Salome 2024 Programme

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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