Salome 2024 Programme

RICHARD STRAUSS 1864–1949
SALOME
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA
PRINCIPAL FUNDER
1905
IN ASSOCIATION WITH BORD GÁIS ENERGY THEATRE.
THIS PRODUCTION IS MADE POSSIBLE BY A GENEROUS
CONTRIBUTION FROM A PRIVATE DONOR.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH BORD
GÁIS ENERGY THEATRE
DRAMA IN ONE ACT
Libretto by the composer based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the
French original of Oscar Wilde’s play Salomé.
First performance, Hofoper Dresden, 9 December 1905.
First Irish performance, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, 11 April 1999.
SUNG IN GERMAN WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES
Running time 1 hour and 45 minutes without interval.
The performances on Thursday 14 and Saturday 16 March are being recorded for
future streaming on www.operavision.eu
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to the Alliance Française, the Lycée Français
and French Ambassador Vincent Guérend. We are also grateful
to the National Gallery of Ireland; Gus Dewar; Joe Csibi and
Andrew Smith of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra; and Artane School
of Music.
PERFORMANCES 2024
Sunday 3 March National Opera House Wexford CONCERT PERFORMANCE
Tuesday 12 March Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin
Thursday 14 March Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin
Saturday 16 March Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin
#INOSalome
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EXTREME OPERA
FERGUS SHEIL
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
The unpredictable conditions of 2021 tore up the rulebook
for arts planners. Our plans at that stage already
included Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier for 2023. But in the
summer of 2021 we could only perform outdoors. And,
after I went to see the unique courtyard setting of Castle
Yard in Kilkenny I couldn’t get Strauss’s Elektra out of my
mind. So it was through the last-minute decision to stage
Elektra in collaboration with Kilkenny Arts Festival that we
began our Strauss odyssey.
Salome, our third instalment, provides a wonderful
opportunity to celebrate Irish soprano Sinéad Campbell
Wallace as she takes on the remarkable title role for the
first time. Sinéad is enjoying a glittering international
career in dramatic soprano repertoire. She was the only
opera singer nominated for an Olivier Award last year,
for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for her portrayal
of Tosca at English National Opera. Dublin audiences
heard her in same role with Irish National Opera in 2022,
and I can’t wait to hear her open a new chapter in her
extraordinary operatic voyage.
turns up the heat up to levels Puccini would never have
countenanced.
Both Salome and Elektra come from relatively early in
Strauss’s operatic output. Perhaps the composer wanted
to test the extreme possibilities of expressionism before
retreating to a more sumptuous world in his next opera,
Der Rosenkavalier. But the events of Salome and Elektra
tell us a lot about about complex interactions of power,
relationships, family, love, lust and exploitation. Theses are
issues which have not dimmed with the passage of time
any more than the extreme brutality of the plots.
Salome is not for the faint-hearted. On stage the vocal
demands are Olympian, and, in the pit, the complexity
of the psychological drama is etched into every line in
the orchestral score. More than a century after its first
performance it remains one of opera’s greatest and most
memorable white-knuckle rides.
Working on Elektra, I was struck afresh by the barbarity
of the story and how Strauss’s music responded to and
amplified this. Salome is equally shocking. The opera,
based on Oscar Wilde’s 1893 play, was premiered in 1905,
astonishingly just five years after Puccini’s Tosca. Although
Tosca itself is red-hot with passion and emotion, Salome
04 05

HORROR AND BEAUTY
DIEGO FASCIATI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
How lucky are we that in 1902 Richard Strauss happened
to attend a German-language production of Oscar Wilde’s
play Salomé in Berlin and immediately decided to set it to
music? He had already read the play. But Max Reinhardt’s
production and Hedwig Lachmann’s new translation lit a
fire under him. Salome (Strauss dropped the accent from
Wilde’s title) launched the composer’s international opera
career and gifted us an opera that is intensely absorbing
and beautifully horrifying.
Like many operatic masterpieces, Salome finds its origins
in a multitude of sources and linguistic landscapes. The
biblical account of a princess’s desire for the head of John
the Baptist is remarkably brief and violent. It inspired
a multitude of artists to paint and re-create this gory
episode, adding detail and inventing contexts for dramatic
effect. Works by French writers Gustave Flaubert and
Stéphane Mallarmé and German poet Heinrich Heine,
among others, preceded and influenced Oscar Wilde’s
idiosyncratic play, which stands in extreme contrast to the
subsequent comedies that would make him the toast of
London, at least for a while.
Strauss’s opera has gone on to eclipse Wilde’s play, though
not in Ireland. Here the play is admired and alive in the
imagination of audiences. Certainly this is due in part to
some extraordinary productions in the past few decades,
including one directed by Steven Berkoff at Dublin’s Gate
Theatre, with the great artist Olwen Fouéré in the title role
and composer Roger Doyle live onstage, performing his
score on piano.
Wilde actually wrote the play in French and it was Lord
Alfred Douglas who made the first English translation.
There are experts who still view the work as untranslatable
and contend that it should be heard in the original French.
Even before the opening night of the opera, Strauss himself
had decided to rewrite the vocal lines to accommodate
productions in France with Wilde’s original words.
“It must become a real French opera,” he later wrote,
“not a translation!!!”
It is always a pleasure to collaborate with colleagues
from across the cultural spectrum to illuminate the
all-encompassing art form that is opera. And we are
particularly happy to have been able to present a public
reading of Wilde’s original text. A big merci to Fabienne
Clerot and Christine Weld at the Alliance Française and
to the Lycée Français. We are also grateful to the National
Gallery of Ireland for last month’s public lecture by Adrian
Le Harivel on Strauss and the Shock of Salomé.
Now it’s over to Strauss himself. Enjoy!
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08
07

DIRECTOR’S NOTE
BRUNO RAVELLA
BURNO RAVELLA
Strauss’s 1905 opera Salome uses as its libretto the
scandalous play of the same name by Oscar Wilde, first
performed nine years earlier. The transformation from page
to stage and then to opera presents many challenges, not
least managing audience expectations of a theme both
salacious and violent. I discussed with the designer Leslie
Travers this “dream to nightmare” trajectory, from the
Apollonian opening to the Dionysiac ending.
Unusually the opera opens in silence with the luminous moon
and stars. A solo clarinet enlivens the scene. This musical
motif is that of Salome and its sinuousness suggests the
slithery snake of Eden. We are in a garden.
Strauss’s libretto is shorter than Wilde’s play and, as in
the play, there is no resemblance to the biblical version in
which Salome is a pawn in the hands of her mother. Wilde
has transformed her into a young woman who discovers her
sexuality and the power that comes with it. Her act of will is to
ask for John the Baptist’s head, telling her mother and Herod:
“I don’t listen to my mother’s voice. It is for my own pleasure
that I want the head of Jochanaan on a silver platter”.
The word “pleasure” here is pivotal. Is she simply perverse?
I see her passion for Jochanan as her first experience of erotic
love and she feels she will never experience it again. As he
refuses her when alive, she will have him dead, he will then
be forever hers. The passion of this young girl is both moving
and powerful. She thinks she has understood all about love.
In her final “Liebestod”, like Isolde, she believes love can only
happen in the final surrender to death. Salome’s love is eros:
the old god of desire. Jochanaan’s love is agape, the spiritual
love of the new god for his followers.
The set takes its inspiration from a medieval cistern. It suggests
a claustrophobic space, a prison as well as a place in which the
normal strictures of the palace do not apply. It is also a place
of voyeuristic exploration. The verbs “to see”, “to watch” or “to
look at” are used extensively throughout the text. We are keen
to show how the viewer and viewed are organised in one space.
This enclosed space contains opposing energies, those of insiders
and outsiders, observer and observed, in which the audience is
privileged to enter a private space but at the same time outside
its power. When Salome meets Jochanaan for the first time we
witness the confrontation of two worlds: the Old Testament, a
world of corruption and decadence, and the New Testament in
its original purity. We have a clash of two realities, that of the mind
and that of the body. What attracts Salome to Jochanaan is his
purity and his otherness from all she has known.
The set also had to be as epic as the piece and to evolve to express
the emotions at play. For Salome, Jochanaan opens up a world of
possibilities. The claustrophobia connected with her situation turns
to liberation and a feeling of space when she meets him. She offers
herself to Jochanaan without any restraint. There is no strategy,
just total sincerity. She is as true to her nature as he is to his.
When he leaves her, she feels this as an existential abandonment.
We were keen from the outset to use water for all its associations
with the characters and the situation. In the cistern is Jochanaan,
who through baptism, had the power to cleanse people of sin.
Water is a symbol of purification in religious ceremonies. But it
can also indicate the id, or what lies beneath, and is associated
with the female element. An opera which starts with the moon,
always associated with female power, ends with a grotesque
display of that power.
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FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH
RICHARD STRAUSS ON SALOME.
Image: 1903 portrait of Gertrud
Eysoldt as Salome by Lovis Corinth
(1858–1925).
I was in Berlin to see Gertrud Eysoldt [German actress, 1870–
1955] in Wilde’s Salome at Max Reinhardt’s Little Theatre.
After the performance I met Heinrich Grünfeld [Prague-born
cellist, 1855–1931], who said to me, “My dear Strauss, there’s
material here for a real opera for you.” I was able to reply, “I
am already composing it.” The Viennese poet Anton Lindner
[1874–1928] had already sent me this exquisite work and
offered to create a libretto for me from it. I agreed and he sent
me a few cleverly versified opening scenes. But I couldn’t find
my way to compose anything. Then, one day it occurred to me
to start with Wie schön ist die Prinzessin Salome heute Nacht
[How beautiful is Princess Salome tonight!]. From that point on,
it wasn’t at all difficult to prune the text of its literary excesses
and turn it into a genuine libretto. Now that the dance and
especially the entire final scene have been infused with music,
it’s no special feat to claim that the piece was “crying out for
music.” Yes. But one had to be able to see that first!
I had long criticised operas on Oriental and Jewish subjects
where authentic Eastern colour and a blistering sun were
missing. I needed to remedy the situation and this led me to
truly exotic harmonies, especially those strange cadences
which shimmer like shot silk. I was looking for the the sharpest
of characterisations and this led me to bitonality. A purely
rhythmic characterisation, which Mozart used so brilliantly,
did not seem strong enough to convey the contrast between
Herod and the Nazarene. You could call it a unique experiment
on a special subject, but you could not recommend it for
imitation. After the splendid Schuch [Austrian conductor Ernst
von Schuch, 1846–1914] courageously took Salome on for
performance, the difficulties began as early as the first piano
reading. All the soloists gathered, intending to return their parts to
the conductor, except for the Czech Burian [the Herod of the first
production, tenor Karel Burian, 1970–1924], who was the last to be
asked for an opinion. He replied, “I already know it by heart.” Bravo!
Now the others were embarrassed, and the rehearsal could actually
begin. [A 1905 review reported that Burian found his role so difficult
that he had to study it “not act by act, but bar by bar”.]
During the stage rehearsals, the highly dramatic Frau Wittich
[German soprano Marie Wittich, 1868–1931], who had been
entrusted with the role of the 16-year-old princess with the voice
of an Isolde, occasionally protested with the indignation of a
Saxon Burgomaster’s wife about the difficulty of the part and the
heaviness of the orchestration: “I won’t do that, I am a decent
woman.” The director Wirk [Munich-based director and former
buffo tenor Willi Wirk], was oriented towards “perversity and
ruthlessness,” and she drove him to despair! Yet Frau Wittich,
whose figure was not suitable for the role, was actually right
(though for a different reason); later exotic dancers would use
snake-like movements and swing the head of Jochanaan in the
air in a way that often did exceed all bounds of decency and taste!
Anyone who has been to the Orient and observed the modesty of
the local women will understand that Salome, as a chaste virgin,
as an oriental princess, should only be played with the simplest,
most refined gestures, lest her failure against the miracle of a
magnificent world elicit only horror and disgust rather than pity.
(It should be noted here that the high B flat of the double bass
during the murder of the Baptist is not a cry of pain from the victim,
but moaning sighs from the breast of the impatiently waiting
Salome. This ominous passage caused such terror in the dress
rehearsal that Graf Seebach [the intendant of the Hofoper in
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Image: Caricature of Richard Strauss
by Oskar Garvens (1874–1951).
Dresden, Count Nicolaus von Seebach, 1854–1930],
feared it could prompt a burst of laughter, and
persuaded me to mask the double bass with a sustained
B flat from the cor anglais). In general, and in contrast to
the overly excited music, the acting of the singers must
be limited to the utmost simplicity. Herod must always
remember that, as an Eastern parvenu, he should
endeavour to maintain his posture and dignity before
his Roman guests, in imitation of the greater Caesar in
Rome, in spite of all the hysteria and momentary erotic
lapses. Raging on and off the stage at the same time – that would be too much! The orchestra alone
can handle that! When I played the score on the piano to my dear father a few months before he
died, he moaned in despair, “God, this nervous music! It’s like having all sorts of beetles crawling
around in your pants.” He wasn’t entirely wrong. Cosima Wagner, at whose urgent request I played
parts of the score in Berlin (although I had advised against it), remarked after the final scene,
“This is madness! You are made for the exotic, Siegfried for the popular!”
Boom! The premiere was a success, as was usual in Dresden, but afterwards at the Bellevue Hotel
the critics shook their heads and agreed that the piece might be performed in a few very large
theatres but would soon disappear. Three weeks later, I believe, it had been accepted at ten theatres
and had a sensational success in Breslau with a 70-piece orchestra! Then the real nonsense began
in the papers, and the clergy raised objections – the first performance in the Vienna State Opera
took place in October 1918, after tricky correspondence with Archbishop Piffl. And there were
objections, too, from the Puritans in New York, where the work had to be taken off the stage after the
premiere at the insistence of a certain Mr. Morgan. The German Kaiser only allowed the opera to be
performed after Hülsen [Prussian court official and theatre intendant Georg von Hülsen, later Graf
von Hülsen-Haeseler, 1858–1922] had the idea of symbolising the arrival of the Magi at the end
through the appearance of the morning star. Wilhelm II once said to his intendant, “I’m sorry that
Strauss composed this Salome. I like him very much, but it will do him a lot of damage.” I got to build
my villa at Garmisch thanks to this damage! I remember with gratitude the brave Berlin publisher
Adolph Fürstner [1833–1908], who had the courage to print the work, for which other colleagues
(e.g., Hugo Bock [1848–1932]) did not envy him at all at first. But the action of this wise and kind
Jew would also secure Der Rosenkavalier for him. All honour to his memory!
An Italian impresario, who could not afford Fürstner’s fees and was unable to find a printed score,
had a little-known Kapellmeister orchestrate a new score from the piano reduction! He wanted to
perform it, without permission, in Holland, which, I believe, was outside the Berne Convention at that
time. When Fürstner heard of this, he negotiated with the resourceful gentleman and finally reached
an agreement to surrender his new score to us and perform the work according to my score, if I
could be persuaded to conduct the Amsterdam performance myself. I believed I had to “save my
work” (“Oh, what an ass I am!” as it says in Ariadne), and I agreed. What awaited me in Amsterdam,
however, defies description! A pitiful Italian troupe whose abilities barely exceeded those of a sixthclass
performance of Il trovatore, who could hardly handle their roles, a beer garden orchestra that
would have needed at least twenty rehearsals to become halfway presentable – that was what I
had at my disposal for a dress rehearsal! It was dreadful. And I couldn’t withdraw without risking a
huge sum in damages. So it all had to be endured. I got through the evening feeling annoyed and
ashamed. And, oh miracle! At the end, my old friend Justizrat Fritz Sieger [dedicatee of Strauss’s
Op. 39 songs], my supporter at the Frankfurt Museum since the F minor Symphony, who happened
to attend the performance, told me it had been a quite good performance and he had enjoyed
it immensely. Could it be that the personal suggestiveness of my baton was so great that even a
connoisseur overlooked the shortcomings of the performance? Or is the work simply indestructible?
I believe the latter, because when I saw the piece in Innsbruck two years ago with double winds
(orchestra of 56) and admittedly a good cast of soloists – an excellent Swede, Madame Sönderquist
– I had to admit that even with this limitation, it still made an impact. The moral of the story:
how many lines of score could I have saved if, from the beginning, I had written a score like
the clever little Italian conductor whose orchestration had been created for seasons in Ferrara and
Piacenza? But these “l’art pour l’art” artists, who don’t compose “mysteries of national spiritual
life” (Münchner Neueste Nachrichten of 9 February 1942), are simply unteachable! The secret of
a 40-line page in a score is still greater than the secret of a “romantic” purse.
From Richard Strauss’s 1942 article, Recollections of the first performances of my operas, from
Guntram to Intermezzo.
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WAITING
FOR LA TRAVIATA
“La traviata is one of the first operas
I fell in love with, my first full opera
production as an assistant conductor.
It is still one of the most exciting and
heart-rending pieces I know. From the
very first notes, we sense that tragedy
will ensue. The opera swings between
huge, thrilling party scenes and
incredibly intimate, fragile moments.
It is always an exciting challenge
to bring these contrasts to life in
performance. It feels particularly
fitting that my INO debut is in this
opera, in the same theatre where
I first worked on it.”
KILLIAN FARRELL, CONDUCTOR
MAY 2024
NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE, WEXFORD
FRI 17 MAY
GAIETY THEATRE, DUBLIN
TUE 21, WED 22, THUR 23,
FRI 24 & SAT 25 MAY
CORK OPERA HOUSE, CORK
WED 29 & FRI 31 MAY
BOOKING on www.irishnationalopera.ie
Image: Portrait of
Marie Duplessis
(1823–47),
“La dame aux
camélias,” [the
model for Violetta]
by Jean-Charles
Olivier, ca 1845.
“With exquisite musical mastery Verdi
poured all his compassion, humanity
and support for women, victims
of a harsh patriarchal society, into
his wonderful, heart-breaking La
traviata. The multi-faceted Violetta,
coquette, vamp, courtesan, dreamer,
pragmatist, laughs at all the men who
fall at her feet – until the moment she
is overwhelmed by the sincerity of a
young man, and falls in love. Her story
shows both the joy and fragility of
human existence and throws light on
the harsh realities of a society full of
inequality and hypocrisy.”
OLIVIA FUCHS, DIRECTOR
“INO’s first La traviata is a thrilling
prospect, a tragic tale exquisitely told
in Verdi’s emotional score. I never
cease to marvel at the beauty of
the arias, while the story and tragic
ending can wring the stoniest heart.”
PATRICIA O’HARA INO MEMBER
19

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DÚN LAOGHAIRE
SYNOPSIS
THE GREAT TERRACE IN THE PALACE
OF HEROD AT TIBERIAS, GALILEE, THE
CAPITAL OF HIS KINGDOM. ABOUT 30 AD.
On the great terrace of Herod’s palace, the
young captain, Narraboth, admires the beautiful
princess Salome who sits at the banquet table
with her stepfather Herod and his guests. A
page warns the captain that something terrible
may happen if he continues to stare at the
princess, but Narraboth won’t listen. The voice
of the prophet Jochanaan (John the Baptist)
is heard from the cistern below where he is
kept prisoner, proclaiming the coming of the
Messiah. Two soldiers comment on his kindness
and Herod’s fear of him.
Salome steps out on the terrace, disgusted by
Herod’s advances toward her. Jochanaan’s
voice is heard again, cursing Herod and Herodias,
Salome’s mother. Transfixed by this voice, Salome
persuades the captain to bring the prophet to her.
At first frightened, Salome quickly grows
fascinated and begs Jochanaan to let her
touch his white body, then his black hair, and
finally let her kiss his red mouth. The prophet
forcefully rejects her. Narraboth, in despair
over her actions, stabs himself. Jochanaan
swears Salome will never kiss his mouth and
tells her to save herself by seeking Christ. His
words fall on deaf ears, he curses her as the
daughter of an adulteress and leaves.
Herod comes out on the terrace looking for
Salome. After commenting on the strange
look of the moon, he slips in Narraboth’s
blood and has hallucinations. Herodias
dismisses his fears but Herod’s attention
has turned toward Salome. When Jochanaan
resumes the denunciation of Herodias, she
demands that Herod hand over the prophet
to the Jews. Herod refuses, maintaining that
Jochanaan is a holy man who has seen God.
These words spark an argument among the
Jews concerning the true nature of God, until
two Nazarenes relate the miracles of Jesus.
Herod asks Salome to dance for him. She
refuses, but he wins her over by promising
to give her anything she wants in return.
Ignoring her mother’s pleas, Salome dances
for the king. Delighted, Herod asks her what
reward she would like. Salome replies with a
smile: the head of John the Baptist on a silver
platter. Herodias is delighted whilst Herod is
horrified. He offers other rewards but Salome
is adamant, and reminds him of his oath. He
finally gives in, and the executioner goes to
do his gruesome task. When the prophet’s
head is brought to her, Salome passionately
addresses Jochanaan as if he were still alive,
and finally kisses his lips.
Herod, shocked and terrified, orders his men
to kill her, and she is stoned to death.
A CO-PRODUCTION WITH THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE AND NOUVEL OPÉRA FRIBOURG. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH IRISH BAROQUE ORCHESTRA.
21

BEING LIZ ROCHE...
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THE
FIRST OPERA YOU WENT TO?
I’d say I was probably working on the first
opera that I went to. My strongest memories
of going to see an opera, wouldn’t have been
till I was in my 20s. I was dancing in a dance
company in Vienna, and you used to be able
to get really cheap standing tickets at the
Volksoper. It was one of those really lovely
summers, like boiling summers, and it was
my first summer in Vienna. I was feeling very
cultured and very with it. I watched the first
half of Puccini’s La bohème. It was the end
of a rehearsal day, so I was kind of tired. I
remember being amazed, because it was
completely packed and it was the height
of summer. It just felt like such a shared
experience, you know, everyone there was
overheating, standing beside each other. It was
a little strange because the production is so
about being cold and winter. I just remember
being kind of transported with the music and
feeling...I don’t know, feeling a bit like I’d
arrived in life or in adulthood. Because I could
go to the opera and I could do that on my own.
I think it’s the times where I’ve gone to see an
opera on my own that I’ve always felt are very
special. I don’t know why. I feel like having the
huge spectacle, and it’s all mine for myself,
is always very special. I remember going to
see a production of Salome in the Gaiety, in
Opera Ireland’s production [in 1999]. Again,
I was sitting there on my own and just got
transported. Yeah. I always find that the
ability to be transported into another place,
and to just surf on the music and get lost in it,
is always very special for me. It’s very intense.
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THE
FIRST OPERA YOU WORKED IN?
The first opera I danced in was when I was
16. It was Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, and
it was in the Gaiety. God, it’s a long time ago
[1992]. I was dressed in this kind of Harlequin
outfit and had to come out and do a little
dance on point. I must have been the party
entertainment or something. I had to enter
the stage and I had to be seated on one of the
other dancer’s shoulders. The prop corner
in the Gaiety wasn’t that high. So we were all
completely hunched over and being squashed
up into the ceiling and, you know, then sort
of pushing out on stage, and then the big
presentation. I suppose that was my first real
time immersed in opera. I was super young
and I probably didn’t realise fully what I was in.
WHAT WAS THE BEST OPERA-RELATED
ADVICE YOU EVER GOT?
You mean something somebody might have
said to me? It’s quite a shift in scale, as a
choreographer, to work in opera. I remember
being very intimidated by it. You’re used to
being in a rehearsal room with maybe six
or seven dancers. And then all of a sudden
you’ve got like 40 chorus staring at you and
you have to keep everybody busy, work out
everybody’s role. It’s very intense. You really
have to know everything that’s going on.
That can be quite overwhelming. I remember
doing a production of Verdi’s Aida in Seoul,
for the National Opera of Korea. It was the
biggest thing I’d ever been part of, in this
enormous opera house, in an enormous
production. They did the full ballet in Aida,
and they brought in a circus troop from from
China. So there was a translation thing going
on as well. I thought my head was going to
explode. I just remember people around me
saying, just roll with it. Because I thought
I could control it, I thought I could make it
work, and then I felt it was absolutely beyond
me. But if you just roll with the energy and
what’s happening, it’s sort of the better road
to take, I think.
WHAT’S THE MOST ANNOYING
MISCONCEPTION ABOUT OPERA?
I suppose that it’s not for everyone or, you
know, that it’s not relevant in a more modern
situation. Coming from a dance point of view,
I’m sure people feel like that about dance.
I can see sometimes when I walk into the
opera that it’s like a whole other ecosystem at
work here. There are different rules in terms
16
Photo: Liz Roche.
23

Image: Scene from Liz Roche’s critically-acclaimed
(New York Times Critic’s Pick), Ulysses-inspired
Yes and Yes for Washington’s Solas Nua company.
Photo: Steve O’Connor.
of talking and singing and what happens
on stage. And people come to a dance
performance and they say it’s impenetrable.
But if you spend a little bit of time there,
you’ll find a way in. It’s not that you have
to understand. You have to let it seep into
you for for a time. I think opera is incredibly
current. I’ve worked on a number of operas
by modern composers and I’ve been chilled
to my bone. I remember doing Richard
Rodney Bennett’s The Mines of Sulphur
in Wexford, and I was scared. I remember
thinking, I’m working on this and I’m scared!
You know, in places it felt like watching a
horror movie or something. It was really so
overwhelming. I don’t think we’ve got so
many of those experiences left. We’re a little
bit in desensitised with film. When you go
into opera and the kind of scale of it, I think
it’s really quite special. It’s hard to match
that experience. It doesn’t happen as often
in theatre and dance, say, just that coming
together of everything and the intensity of it.
WHAT MOMENT DO YOU MOST LOOK
FORWARD TO WHEN YOU GO TO A
PERFORMANCE OF SALOME?
When I first saw it all those years ago, on my
own, I got very emotional at one point. There’s
a moment when John the Baptist talks about
the Sea of Galilee and this image of Christ on
the Sea of Galilee. There was such peace in it
that it really went deep into my core. So I look
forward to that, musically. But, as a person in
dance, I’m always curious about the dance,
and the music for it is exceptional. That’s the
thing that I’m spending the most time with
and that’s the thing that I’m enjoying the most
at the moment.
WHAT IS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE
OF CHOREOGRAPHING SALOME?
It’s actually a really lovely experience. And
Sinéad is amazing. Bruno is amazing and the
whole team is really lovely and supportive.
The challenges are that the dance is long. It’s
nine and a half minutes. Usually when I’m
brought in for something, it might be three
minutes here, two minutes there, a quick
little something. But this is quite a sustained
piece, there’s a huge journey in it, and it’s
very important for the narrative that she lives
that journey in a really authentic way. The
dance has to find a way to to say that. But
it’s great. You just get your teeth into it and
there’s so much support. Fergus is great. He
broke down the motifs, the musical motifs
and where things are coming from, and that
just makes it all so much more possible.
WHOSE CHOREOGRAPHY IN OPERA
HAS WOWED YOU THE MOST?
I would have to say that it would be the work
of Lucinda Childs on Einstein on the Beach.
Though I don’t know if it’s entirely right to
single her out, as the collaboration between
Philip Glass, Robert Wilson and Childs made
an extraordinary production. The collaboration
between music, visuals and movement
is permanently imprinted in my thinking.
Unfortunately, I haven’t seen it live, but was
totally blown away when I saw it on TV. For me,
the dances were somewhere between pure
joy and endurance, allowing me to lose myself
in all the internal rhythms of the music and
repetitions of pattern. I was mesmerised.
IF YOU WEREN’T A DANCER OR A
CHOREOGRAPHER, WHAT MIGHT YOU
HAVE BECOME?
I would have loved to play in an orchestra. I
don’t really mind what instrument. I have a
total fantasy about what it’s like to play in a
really big orchestra and to be part that kind
of group organisation and liveness. I always
want to know how that feels. I was never really
interested in being a solo dancer or being on
my own. I had too much time to think and
I didn’t like it. But I love being with a group
of dancers, working as a team and kind of
breathing as a team, and having that sense of
connection. I’ve always imagined that it’s like
that in an orchestra. Yeah, I always thought
that would be a nice thing to do with your life.
IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL DERVAN
24
25

CAST IN ORDER OF VOCAL APPEARANCE
Narraboth Alex McKissick Tenor
Young Syrian, Captain of the Guard
The Page of Herodias Doreen Curran Mezzo-soprano
First soldier Julian Close Bass
Second soldier Lukas Jakobski Bass
Jochanaan Tómas Tómasson Baritone
Jochanaan the Prophet (John the Baptist)
A Cappadocian Kevin Neville Bass
Salome Sinéad Campbell Wallace Soprano
Daughter of Herodias
A slave Leanne Fitzgerald Mezzo-soprano
Herodes Vincent Wolfsteiner Tenor
Herod, Tetrarch of Judaea
Herodias Imelda Drumm Mezzo-soprano
Wife of the Tetrarch
First Jew Christopher Bowen Tenor
Second Jew Andrew Masterson Tenor
Third Jew William Pearson Tenor
Fourth Jew Aaron O’Hare Tenor
Fifth Jew Eoghan Desmond Bass-baritone
First Nazarene Wyn Pencarreg Bass-baritone
Second Nazarene Eoin Foran Baritone
CREATIVE TEAM
Conductor
Director
Set & Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Choreographer
Assistant Conductor
Assistant Director
Répétiteur
Language Coach
PARTICIPATING INO STUDIO MEMBERS
Studio Conductor
Studio Répétiteur
Assistant Director
Fergus Sheil
Bruno Ravella
Leslie Travers
Ciarán Bagnall
Liz Roche
Elaine Kelly
Chris Kelly
Mark Lawson
Mark Lawson
Medb Brereton Hurley
Adam McDonagh
Chris Kelly
26
27

IRISH NATIONAL OPERA ORCHESTRA
PRODUCTION TEAM
First Violins
Ioana Petcu-Colan
LEADER
David O’Doherty
Molly O’Shea
Anita Vedres
Jennifer Murphy
Gina Maria McGuinness
Maria Ryan
Brigid Leman
Conor Masterson
Nasenbilige Ta
Second Violins
Larissa O’Grady
Aoife Dowdall
Christine Kenny
Emma Masterson
Sarah Perricone
Matthew Wylie
Rachel Du
Roisin Dooley
Violas
Andreea Banciu
Giammaria Tesei
Gawain Usher
Marta Garcia Villalobos
Carla Vedres
Aoise O’Dwyer
Cellos
David Edmunds
Aoife Burke
Yseult Cooper Stockdale
Paula Hughes
Jonathan Few
Caitríona Finnegan
Double Basses
Dominic Dudley
Maeve Sheil
Gareth Hopkins
Paul Stephens
Harp
Dianne Marshall
Celesta
Aoife O’Sullivan
Flutes
Meadhbh O’Rourke
Naoise Ó Briain
Susan Doyle
Piccolo
Susan Doyle
Oboes
Aoife McCambridge
Jenny Magee
Cor Anglais
Rebecca Halliday
Clarinets
Conor Sheil
Suzanne Forde
E flat Clarinet
Seamus Wylie
Bass Clarinet
Deirdre O’Leary
Bassoons
John Hearne
Clíona Warren
Luke Whitehead
Contrabassoon
Luke Whitehead
Horns
Hannah Miller
Louise Sullian
Ian Dakin
Dewi Garmon Jones
Caoime Galvin
Trumpets
Colm Byrne
Erick Castillo Mora
Nathan McDonnell
Trombones
Ross Lyness
Colm O’Hara
Bass Trombone
Paul Frost
Tuba
Stephen Irvine
Timpani
Noel Eccles
Percussion
Catríona Frost
Richard O’Donnell
Brian Dungan
Patrick Nolan
John Rosseau
Emily Gatchell
Production Manager
Peter Jordan
Company Stage Manager
Paula Tierney
Stage Manager
Anne Kyle
Assistant Stage Manager
Ross Smith
Technical SM
Danny Hones
Technical Crew
Abraham Allen
Peter Boyle
Eoin Hannaway
Fergus McDonagh
Joey Maguire
Pawel Nieworaj
Martin Wallace
Kinesys Programmer & Operator
Mark Davies
Contract Crew
ESI
Chief LX
Donal McNinch
LX Programmer
Eoin McNinch
LX Crew
June González Iriarte
Paul Hyland
Wigs, Hair & Makeup
Supervisor
Carole Dunne
Wigs, hair, Make-up Assistants
Tee Elliott
Paula Melián
Costume Supervisor
Sinead Lawlor
Tailor
Gillian Carew
Costume Cutters
Denise Assas
Ofelia Haislund
Costume Makers
Hanna Pulkkinen
Helen Garvey
Breakdown Artist
Molly Brown
Costume Assistants/Dressers
Ciara Coleman Geaney
Ben Hackett
Surtitle Operator
Susan Brodigan
Lighting Provider
Cue One
QLX
Set Construction
CTS (Set)
Scenedock/Temple Props
Props & Effects
Jim McConnell
Craig Starkie
Frances White
Conor Courtney
Sandra Butler
Rigging
Unusual Rigging
IADT INTERNS
Suzanne Armstrong
Diana Simanovic
ADDITIONAL THANKS
Photography
Pato Cassinoni
Ste Murray
Video
Charlie Joe Doherty
Gansee
Graphic Design
Colin Derham
Programme edited by
Michael Dervan
Transport
Trevor Price Transport
28 29

BIOGRAPHIES
FERGUS SHEIL
CONDUCTOR
BRUNO RAVELLA
DIRECTOR
LESLIE TRAVERS
DESIGNER
CIARÁN BAGNALL
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Fergus is the founding artistic
director of Irish National Opera.
He has conducted a wide-ranging
repertoire of over 50 different
operas live, for recordings, and on
film. Highlights include Strauss’s
Der Rosenkavalier and Elektra, Rossini’s William Tell
and La Cenerentola, Brian Irvine and Netia Jones’s
Least Like The Other, half of 20 Shots of Opera, and
Beethoven’s Fidelio (Irish National Opera). He has
also conducted Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, John
Adams’s Nixon in China, Rossini’s The Barber of
Seville (Wide Open Opera), Mozart’s Don Giovanni
and the first modern performance and recording
of Robert O’Dwyer’s Irish-language opera, Eithne
(Opera Theatre Company). Abroad he has conducted
Least Like The Other in the Linbury Theatre at the
Royal Opera House, London, and William Tell for
Nouvel Opéra Fribourg, and has also conducted for
Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera. At home
he has also conducted the National Symphony
Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Ulster
Orchestra, and the Irish Chamber Orchestra. With
the State Choir Latvija he gave the world premiere of
Arvo Pärt’s The Deer’s Cry and has also conducted
the BBC Singers. He has fulfilled engagements in
the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, the UK,
France, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Malta and
Estonia. Before founding INO he led both Wide Open
Opera and Opera Theatre Company. Since 2011
he has been responsible for the production of over
seventy different operas, which have been seen
around Ireland and in London, Edinburgh, New York,
Amsterdam and Luxembourg.
Bruno Ravella is an international
opera director based in London.
Born in Casablanca, Morocco,
of Italian and Polish parents, he
studied in France and moved to
London in 1991 on graduation.
His critically acclaimed production of Massenet’s
Werther at the Opera national de Lorraine won the
Prix Claude-Rostand in 2017–18. Verdi’s Falstaff
at Garsington Opera in 2018 was nominated for the
South Bank Sky Arts Award in the opera category.
He has directed Verdi’s Rigoletto (Opera Theatre of
Saint Louis), Puccini’s La bohème (Opera di Firenze,
Italy), Offenbach’s La belle Hélène and Ravel’s L’heure
espagnole with Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (Opéra
national de Lorraine, France), Massenet’s Werther
(Opéra de Québec), Puccini’s Madama Butterfly,
Verdi’s Macbeth, Handel’s Agrippina, Verdi’s Falstaff
and Verdi’s La traviata (Iford Arts, UK), Handel’s
Giulio Cesare and La traviata (Stand’été, Moutier,
Switzerland), Bizet’s Carmen (Riverside Opera, UK),
Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphée aux enfers
and Blow’s Venus and Adonis (Les Arts Florissants),
La Descente d’Orphée aux enfers (Glyndebourne
Jerwood Project, UK), Verdi’s Stiffelio (Opéra national
du Rhin), Strauss’s Intermezzo (Garsington Opera),
and Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier (Garsington Opera/
Irish National Opera). He was nominated for the
Independent Opera Director Fellowship in 2015.
He has been recognised time and again for his “pinsharp
attention to detail” and ability to clearly portray
subtleties of the human condition.
Multi award-winning designer Leslie
Travers trained at the Wimbledon
School of Art‚ and is recognised as
one of the leading stage designers
of his generation. He was recently
honoured by Liverpool Institute of
the Performing Arts where he was given an honorary
doctorate, as Companion of LIPA. His current and
recent operatic projects include major designs in
many of the leading opera houses of Europe, US,
UK and beyond. His most recent ventures have
taken him to Bucharest, Santa Fe, Greek National
Opera and Opera North, where he recently designed
their Sustainable Season. Outside the opera theatre,
his most recent projects include such diverse
creations as film, a theme park, a new cruise ship,
an immersive game, and a production with NASA
to celebrate the anniversary of man walking on
the Moon.
Ciarán is a lighting and set designer
with over 25 years experience
in theatre design. He is based in
Belfast and is an associate artist with
Prime Cut Productions. He made
his Irish National Opera debut with
the set and lighting for Mozart’s The Magic Flute in
2019. His recent lighting designs include Evangelia
Rigaki’s Old Ghosts (Part of Ulysses 2.2 by ANU, Irish
National Opera, Landmark Productions and MoLI),
The Lonesome West, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The
Cripple of Inishmaan (Gaiety Theatre, Dublin); Romeo
& Juliet (Regent’s Park, London); There Are Little
Kingdoms (Town Hall Theatre, Galway); Scrapefoot
(The Ark, Dublin); The Anvil (Manchester Theatre
Festival 2019); Hamlet (Octagon Theatre, Bolton);
Pentecost (Lyric Theatre, Belfast); Perseverance Drive
(Bush Theatre, London); Dido, Queen of Carthage
(RSC); Much Ado about Nothing (RSC, Stratford Upon
Avon and London West End). His recent set and lighting
designs include: Cavalcaders (Druid); X’ntigone
(MAC, Belfast/Abbey Theatre, Dublin); Rough Girls,
A Streetcar named Desire, RED, Lovers (Lyric Theatre);
The Whip (RSC); A Christmas Carol, The Great Gatsby
(Gate, Dublin); The Merchant of Venice (Great Theatre,
Shanghai); UBU The King, The Man Who Fell to Pieces,
Hard to be Soft, Lally the Scut, The God of Carnage,
Villa, Discurso, Tejas Verdes (MAC, Belfast); The Train,
Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the
Somme (Abbey Theatre); Macbeth (Shakespeare’s
Globe, London); Othello (RSC); Shoot the Crow (Grand
Opera House, Belfast); Snookered (Bush Theatre,
London); The Killing of Sister George (Arts Theatre,
London); A Slight Ache and Landscape (Lyttelton
Theatre, National Theatre London).
30
31

BIOGRAPHIES
LIZ ROCHE
CHOREOGRAPHER
ELAINE KELLY
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
CHRIS KELLY
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
MARK LAWSON
RÉPÉTITEUR & LANGUAGE COACH
Liz is currently choreographer
and Artistic Director of Dublin
based dance company Liz Roche
Company. Since 1999, the company
has produced and toured over 20
of her choreographies, performing
throughout Ireland and internationally at prestigious
venues and festivals. She has been commissioned
by festivals, dance companies and venues including
Unreal Cities, Solas Nua in Washington D.C, The
Abbey Theatre, Dublin Dance Festival, Cork Opera
House, The National Ballet of China, Goethe Institut
Irland, The National Gallery of Ireland, Arcane
Collective, Croi Glan Integrated Dance, Scottish
Dance Theatre, DTI and CoisCéim. Her work for INO
includes Verdi’s Aida and Strauss’ Elektra. She has
also choreographed operas for Wexford Festival
Opera, National Opera of Korea, Rossini Opera
Festival and Liceu Barcelona, Opernhaus Zurich,
Opera de Nice and Opera Ireland. She has also
choreographed extensively in theatre for the
Abbey Theatre, Landmark Productions, Lyric
Theatre Belfast, Siren Productions and The
Gate Theatre.
In 2020 Liz was elected to Aosdána.
Elaine Kelly is the resident
conductor and chorus director of
Irish National Opera. In 2023 she
conducted the world premieres
of Emma O’Halloran’s double bill,
Mary Motorhead and TRADE at
the PROTOTYPE Festival New York and LA Opera,
and Evangelia Rigaki’s Old Ghosts in Dublin. She
also conducted the premiere of David Coonan’s
youth opera, Horse Ape Bird in 2022. In 2020 she
conducted nine new works by Irish composers in
INO’s internationally praised 20 Shots of Opera as
well as the film of Amanda Feery’s A Thing I Cannot
Name, which was streamed as part of the West Cork
Literary Festival in July 2021. After her appointment
as INO’s resident conductor she conducted a tour
of Peter Maxwell Davies’s The Lighthouse and, most
recently, Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Gounod’s Faust
at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre. She has also worked
for INO on productions of Rossini’s La Cenerentola,
Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, Puccini’s
La bohème, Strauss’s Elektra, Gerald Barry’s Alice’s
Adventures Under Ground, Beethoven’s Fidelio,
Bizet’s Carmen, Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, Rossini’s
William Tell, Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, and for
Opéra National de Bordeaux on Donizetti’s L’elisir
d’amore. In March 2022 she led the National
Symphony Orchestra’s International Women’s Day
Concert, and has also conducted the RTÉ Concert
Orchestra, Cork Concert Orchestra, and Cork Opera
House Concert Orchestra. She was music director
with the Dublin Symphony Orchestra (2017–19)
and the University of Limerick Orchestra (2019–21).
Chris is a director based in
Dublin, working in opera and
theatre. He holds a Bachelor of
Music from DIT and a MA in Theatre
Practice from The Gaiety School
of Acting and UCD. Directing
credits include Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Viardot’s
Cendrillon (Irish premiere), Humperdinck’s Hänsel
und Gretel, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Purcell’s
Dido and Aeneas, all with North Dublin Opera. For
Irish National Opera, he has been assistant director
on Rossini’s William Tell, Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier,
Massenet’s Werther and Puccini’s La bohème. For
Opera Collective Ireland, he was assistant director
on Britten’s Owen Wingrave, Raymond Deane’s
Vagabones, Handel’s Semele and Jonathan Dove’s
Flight. Theatre credits include Suicide Tuesday with
Little Shadow Theatre Company, I Am (GSA), Unicorns
Are Real (Jellybelly), and his own adaptation of Alice in
Wonderland (Skerries Soundwaves Festival). He also
wrote and co-directed Twenty Minutes From Nowhere
with Crave Productions and Bewley’s Cafe Theatre,
which has been performed in venues nationwide.
Mark Lawson was born in Mason
City, Iowa. After a year at the
Juilliard School, he was a student
of George Katz at Drake University,
Gary Graffman at the Manhattan
School of Music, and Nelita True at
the University of Maryland and the Eastman School of
Music. After receiving his doctorate from the Eastman
School of Music, he moved to New York City, where he
worked as a freelance pianist for three years before
joining the Yale Opera as a pianist and coach. While
at Yale, he learned German, and in 1997 he joined the
music staff at the Aalto Theatre in Essen, Germany.
Two years later he auditioned in Munich at the
Bavarian State Opera for Zubin Mehta, and from
1999 until 2017 was on the music staff there.
In those eighteen years, he worked with all of the most
famous singers in the world and many of the most
famous conductors. In 2017 he left the Bavarian State
Opera to have more time for freelance projects, and
has since divided his time between the Stopera in
Amsterdam, the Teatro Real in Madrid, where he
has a part time contract, and yearly productions
at the Bavarian State Opera. In addition, he has
worked regularly with the Young Singers Group at
the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Besides traveling
with the Bavarian State Opera to Tokyo and Hong
Kong, he has also worked in London, Paris, Tel Aviv,
Salzburg, Prague, Glyndebourne and Bayreuth.
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33

BIOGRAPHIES
CHRISTOPHER BOWEN
TENOR
FIRST JEW
SINEAD CAMPBELL WALLACE
SOPRANO
SALOME
JULIAN CLOSE
BASS
FIRST SOLDIER
DOREEN CURRAN
MEZZO-SOPRANO
PAGE OF HERODIAS
Tenor Christopher Bowen, originally
from New Zealand, moved to Dublin
from London in 2020. He made
his INO debut in 2023 creating the
role of James Joyce in Evangelia
Rigaki’s Old Ghosts. Other opera
appearances include Bill in Jonathan Dove’s Flight
and the Queen in Will Todd’s Alice in Wonderland
for Opera Collective Ireland, Samuel Beckett in
Tom Smail’s Blue Electric and a staging of Britten’s
Canticles. He was Rawley Beaunes in Alasdair
Nicolson’s The Iris Murder at the Orkney Festival,
the Black Monk in Peter Maxwell Davies’s Taverner
for BBC Radio 3, and has taken the title role in
Charpentier’s Actéon. In concert, he recently gave the
world premiere of Ina Boyle’s Lament for Bion. Other
performances include Purcell’s The Indian Queen at
Stour festival, Handel’s Solomon at the Dublin Handel
Festival, Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Handel’s
Messiah with the Irish Baroque Orchestra and with
the Dunedin Consort, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with
the Academy of Ancient Music and the BBC Singers,
and Bach’s St John Passion with the Hanover Band.
He has also sung Haydn’s Creation, Elgar’s Dream of
Gerontius and Britten’s War Requiem. He sang in the
world premiere of Vaughan Williams’s A Cambridge
Mass (which was recorded and later issued on CD),
and has recorded song cycles by Lyell Cresswell for
The Art of Black and White, Purcell duets for The
Hibernian Muse with the Irish Baroque Orchestra,
Delius’s Song of the High Hills and Janáček’s
Excursions of Mr Brouček.
Sinéad Campbell Wallace started
her career as a light-lyric soprano,
and has moved into fuller dramatic
repertoire, to roles including
Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio, the
title role in Strauss’s Ariadne auf
Naxos, Agathe in Weber’s Der Freischütz, Helmwige
in Wagner’s Die Walküre and Kaiserin in Strauss’s
Die Frau ohne Schatten. She opened her 2023–24
season with her house debut at the Opéra de Paris
as Elsa in Wagner’s Lohengrin followed by her debut
at the Opéra de Dijon as Leonore. Other season
highlights include Foreign Princess in Christoph
Loy’s new production of Dvořák’s Rusalka at the
Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia; Gutrune in a
concert performance of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung
with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under
Vladimir Jurowski; Brünnhilde in an extract from
Götterdämmerung in concert at L’Auditori Barcelona
under Ludovic Morlot; and Elsa at the Savonlinna
Opera Festival, Finland. Future plans include
appearances at Washington National Opera, Welsh
National Opera and Opéra de Rouen. She has also
sung the title role in Puccini’s Tosca with INO and
with English National Opera (getting an Olivier Award
nomination for outstanding achievement in opera),
Bavarian State Opera, Canadian Opera, Tokyo
Symphony Orchestra, Bozar in Brussels, La Seine
Musicale in Paris, the Gstaad Menuhin and Grafenegg
festivals in Switzerland and Austria, Barbican Centre,
Royal Festival Hall, Garsington Opera and Aldeburgh
Festival in the UK, and Wexford Festival Opera in
Ireland. She is is a graduate of the DIT Conservatory of
Music and Drama, the National Opera Studio and the
Britten-Pears young artist programme.
Julian Close began his career
reading for a PhD in Applied
Physics at University of Leeds,
before studying at the Royal
Northern College of Music. He
has since appeared with major
companies throughout the UK including The Royal
Opera, London, English National Opera, Garsington
Opera and Welsh National Opera, as well as with
Dutch National Opera and at Teatro Colón, Buenos
Aires. North American engagements have included
projects at the Metropolitan Opera, Minnesota
Opera, Opéra de Montréal, Pacific Symphony and
Washington National Opera. Recent engagements
have included Indra in Massenet’s Le Roi de
Lahore for Dorset Opera Festival, Commendatore
in Mozart’s Don Giovanni for Saffron Opera Group,
Talpa in Il tabarro and Simone in Gianni Schicchi in
Puccini’s Il trittico for Scottish Opera and Hagen
in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung for Longborough
Festival Opera, as well as a return to the Metropolitan
Opera as Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto. His future
engagements include Hunding in Wagner’s Die
Walküre and Hagen in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung
for Longborough Festival Opera’s upcoming complete
cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen. He is making his
INO debut in Salome.
Doreen Curran was born in Derry.
Her opera roles include Ottavia in
Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di
Poppea, Carmen and Mercédès
in Bizet’s Carmen, Blanche in
Prokofiev’s The Gambler, Tamiri
in Vivaldi’s Farnace, Zoë in Respighi’s La fiamma,
Rosina in Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Ernestina in
Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro, Cléone in Fauré’s
Pénélope, Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro,
Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Kate in Gilbert &
Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, Radamisto in Handel’s
Radamisto, Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina, Eduige
in Handel’s Rodelinda, Lola in Mascagni’s Cavalleria
rusticana, Second Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte,
La Ciesca in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Meg in Verdi’s
Falstaff, Pauline in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades,
Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Madame Flora in
Menotti’s The Medium, The Mother in Humperdinck’s
Hansel and Gretel, Mrs Noye in Britten’s Noyes
Fludde, Mary in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, Lady
Macbeth’s Lady in waiting in Verdi’s Macbeth, Third
Secretary to Mao in John Adams’s Nixon in China
and Maurya in Vaughan Williams’s Riders to the
Sea. She has worked with English National Opera,
Glyndebourne, Garsington Opera, Opera Holland
Park, Grange Park, Buxton, Landestheater Salzburg,
Savoy Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, Opera Theatre
Company, Opera Ireland, Wexford Festival Opera,
Aldeburgh Festival and made her INO debut as Suzuki
in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in 2018. She has
worked with the London Philharmonic, RTÉ Concert
Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic,
and has given recitals in Ireland, England, France,
Germany and the USA.
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35

BIOGRAPHIES
EOGHAN DESMOND
BARITONE
FIFTH JEW
LUKAS JAKOBSKI
BASS
SECOND SOLDIER
IMELDA DRUMM
MEZZO-SOPRANO
HERODIAS
ANDREW MASTERSON
TENOR
SECOND JEW
Eoghan Desmond is a baritone
from Cork. His oratorio repertoire
includes Mendelssohn’s Elijah and
Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Handel’s
Messiah and Alexander’s Feast,
Bach’s St Matthew Passion, St
John Passion, Mass in B minor, Magnificat, Christmas
Oratorio, Graun’s Der Tod Jesu, Vaughan Williams’s
Hodie, Willow-Wood, Five Mystical Songs, Fantasia
on Christmas Carols, and the Requiems of Brahms,
Duruflé, Fauré, Howells, Mozart and Verdi. He is an
accomplished choral singer, a member of Chamber
Choir Ireland, and a regular guest with choirs
including the BBC singers and I Fagiolini. Outside
of his singing work, he is a sought-after composer.
Recent commissions include a song cycle entitled
New Light, commissioned by tenor Conor Prendiville,
and Nothing in Vain, a choral meditation which can
be heard on a recently released disc by The Sixteen.
He holds a PhD in Composition from The University
of Aberdeen.
Born in Poland, Lukas Jakobski
studied at the Royal College of
Music, and was a member of
the Jette Parker Young Artist
Programme at the Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden. His
engagements have included Apprentice in Berg’s
Wozzeck, Peter Quince in Britten’s A Midsummer
Night’s Dream and Hobson in Britten’s Peter Grimes
at the Theater an der Wien; Abbot in Britten’s Curlew
River, Voice of Neptune in Mozart’s Idomeneo and
Pietro in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra at the Opéra
de Lyon; Hobson in Peter Grimes at the Palau de
les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia; Zuniga in Bizet’s
Carmen and Colline in Puccini’s La bohème for
Glyndebourne On Tour and INO, Nettuno/Antinoo/
Tempo in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria
at Drottningholm, the Commendatore in Mozart’s
Don Giovanni for the Nederlandse Reisopera; Don
Cassandro in Mozart’s La finta semplice for Classical
Opera; Truffaldino in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos for
the Warsaw Philharmonic. For Dutch National Opera,
he has sung the Captain in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut,
Tall Englishman in Shostakovich’s The Gambler, the
Cook in Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges and
the Doctor in Verdi’s Macbeth. Recent engagements
have included Melchtal and Walter Furst in Rossini’s
Guillaume Tell for Irish National Opera, Pistola in
Verdi’s Falstaff for Grange Park Opera, Enrico in
Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and the Commendatore
in Mozart’s Don Giovanni for Longborough Festival
Opera, Dziemba in Moniuszko’s Halka at the Theater
an der Wien, Penderecki’s St Luke Passion and
Hobson in Peter Grimes for Polish National Opera
and Opéra de Lyon.
Imelda Drumm has enjoyed a
successful international singing
career as a soloist. She is a graduate
of the National Opera Studio, London
(1997), sponsored by Glyndebourne
Festival Opera, and the Royal Irish
Academy of Music, where she received her doctorate
in 2017. For over 30 years she has forged strong
relationships with opera companies in the UK and
here in Ireland. She made her INO debut as Amneris
in Verdi’s Aida at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre in
2018. Other INO roles include the title role in Conor
Linehan’s The Patient Woman as part of 20 Shots of
Opera in 2020, Klytämnestra in Strauss’s Elektra in
2021 and Hedwige in Rossini’s William Tell in 2022.
She studied singing with Veronica Dunne, and is staff
lecturer in vocal pedagogy and singing at the Royal
Irish Academy of Music. She takes a keen interest in
vocal pedagogy, particularly the method of singing
influenced by the Italian school of bel canto. Her
doctoral research investigated the action of female
reproductive hormones on professional classical
singers and is available in TARA, the open access,
online research repository at Trinity College Dublin.
Andrew Masterson is a lyric tenor
from Omagh, Co. Tyrone, and a
core member of the Irish National
Opera Chorus. He sang his first role
for the company last year as Der
Wirt (Landlord) in Strauss’s Der
Rosenkavalier. He is an alumnus of the Royal Northern
College of Music, and graduated with distinction in
both his Masters and Postgraduate Diploma. His
desire to pursue a career in vocal music derived from
his Bachelor of Music degree at Queen’s University
Belfast. Venues he has performed in include the Royal
Albert Hall in London, the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in
Dublin, the Grieghallen in Bergen, Oslo Opera House,
and the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. He has recently
joined the Edvard Grieg Kor, which performed at the
2023 BBC Proms with the London Philharmonic
Orchestra under Edward Gardner. He is also a regular
guest tenor in the chorus of Bergen Nasjonale Opera.
He was one of last year’s recipients of a BBC NI and
Arts Council NI Young Musicians’ Platform Award,
supported by the UK National Lottery.
36 37

BIOGRAPHIES
ALEX McKISSICK
TENOR
NARRABOTH
KEVIN NEVILLE
BASS
A CAPPADOCIAN
AARON O’HARE
TENOR
FOURTH JEW
WILLIAM PEARSON
TENOR
THIRD JEW
American tenor Alex McKissick has
sung leading roles in Bernstein’s
Candide, Puccini’s La bohème,
Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Verdi’s
Otello, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte
and Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von
Atlantis among others, performing with Washington
National Opera, Aspen Music Festival, San Diego
Opera, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines
Metro Opera, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Wolf
Trap Opera, North Carolina Opera, and the Georg
Solti Accademia, working with conductors Eun Sun
Kim, Daniele Callegari, Keri-Lynn Wilson, Yves Abel,
Steven Mercurio, Nicole Paiement, as well as stage
directors David Alden, Francesca Zambello, Tomer
Zvulun, and Octavio Cardenas. He has participated
in masterclasses with Fabio Luisi and Emmanuel
Villuame, and he recorded Bernstein’s Songfest,
conducted by James Judd, on the Naxos label. He
received his Bachelors of Music and Masters degree
from the Juilliard School of Music and is an alumnus
of the Cafritz Young Artist Program at the Washington
National Opera.
Kevin Neville is a bass from
Limerick city. While on the Northern
Ireland Opera Studio, he played
Don Alfonso in a reduced version
of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. At the
Blackwater Valley Opera Festival
and Mananan International Festival of Music he
played the Regent in Balfe’s The Sleeping Queen.
He made his debut with Irish National Opera in
Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann. Since then he has
gone on to play L’ufficiale del Registro in Puccini’s
Madama Butterfly as well as Lerchenau’s servant and
Boots in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. He created the
roles of George de La Hare in Fiona Linnane’s No. 2
Pery Square and Old George in Robert Ely’s 1936:
Fishing for the Tête à Tête contemporary opera festival
in London. He has performed as a concert soloist
at the National Concert Hall, St Patrick’s Cathedral,
Dublin, Ulster Hall, Belfast, and the University Concert
Hall, Limerick, in repertoire that included Handel’s
Messiah as well as Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Die erste
Walpurgisnacht.
Irish tenor Aaron O’Hare
transitioned from baritone in
2021. Last year he sang Spoletta
in Puccini’s Tosca for Northern
Ireland Opera, having spent most
of the year touring with English
Touring Opera. As an associate artist with Welsh
National Opera, he sang the title role in Mozart’s
Don Giovanni on tour, Stárek in Janáček’s Jenůfa
and March Hare/White Knight in Will Todd’s Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland. In 2021 he also sang
Schaunard in Puccini’s La bohème for Northern
Ireland Opera and in the premiere of Michael Gallen’s
Elsewhere, an opera about the Monaghan Soviet
of 2019, at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. He joined
Garsington Opera’s Alvarez Young Artists’ programme
in 2016 and was a member of Opera Holland Park
Young Artists in 2018. He played Mike in John
Adams’s I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw
the Sky for Opéra National de Lyon’s Opera Studio in
2020.
William completed his MA in
Opera Performance from the David
Seligman Opera School at the Royal
Welsh College of Music and Drama
along with his BMus (Hons) in Music
Performance under the tutelage of
Adrian Thompson. He was a member of INO’s core
chorus in 2022–23, and played the role of Faninal’s
Major Domo in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, as well as
covering the roles of the Italian Tenor and Landlord.
He is currently a member of the INO Opera Studio.
His roles include Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte,
Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, the Mayor in
Britten’s Albert Herring, Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don
Giovanni, Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il barbiere di
Siviglia and Don Basilio in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.
As well as opera work, he is an avid oratorio and mass
singer and regularly performs Mozart’s Requiem,
Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s
St. Matthew Passion.
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39

BIOGRAPHIES
WYN PENCARREG
BARITONE
FIRST NAZARENE
Welsh baritone Wyn Pencarreg
studied at the Royal Northern
College of Music where he won
many prizes, scholarships and
awards. He was also a winner of the
Erich Vietheer Memorial Award from
Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Operatic roles include
Alcindoro in Puccini’s La bohème, Padre Sansón in
Thomas Adés’s The Exterminating Angel and Flemish
Deputy in Verdi’s Don Carlos for The Royal Opera;
Le Sire de Béthune in Verdi’s Les vêpres siciliennes,
Sir Walter Raleigh in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux
and Alcade in Verdi’s La forza del destino for Welsh
National Opera; Surin in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen
of Spades for English National Opera; Sharpless in
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Royal Albert Hall,
and Donner in Wagner’s Das Rheingold (Longborough
Festival Opera). He has also performed roles for Opera
North, Glyndebourne, Grange Park Opera, Opéra
de Monte-Carlo and English Touring Opera. World
premières include Papin in John Browne’s Babette’s
Feast (Royal Opera House) and Lalchand
in David Bruce’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter
(The Opera Group). He made his INO debut as Le
Bailli in Massenet’s Werther last year.
TÓMAS TÓMASSON
BASS-BARITONE
JOCHANAAN
Following his studies in Reykjavík
and London, Tómas Tómasson
regularly guests at the most
renowned houses and institutions,
including the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden, Vienna State
Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper Dresden,
Berlin State Opera, La Scala, Teatro dell’Opera
di Roma, Teatro Real de Madrid, Gran Teatre del
Liceu, Barcelona, Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels,
Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam, Lyric Opera
of Chicago and Los Angeles Opera. His concert
repertoire includes Verdi’s Requiem, Mozart’s
Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, Beethoven’s Choral
Symphony and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, and he
has collaborated with conductors such as Riccardo
Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Antonio Pappano, Andris
Nelsons, Simone Young and René Jacobs. Recent
highlights include his Wotan in Wagner’s Ring and
Dikoj in Janáček’s Katya Kabanova at Grand Théâtre
de Genève, Wotan in Die Walküre and Tomsky in
Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades at Teatro di
San Carlo, Naples, Amfortas in Wagner’s Parsifal
in Palermo, Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila at
Washington National Opera, and Dmitri Tcherniakov’s
new production of Janáček’s The Makropulos Case
at Zurich Opera House, the world premiere of Péter
Eötvös’s Sleepless at the Berlin State Opera with
revivals in Geneva and Budapest, Orest in Strauss’s
Elektra at Opéra Bastille, Paris, and for INO, Napoleon
in Prokofiev’s War and Peace and the title role in
Aribert Reimann’s Lear at the Bavarian State Opera,
Jochanaan in Salome in Tokyo, and most recently
Pizarro in Beethoven’s Fidelio at Berlin State Opera.
VINCENT WOLFSTEINER
TENOR
HERODES
Vincent Wolfsteiner is a versatile
performer on both the concert
and opera stages. His concert
repertoire extends to works as
diverse as Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 9 (Choral), Mendelssohn’s
Elijah, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Mahler’s Symphony
No. 8 and Das Lied von der Erde. Notable opera
appearances include Tristan in Wagner’s Tristan
und Isolde under Daniel Barenboim, Herodes in
Strauss’s Salome at the Staatsoper Unter den
Linden in Berlin, and Siegmund in Wagner’s Die
Walküre at the Bayreuth Festival. As a member of
the Frankfurt Opera ensemble, he has sung a wide
range of leading tenor roles, including Wagner’s Ring
cycle, Tristan und Isolde and Lohengrin, Britten’s
Peter Grimes and Verdi’s Otello. Conductors he has
worked with also include Sebastian Weigle, Christoph
Gedschold, Cornelius Meister, and Thomas Guggeis.
His recent projects include performances in Wagner’s
Tannhäuser at the Berlin State Opera, Penderecki’s
The Devils of Loudon at the Bavarian State Opera in
Munich, and Siegmund/Siegfried in concert versions
of Wagner with Marek Janowski and the Dresdner
Philharmonie as well as the Emperor in Strauss’s
Die Frau ohne Schatten. Through Paul in Korngold’s
Die Tote Stadt, he recently added another demanding
dramatic tenor role to his repertoire. He is making his
INO debut in Salome.
KEEP THE
MEMORIES!
Our recording of the 2021
concert performance is available
to purchase in the foyer.
Or online from
www.prestomusic.com
/classical/products/9313458--la-boheme
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41

INO ORCHESTRA
The Irish National Opera Orchestra, which performs in
all of INO’s larger productions, is made up of leading
Irish freelance musicians. Members of the orchestra
have a broad range of experience playing operatic,
symphonic, chamber and new music repertoire. The
orchestra’s work includes Strauss’s Elektra in 2021
and Der Rosenkavalier in 2023 (“delivers all the
swelling romanticism and range of tone and colour
you could ask for,” Irish Examiner). It is equally at
home in music by Donizetti and Rossini (“wonderful
energy and musical vision,” Bachtrack in 2022
on Rossini’s William Tell) and Puccini (“the INO
Orchestra handled the sweeping moods in masterly
fashion,” the Business Post in 2023 on La bohème).
The orchestra also performs chamber reductions
for touring productions including, most recently,
Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (2022) and Massenet’s
Werther (2023). The orchestra’s contemporary
repertoire has included Thomas Adès’s Powder Her
Face (2018), Maxwell Davies’s The Lighthouse (2021),
and Brian Irvine and Netia Jones’s Least Like The
Other, Searching for Rosemary Kennedy, in which
it made its international debut at the Royal Opera
House in London in 2023. The orchestra can be heard
on the INO recording of Puccini’s La bohème on
Signum Classics.
FOUNDERS CIRCLE
Anonymous
Desmond Barry & John Redmill
Valerie Beatty & Dennis Jennings
Mark & Nicola Beddy
Carina & Ali Ben Lmadani
Mary Brennan
Angie Brown
Breffni & Jean Byrne
Jennifer Caldwell
Seán Caldwell & Richard Caldwell
Caroline Classon, in memoriam
David Warren, Gorey
Audrey Conlon
Gerardine Connolly
Jackie Connolly
Gabrielle Croke
Sarah Daniel
Maureen de Forge
Doreen Delahunty & Michael Moriarty
Joseph Denny
Kate Donaghy
Marcus Dowling
Mareta & Conor Doyle
Noel Doyle & Brigid McManus
Michael Duggan
Catherine & William Earley
Jim & Moira Flavin
Ian & Jean Flitcroft
Anne Fogarty
Maire & Maurice Foley
Roy & Aisling Foster
Howard Gatiss
Genesis
Hugh & Mary Geoghegan
Diarmuid Hegarty
M Hely Hutchinson
Gemma Hussey
Kathy Hutton & David McGrath
Nuala Johnson
Susan Kiely
Timothy King & Mary Canning
J & N Kingston
Kate & Ross Kingston
Silvia & Jay Krehbiel
Karlin Lillington & Chris Horn
Stella Litchfield
Jane Loughman
Rev Bernárd Lynch & Billy Desmond
Lyndon MacCann S.C.
Phyllis Mac Namara
Tony & Joan Manning
R. John McBratney
Ruth McCarthy, in memoriam Niall
& Barbara McCarthy
Petria McDonnell
Jim McKiernan
Tyree & Jim McLeod
Jean Moorhead
Sara Moorhead
Joe & Mary Murphy
Ann Nolan & Paul Burns
F.X. & Pat O’Brien
James & Sylvia O’Connor
John & Viola O’Connor
Joseph O’Dea
Dr J R O’Donnell
Deirdre O’Donovan & Daniel Collins
Diarmuid O’Dwyer
Patricia O’Hara
Annmaree O’Keefe & Chris Greene
Carmel & Denis O’Sullivan
Líosa O’Sullivan & Mandy Fogarty
Hilary Pratt
Sue Price
Landmark Productions
Riverdream Productions
Nik Quaife & Emerson Bruns
Margaret Quigley
Patricia Reilly
Dr Frances Ruane
Catherine Santoro
Dermot & Sue Scott
Yvonne Shields
Fergus Sheil Sr
Gaby Smyth
Matthew Patrick Smyth
Bruce Stanley
Sara Stewart
The Wagner Society of Ireland
Julian & Beryl Stracey
Michael Wall & Simon Nugent
Brian Walsh & Barry Doocey
Judy Woodworth
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43

INO FUTURE LEADERS
NETWORK
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA IS A GREAT
WAY TO MEET PEOPLE AND EXPAND
YOUR NETWORK.
This new initiative is tailored to young
professionals across a variety of industries
looking for an enjoyable way to expand
their professional network.
FRI 17 – FRI 31 MAY 2024
WEXFORD NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE
DUBLIN GAIETY THEATRE
CORK CORK OPERA HOUSE
TICKETS FROM €15
find out more at irishnationalopera.ie
INO is a vibrant, dynamic company and our operas
attract a broad and varied audience. Developing a
robust network is crucial to a successful career and
we have created a unique opportunity for professionals
to meet and connect before an opera performance.
With this network, we want to create a space for you to
connect with individuals across a range of sectors, who
have the potential to be your future colleagues, clients,
customers or collaborators. We aim for this network to
empower you to forge meaningful connections that can
open doors to new opportunities, enhance your skill
set, and broaden your perspective – all while enjoying
a world-class opera performance!
This initiative is proudly supported by a partnership
with Spencer Lennox.
To sign up to this network, or if your company
is interested in hosting an event for the
INO Future Leaders’ Network, please contact
us on development@irishnationalopera.ie
or +353 1 6794962
Photo: Aisling McCaffrey and Guillaume Auvray
at INO Future Leaders event,
November 2023.
Photographer: Mark Stedman.
45

ACCESS AND INNOVATION
WELCOMING NEW AUDIENCES WITH TECHNOLOGY
At Irish National Opera, we’re reimagining the boundaries of opera in the digital age.
Our innovative ‘Isolde’ project is one such example, offering a groundbreaking
platform for the synchronisation of visuals and audio on people’s own devices,
giving audiences the opportunity to use their own mobile phones with a projected
or screened performance in public or site-specific locations.
With its user-friendly interface across mobile, desktop, and cloud applications, Isolde replaces
amplified audio equipment. We’re excited about the implications that Isolde will have for the
wider cultural sector and as we continue to develop this software, we aim to explore applications
for museums and galleries through auto synced audio guides and audio descriptions for the
visually impaired in theatre settings.
Combining this cutting-edge technology and an interdisciplinary approach creates a space
for opera at the intersection of digital innovation and the performing arts. This fresh and
forward-thinking approach brings vibrancy to a timeless art form, allowing new audiences
to be captivated by everything that opera has to bring.
Other recent innovations include our award-winning, virtual reality community opera, Out of
the Ordinary/As an nGnách, which was created by communities in different parts of the country,
from Inis Meáin to Tallaght. It was created in collaboration with composer Finola Merivale,
librettist Jody O’Neill and director Jo Mangan.
Our 20 Shots of Opera, a set of 20 bite-sized operas were commissioned, filmed and streamed
online within a matter of months, to deliver new opera experiences during the dark days of the
lockdown in 2020.
In 2021 we created a site-specific production of Strauss’s Elektra for Kilkenny Arts Festival in
the spectacular setting of the city’s Castle Yard. Our acclaimed film productions have included
Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (in partnership with London’s Royal Opera
House), Peter Maxwell’s Davies’s The Lighthouse, and Amanda Feery’s A Thing I Cannot Name.
At Irish National Opera, we believe opera is for everyone. By infusing our work with a pioneering
spirit and cutting-edge technology, we invite an ever-growing audience to experience the
dynamism of opera.
Images: Clockwise from top,
Photos 1 & 2, Screening of
Brian Irvine’s Scorched Earth
Trilogy at Trinity College Dublin,
photos: Dumbworld; Screening
of Peter Maxwell Davies’s The
Lighthouse at Hook Head,
photo: Pádraig Grant; Audience
member at Finola Merivale’s
virtual reality opera, Out of
the Ordinary/As an nGnách, at
Dublin Fridge Festival, photo:
Simon Lazewski.
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IRISH NATIONAL
OPERA STUDIO
STUDIO MEMBERS 2024
DEIRDRE HIGGINS SOPRANO
MEGAN O’NEILL SOPRANO
MADELINE JUDGE MEZZO-SOPRANO
WILLIAM PEARSON TENOR
ALEX DOWLING COMPOSER
MEDB BRERETON-HURLEY CONDUCTOR
CHRIS KELLY DIRECTOR
ADAM McDONAGH RÉPÉTITEUR
The Irish National Opera Studio is key to delivering a core
aspect of INO’s mission, the development of the very best
operatic talent we can find in Ireland. The studio is the
company’s artistic development programme. The membership
is selected annually, and the studio provides specially tailored
training, professional mentoring and high-level professional
engagements for a group of individuals whose success will be
key to the future development of opera in Ireland.
Members of Irish National 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.
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 Irish National 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
Dublin mezzo-soprano Aebh Kelly, a
member of the Irish National Opera
Studio in 2020–21, is currently a
member of the Mascarade Opera
programme in Florence. She appeared
in Jenn Kirby’s Dichotomies of a
Lockdown as part of INO’s 20 Shots
of Opera in 2020. Last September
she made her role debut as Olga in
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at Theater
Heidelberg, and she makes her role
debut and INO stage debut as Flora
Bervoix in Verdi’s La traviata in May.
Image: Aebh Kelly at Teatro La Fenice, Venice, with
Mascarade Emerging Artists in May 2023.
Photo Marco Borelli.
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49

INO TEAM
Pauline Ashwood
Head of Planning
James Bingham
Studio & Outreach Producer
Janaina Caldeira
Bookkeeper
Sorcha Carroll
Communications Manager
Aoife Daly
Development Manager
Diego Fasciati
Executive Director
Lea Försterling
Digital Communications
Executive
Ciarán Gallagher
Marketing Executive
Sarah Halpin
Digital Producer
Cate Kelliher
Business & Finance Manager
Audrey Keogan
Development Executive
Anne Kyle
Stage Manager
Patricia Malpas
Studio & Outreach Executive
Gavin O’Sullivan
Head of Production
Muireann Sheahan
Orchestra & Chorus Manager
Fergus Sheil
Artistic Director
David Smith
Accountant part time
Paula Tierney
Company Stage Manager
RJ Walters-Dorchak
Artistic Administrator
Board of Directors
Jennifer Caldwell Chair
Tara Erraught
Gerard Howlin
Dennis Jennings
Suzanne Nance
Ann Nolan
Davina Saint
Bruce Stanley
Jonathan Friend
Artistic Advisor
Elaine Kelly
Resident Conductor
Irish National Opera
69 Dame Street
Dublin 2 | Ireland
T: 01–679 4962
E: info@irishnationalopera.ie
irishnationalopera.ie
@irishnationalopera
@irishnatopera
@irishnationalopera
Company Reg No.: 601853
Registered Charity: 22403
(RCN) 20204547
50

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