to greater involvement in the<br />
company’s productions. For larger works Irish National<br />
Opera collaborates with TU Dublin Conservatory of<br />
Music and Drama and the Royal Irish Academy of<br />
Music whose senior students are offered positions in<br />
the chorus, usually in tandem with specially devised<br />
professional development <strong>programme</strong>s for emerging<br />
singers. Over the course of the <strong>INO</strong>’s first two years,<br />
the company offered 200 chorus contracts to over 80<br />
individual singers.<br />
Festival Director<br />
Olga Barry<br />
Acting Marketing<br />
& Development Manager<br />
Pat Carey<br />
Festival Administrator<br />
Valerie Ryan<br />
Production Manager<br />
Aidan Wallace<br />
COVID Compliance Officer<br />
Rob Usher<br />
Programme Manager<br />
Lisa O’Brien<br />
Co-Producer<br />
Aisling O’Brien<br />
Box Office & Friends Manager<br />
Céline Reilly<br />
Assistant Box Office Manager<br />
Brian McCormack<br />
Development Officer<br />
Grace Kearney<br />
Artist Liaison<br />
Paula Fleming<br />
Programme Editor<br />
Alistair Daniel<br />
Strategic Consultant<br />
Annette Nugent<br />
Publicity<br />
O’Doherty Communications<br />
Graphic Design<br />
Íde Deloughrey<br />
Web Design<br />
Pixel Design<br />
Official IT Provider<br />
BITS<br />
Patron<br />
Michael D. Higgins<br />
President of Ireland<br />
Board of Directors<br />
Emer Foley (Chair)<br />
Brian Fennelly<br />
Lorelei Harris<br />
Conor Langton<br />
Mairéad Meagher<br />
Michael O’Toole<br />
Thomas O’Toole<br />
26<br />
27
BEING GISELLE ALLEN...<br />
Giselle Allen<br />
Photo by Glenn Norwood<br />
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THE<br />
FIRST OPERA YOU WENT TO?<br />
Do you know, I actually did not go to an opera... I<br />
actually was in an opera, and that was the first time.<br />
And that was in university. We did Purcell’s Dido and<br />
Aeneas. Originally I was playing the Spirit. But the<br />
Belinda fell off the stage two days before we opened,<br />
and broke her ankle. When I think about it it was a<br />
bit mad. I had to quickly learn Belinda. I kind of knew<br />
the arias anyway, just from hearing her sing it. The<br />
night we did it in concert, my parents came over<br />
from Belfast. I remember getting to the end of it and<br />
when the last chorus started I just burst into tears. I<br />
was sobbing because the music was so beautiful. It<br />
was probably also relief that I got through the opera<br />
and all of that. But that chorus, With drooping wings,<br />
is so beautiful, Dido was dead... I felt so emotional.<br />
My dad said to my mum, She’s really crying! That<br />
was when I caught the bug. It was in my first year.<br />
That’s when I thought, wow, I love this artform.<br />
We would have gone to the odd classical Ulster<br />
Orchestra concert when I was young, but we never<br />
went to the opera. Probably because there wasn’t<br />
a lot of opera in the Seventies going on up here in<br />
Belfast.<br />
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM YOUR<br />
FIRST PROFESSIONAL APPEARANCE ON<br />
AN OPERA STAGE?<br />
Same thing. Just thinking, o my gosh, I’m out here in<br />
front of all these people... I was maybe 24 and, yes,<br />
we’d done things in college, but this was an outside<br />
gig, I suppose, even though it was still small. It was<br />
with Clonter Opera. We did Puccini’s La bohème<br />
and I sang Musetta. A fun role, a fun character for<br />
the first half, and then a serious character for the<br />
second half. I remember thinking, o my goodness,<br />
wow, am I going to do this for a living? Is this going<br />
to be my job? It was also nerve-wracking. It wasn’t<br />
like I was one of these singers who thought, o my<br />
god, I must be on the stage. It was nerve-wracking<br />
to start with, and once I was on I would totally get<br />
into character and my nerves go. Even to this day I<br />
think it’s amazing that I can do this job for a living.<br />
WHAT WAS THE BEST OPERA OR<br />
SINGING ADVICE YOU EVER GOT?<br />
From my coach, who passed away not long<br />
after my father passed away, Ludmilla Andrew,<br />
a Canadian soprano living in London. Mila said<br />
to me just always be truthful to yourself. Just<br />
remember that not everybody is going to like<br />
you – this is probably the best bit, actually –<br />
she would say not everybody is going to like<br />
what you do. Some people will love what you do<br />
and other people will hate it. You have to just<br />
know who you are yourself and kind of go, OK,<br />
he doesn’t like me, but she likes me. Especially<br />
where auditions and things are concerned.<br />
Just go in and do your best. It’s what I tell all<br />
my students and what I tell my daughter –<br />
you’ve done the work, you’ve done your best,<br />
and that’s all you can do. If someone doesn’t<br />
hire you, it’s not because you didn’t give of<br />
your best. Always know your stuff. Never go in<br />
unprepared.<br />
WHAT IS THE MOST ANNOYING<br />
MISCONCEPTION ABOUT OPERA?<br />
That it’s for the elite. It still has that kind of<br />
class system thing pinned to it. That we won’t<br />
understand it. It’s beyond us. It’s so not true.<br />
Most opera singers are normal people, like me – I<br />
come from a working-class background. If I invite<br />
people, I always try and invite them to something<br />
like a Bohème, where they can understand it’s a<br />
real emotional story. It’s a proper journey about<br />
emotions, and that they can relate to it. Falling in<br />
love with somebody, falling out with somebody.<br />
Life and death. Or Janáček’s Katya Kabanová, an<br />
unhappy woman in an unhappy marriage, meets<br />
somebody else, has an affair. They are all human<br />
emotions that people can understand.<br />
WHAT MOMENT DO YOU MOST LOOK<br />
FORWARD TO WHEN YOU GO TO A<br />
PERFORMANCE OF ELEKTRA?<br />
I suppose to me the most beautiful music is<br />
when <strong>Elektra</strong> discovers Orest is alive. She sings<br />
an aria to him and it’s the most beautiful music.<br />
It’s absolutely stunning. That moment is half way<br />
through and everything before has been so manic<br />
and then suddenly you get this really beautiful,<br />
lyrical, wonderful melody, and lush strings.<br />
WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING<br />
ASPECT OF SINGING ELEKTRA?<br />
It’s not giving away too much too soon. Because<br />
it’s a long process, a long journey. There’s a lot of<br />
singing. You don’t get off stage at all. So you have<br />
29
Image: Giselle Allen as <strong>Elektra</strong><br />
Pre-production photo by Ruth Medjber<br />
to really pace yourself to not overblow emotionally<br />
at the beginning. If you do you’ll just not get to the<br />
end. I spoke to Sue Bulllock, the English soprano<br />
who’s sung <strong>Elektra</strong> 140 times or something crazy<br />
like that. I rang her, because she’s a friend, and<br />
asked her what are the tips. She just said you<br />
can’t give away too much. And when you can<br />
sing lyrically, you’ve got to sing lyrically. It’s not<br />
all power out, screaming your head off the whole<br />
time. You’ve got to pace it, vocally and emotionally.<br />
Because I am a very emotional singer.<br />
TELL ME ABOUT MANAGING CHANGE<br />
IN AN OPERA CAREER – IN THE<br />
VOICE, IN THE REPERTOIRE, IN THE<br />
PROFESSION’S PERCEPTION OF YOU<br />
It’s difficult. I think as a soprano, because the<br />
Fach system [the German system of categorising<br />
voices and allocating roles according to those<br />
categorisations] is difficult enough. But also there<br />
is ageism in our job. There is. You reach a certain<br />
age and it’s kind of like, well, you’re not this star<br />
any more, unless you have gone into different<br />
repertoire. But you have to go and sing all that<br />
new repertoire to people again. If you’re lucky<br />
enough like me to work at Opera North for 20<br />
years, they have always guided me really well, and<br />
they’ve always offered me the role the next step<br />
up, thankfully. But that doesn’t always happen.<br />
Companies that I don’t work for a lot I am now<br />
going to have to go and sing this new repertoire<br />
that I’m working on, which is this slightly heavier,<br />
dramatic soprano repertoire. They’ll look down my<br />
CV and maybe go, why is she singing that now, and<br />
we haven’t heard her sing that. You kind of have to<br />
go and prove yourself to new companies that this<br />
is the repertoire you sing. That’s just something<br />
you have to accept and get on with and go, OK, I’ll<br />
just go and sing some new things to you. The voice<br />
is constantly changing. When I had my daughter,<br />
my voice changed. Now, I’m 51 in a couple of<br />
months’ time, even though I don’t look that age<br />
on stage, people will be, like, no, if we’re casting<br />
Jenufa we need someone in their thirties. That<br />
has changed from years ago. When I first started<br />
covering at Opera North, I covered Vivian Tierney a<br />
lot, the British soprano, and she was singing Katya<br />
and she was nearly 50 then. It was fine then to be<br />
singing that role at that age. That was the norm.<br />
You didn’t expect young singers to be singing those<br />
really difficult, emotionally dramatic roles. Now<br />
it’s changed completely. There’s a lot of younger<br />
casting going on. I’ve been singing for 20 years,<br />
and I suddenly have to go out and almost re-sell<br />
myself – to some companies. You just have to get<br />
on with it and do it, and not feel, Ugh, why do I have<br />
to do this? If you want to work, you have to do it.<br />
IF YOU HADN’T BECOME AN OPERA<br />
SINGER, WHAT MIGHT YOU HAVE BECOME?<br />
I would have probably become a nurse. I would<br />
have been in a caring profession. I like looking<br />
after people. Probably that. I did want to<br />
specialise in music therapy, but I think I would<br />
have just done straight nursing.<br />
IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL DERVAN<br />
30<br />
27
ABL AVIATION OPERA STUDIO<br />
ABL Aviation, the international aviation investment company<br />
with offices in Dublin, New York, Casablanca, Dubai and<br />
Hong Kong, is the principal sponsor of Irish National Opera’s<br />
studio mentoring <strong>programme</strong>.<br />
Members of ABL Aviation Opera Studio are involved in all<br />
of Irish National Opera’s productions, large and small. They<br />
sing onstage in roles or in the chorus, understudy lead roles<br />
– enabling them to watch and emulate great artists at work –<br />
and, for non-singing members, they join in the world of opera<br />
rehearsals as assistants.<br />
Studio members also receive individual coaching, attend<br />
masterclasses and receive mentorship from leading Irish and<br />
international singers and musicians. Brenda Hurley, Head of<br />
Opera at the Royal Academy of Music, London, is the vocal<br />
consultant who guides our singers throughout the year. One<br />
of Ireland’s leading theatres, The Civic, Tallaght, works with<br />
the studio as a cultural partner, and the theatre’s artistic<br />
director, Michael Barker-Caven, is the studio’s stagecraft<br />
consultant.<br />
Other areas of specific attention are performance and<br />
language skills, and members are assisted in their individual<br />
personal musical development and given professional career<br />
guidance. They benefit from Irish National Opera’s national<br />
and international contacts and ABL Aviation Opera Studio<br />
also develops and promotes specially tailored events to help<br />
the members hone specific skills and showcase their work.<br />
For information contact Studio & Outreach Producer<br />
James Bingham at james@irishnationalopera.ie<br />
33
NEAR AND FAR, HIGH<br />
AND LOW<br />
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA IS FOR EVERYONE<br />
Opera is our passion. And we want to share that<br />
passion. Not just through live events in cities<br />
and towns, large and small, but also through<br />
educational initiatives in schools and colleges,<br />
and community activities that appeal to young<br />
and old alike.<br />
Photo: Pupils from Bennekerry<br />
Primary School giving an operatic<br />
blast in a Popera project with Irish<br />
National Opera, the Royal Irish<br />
Academy of Music, and Music<br />
Generation Carlow<br />
OPERA WHEREVER YOU ARE<br />
We take our productions to all corners of the land, from<br />
Dublin to Galway, Tralee to Letterkenny, Wexford to Sligo.<br />
And if you’re not able to come to us, we can come to you<br />
wherever you are in the world. Our digital platform, with many<br />
offerings that can be viewed for free, has won praise from the<br />
international media. And we will be launching exciting new<br />
online projects over the coming months.<br />
TRAILBLAZING DEVELOPMENTS<br />
IN THE COMMUNITY<br />
Our innovative virtual reality community opera, Out of<br />
the Ordinary, is already in full swing. It’s a voyage into the<br />
unknown and will place people from the communities involved<br />
directly at the heart of the creative process. The project is not<br />
just embracing new technologies and widening participation<br />
in the arts at a community level. It is also exploring the cutting<br />
edge relationship between opera and digital technology. We<br />
are working with our partners in The Civic, Tallaght, Conradh<br />
na Gaeilge and Music Generation Offaly/Westmeath to have<br />
the project ready for nationwide touring in 2022.<br />
ABL AVIATION OPERA STUDIO<br />
The professional development and employment of Irish artists are key to the success<br />
of Irish National Opera itself, and the ABL Aviation Opera Studio is our artistic development<br />
<strong>programme</strong>. It provides specially tailored training, professional mentoring and high-level<br />
professional engagements for a group of individuals – singers, répétiteurs, conductors,<br />
directors, composers – whose success will be key to the future development of<br />
opera in Ireland.<br />
IN FOCUS<br />
Our pre-performance In Focus talks aim to provide background to the works in our major<br />
productions. They delve into all aspects of opera, from the histories of specific works, the<br />
development of the characters and the issues facing performers and composers – where<br />
possible with the actual performers and composers themselves.<br />
INSPIRING MUSIC STUDENTS<br />
We work with third-level music students through workshops designed to give them a fuller<br />
understanding of the inner workings of the world of opera, that heady mixture of musical and<br />
theatrical skills that make possible the magic that is opera. Colleges and universities we have<br />
worked with include University College Dublin, National College of Art and Design, Maynooth<br />
University, NUI Galway, TU Dublin and the Royal Irish Academy of Music.<br />
34<br />
35
FOUNDERS CIRCLE<br />
Anonymous<br />
Desmond Barry & John Redmill<br />
Valerie Beatty & Dennis Jennings<br />
Mark & Nicola Beddy<br />
Carina & Ali Ben Lmadani<br />
Mary Brennan<br />
Angie Brown<br />
Breffni & Jean Byrne<br />
Jennifer Caldwell<br />
Seán Caldwell & Richard Caldwell<br />
Caroline Classon, in memoriam<br />
David Warren, Gorey<br />
Audrey Conlon<br />
Gerardine Connolly<br />
Jackie Connolly<br />
Gabrielle Croke<br />
Sarah Daniel<br />
Maureen de Forge<br />
Doreen Delahunty & Michael Moriarty<br />
Joseph Denny<br />
Kate Donaghy<br />
Marcus Dowling<br />
Mareta & Conor Doyle<br />
Noel Doyle & Brigid McManus<br />
Michael Duggan<br />
Catherine & William Earley<br />
Jim & Moira Flavin<br />
Ian & Jean Flitcroft<br />
Anne Fogarty<br />
Maire & Maurice Foley<br />
Roy & Aisling Foster<br />
Howard Gatiss<br />
Genesis<br />
Hugh & Mary Geoghegan<br />
Diarmuid Hegarty<br />
M Hely Hutchinson<br />
Gemma Hussey<br />
Kathy Hutton & David McGrath<br />
Nuala Johnson<br />
Susan Kiely<br />
Timothy King & Mary Canning<br />
J & N Kingston<br />
Kate & Ross Kingston<br />
Silvia & Jay Krehbiel<br />
Karlin Lillington & Chris Horn<br />
Stella Litchfield<br />
Jane Loughman<br />
Rev Bernárd Lynch & Billy Desmond<br />
Lyndon MacCann SC<br />
Phyllis Mac Namara<br />
Tony & Joan Manning<br />
R John McBratney<br />
Ruth McCarthy, in memoriam Niall<br />
& Barbara McCarthy<br />
Petria McDonnell<br />
Jim McKiernan<br />
Tyree & Jim McLeod<br />
Jean Moorhead<br />
Sara Moorhead<br />
Joe & Mary Murphy<br />
Ann Nolan & Paul Burns<br />
FX & Pat O’Brien<br />
James & Sylvia O’Connor<br />
John & Viola O’Connor<br />
Joseph O’Dea<br />
Dr J R O’Donnell<br />
Deirdre O’Donovan & Daniel Collins<br />
Diarmuid O’Dwyer<br />
Patricia O’Hara<br />
Annmaree O’Keefe & Chris Greene<br />
Carmel & Denis O’Sullivan<br />
Líosa O’Sullivan & Mandy Fogarty<br />
Hilary Pratt<br />
Sue Price<br />
Landmark Productions<br />
Riverdream Productions<br />
Nik Quaife & Emerson Bruns<br />
Margaret Quigley<br />
Patricia Reilly<br />
Dr Frances Ruane<br />
Catherine Santoro<br />
Dermot & Sue Scott<br />
Yvonne Shields<br />
Fergus Sheil Sr<br />
Gaby Smyth<br />
Matthew Patrick Smyth<br />
Bruce Stanley<br />
Sara Stewart<br />
The Wagner Society of Ireland<br />
Julian & Beryl Stracey<br />
Michael Wall & Simon Nugent<br />
Brian Walsh & Barry Doocey<br />
Judy Woodworth<br />
★★★★★<br />
“Vibrant, relevant<br />
and compelling”<br />
IRISH TIMES<br />
“stunning”<br />
SUNDAY INDEPENDENT<br />
BRIAN IRVINE & NETIA JONES<br />
LEAST LIKE THE OTHER<br />
SEARCHING FOR ROSEMARY KENNEDY<br />
SAT 11, TUE 14, WED 15, THU 16, FRI 17 & SAT 18 SEPT<br />
O’REILLY THEATRE BELVEDERE COLLEGE DUBLIN 1<br />
WED 22 SEPT<br />
CORK OPERA HOUSE CORK<br />
SAT 25 SEPT<br />
LIMETREE THEATRE LIMERICK<br />
Details on irishnationalopera.ie<br />
36
<strong>INO</strong> TEAM<br />
James Bingham<br />
Studio & Outreach Producer<br />
Sorcha Carroll<br />
Marketing Manager<br />
Aoife Daly<br />
Development Manager<br />
Diego Fasciati<br />
Executive Director<br />
Sarah Halpin<br />
Digital Communications<br />
Manager<br />
Cate Kelliher<br />
Business & Finance Manager<br />
Audrey Keogan<br />
Development Assistant<br />
Claire Lowney<br />
Marketing Executive<br />
Patricia Malpas<br />
Project Administrator<br />
Muireann Ní Dhubhghaill<br />
Artistic Administrator<br />
Gavin O’Sullivan<br />
Head of Production<br />
Fergus Sheil<br />
Artistic Director<br />
Paula Tierney<br />
Company Stage Manager<br />
Board of Directors<br />
Gaby Smyth (Chair)<br />
Jennifer Caldwell<br />
Tara Erraught<br />
Gerard Howlin<br />
Gary Joyce<br />
Stella Litchfield<br />
Sara Moorhead<br />
Joseph Murphy<br />
Ann Nolan<br />
Yvonne Shields<br />
Michael Wall<br />
Irish National Opera<br />
69 Dame Street<br />
Dublin 2 | Ireland<br />
T: 01–679 4962<br />
E: info@irishnationalopera.ie<br />
irishnationalopera.ie<br />
@irishnationalopera<br />
@irishnatopera<br />
@irishnationalopera<br />
Company Reg No.: 601853<br />
Registered Charity: 22403<br />
(RCN) 20204547<br />
PETER MAXWELL DAVIES<br />
THE LIGHTHOUSE<br />
ON TOUR SAT 20 NOVEMBER – SAT 11 DECEMBER<br />
AN TÁIN DUNDALK THE EVERYMAN CORK SIAMSA TÍRE TRALEE<br />
GLÓR ENNIS SOLSTICE ARTS CENTRE NAVAN<br />
O’REILLY THEATRE DUBLIN MERMAID ARTS CENTRE BRAY<br />
AN GRIANÁN LETTERKENNY<br />
Details on irishnationalopera.ie<br />
38
irishnationalopera.ie