Irish National Opera Olimpiade programme book

ANTONIO VIVALDI 1678–1741 

L’OLIMPIADE 

1734 

A CO-PRODUCTION WITH THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE AND NOUVEL 

OPÉRA FRIBOURG IN PARTNERSHIP WITH IRISH BAROQUE ORCHESTRA. 

IRISH NATIONAL OPERA 

PRINCIPAL FUNDER 

LONDON PERFORMANCES RECEIVED 

GENEROUS PHILANTHROPIC SUPPORT 

FROM DAME TINA TAYLOR DBE 

A CO-PRODUCTION WITH 

THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE 

AND NOUVEL OPÉRA 

FRIBOURG. IN PARTNERSHIP 

WITH IRISH BAROQUE 

ORCHESTRA. 

PERFORMANCES IN LONDON 

AND FRIBOURG ARE SUPPORTED 

BY CULTURE IRELAND 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

Thanks to Artane School of Music, Edward Holly, Simon Burke, 

and Máire Carroll. 

#INOOlimpiade 

DRAMMA PER MUSICA 

Libretto by Pietro Metastasio, adapted by Bartolomeo Vitturi 

First performance, Teatro Sant’ Angelo, Venice, 17 February 1734 

First Irish performance, Siamsa Tíre, Tralee, 20 April 2024 

Critical edition by Alessandro Borin & Antonio Moccia, © Casa Ricordi Srl., 

Milano (Universal Music Publishing Group, Classics & Screen). 

By arrangement with G Ricordi & Co. (London) Ltd. 

SUNG IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES 

Running time 2 hours and 40 minutes including 1 interval. 

The performances on Monday 13, Wednesday 15, Thursday 17 and Sunday 20 May 

are being recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3. The recording will then be available 

for streaming on www.bbc.co.uk/sounds for 30 days. 

PERFORMANCES 2024 

Saturday 20 April Siamsa Tíre Tralee 

Tuesday 23 April The Everyman Cork 

Thursday 25 April Theatre Royal Waterford 

Saturday 27 April Lime Tree Theatre Limerick 

Tuesday 30 April An Grianán Letterkenny 

Thursday 2 May Solstice Arts Centre Navan 

Saturday 4 May Pavilion Theatre Dún Laoghaire 

Sunday 5 May Pavilion Theatre Dún Laoghaire 

Tuesday 7 May Pavilion Theatre Dún Laoghaire 

Thursday 9 May Aula Maxima, Maynooth University Maynooth CONCERT PERF. 

Monday 13 May Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House London 

Wednesday 15 May Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House London 

Thursday 17 May Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House London 

Saturday 19 May Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House London MATINÉE 

Sunday 20 MayLinbury Theatre, Royal Opera House London 

Tuesday 22 May Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House London 

Thursday 24 May Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House London 

Friday 25 May Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House London 

Wednesday 29 May Théâtre Equilibre Fribourg Switzerland MATINÉE 

Friday 31 May Théâtre Equilibre Fribourg Switzerland 

Saturday 1 June Théâtre Equilibre Fribourg Switzerland 

03

BREAKING NEW GROUND 

FERGUS SHEIL 

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR 

Extraordinary vocal writing that can appear impossible to sing. 

Rhythms that spring off the page with joyous abandon. Orchestral 

writing that is crystalline, fresh and engaging. These are some 

of the characteristics that fired my love of Vivaldi’s operas and 

prompted me to programme L’Olimpiade, the third opera in INO’s 

recent Vivaldi focus, which began with Griselda in 2019 and added 

Bajazet in 2022. 

Our Vivaldi productions have grown in their reach. L’Olimpiade will 

have the longest ever run of any of our staged productions, with a 

massive 22 performances opening in Ireland before travelling to 

London, Switzerland and Italy. This great reach has been made 

possible through our co-production partners, The Royal Opera 

House in London and Nouvel Opéra Fribourg in Switzerland. 

Thanks to both organisations for sharing our passion for Vivaldi. 

And also to Martin Randall Festivals for featuring a concert 

performance of L’Olimpiade in their Opera in Sicily tour next 

October. That’s another landmark. It’s a special thrill for INO to 

take an Italian opera to Italy for the first time. 

I also want to pay tribute to our wonderful colleagues in the Irish 

Baroque Orchestra, and their artistic director, conductor Peter 

Whelan, who have been a central part of our Vivaldi odyssey. Their 

work was richly rewarded in London’s Olivier Awards in 2022, 

when they were celebrated for outstanding achievement in opera 

in Bajazet. Most of our audience see Peter only from behind, 

seated at his harpsichord, directing persuasively with highly 

focussed head movements. But his full musical personality has a 

magnetic effect on everyone he works with, drawing them together 

for performances which are spontaneous, highly charged and 

uniquely persuasive. 

Vivaldi’s music may well be immediate and clear, but his operatic 

plots, like those of many other baroque contemporaries, are 

convoluted. L’Olimpiade has scheming and subterfuge, mistaken 

identities and unknown backstories, love, betrayal and heartache 

before (spoiler alert) everything ends happily when the right people 

are reunited with their right partners. Along the way, however, the 

characters grow in self-knowledge and learn some valuable lessons 

about life. 

The opera is set in ancient Greece during the reign of King 

Cleisthenes of Sicyon (ca 600–560 BC). There is a tangential 

presence of the ancient Olympic games, but the focus of the action is 

mostly on inter-personal relationships. I’m hugely grateful to director 

Daisy Evans and designer Molly O’Cathain who are harnessing a 

massive range of historical references and traditions into a story of 

contemporary relevance for our brilliant cast to communicate. 

Being able to take opera on tours around the country is one of our 

proudest achievements. It says a lot that the opening night audience 

at Siamsa Tíre, Tralee, will see exactly the same show that will grace 

the stage at The Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre in London 

just over three weeks later. This geographic reach is central to our 

mission at INO. It is made possible through partnership with regional 

venues and of course through our main funder, The Arts Council, 

along with Culture Ireland, and a range of individual donors. If you 

share this pride, and want to help us do more, please consider 

showing your support for INO through our membership programme. 

Details on page 9. 

Welcome onboard for the latest stage of our Vivaldi adventure. 

04 05

IN THE COMPANY 

OF OLYMPIANS 

DIEGO FASCIATI 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 

Opera singers are in many ways like Olympic athletes. They have to 

train for years to develop the required technique and skills. They must 

continually exercise and go through daily drills in order to remain in top 

physical and mental shape for performing. And, in order to succeed, 

they are constantly learning and developing. Those who rise to the 

top are rewarded with laurels and glory. On the way, they will need the 

support and expertise of teachers, trainers, coaches, managers and, 

importantly, fellow teammates as well as their nearest and dearest. 

In Ireland, we are blessed with a number of exceptional opera 

singers. As I write, Irish singers are performing in major roles in some 

of the best opera houses in the world, including the leading stages of 

Paris and Berlin. We cannot take this for granted and INO works to 

ensure that all generations of opera artists have access to education, 

training, professional development and employment opportunities. 

FRI 17 MAY WEXFORD NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE 

TUE 21 – SAT 25 MAY DUBLIN GAIETY THEATRE 

WED 29 & FRI 31 MAY CORK CORK OPERA HOUSE 

TICKETS FROM €15 

find out more at irishnationalopera.ie 

In the last few years, we have expanded our education and outreach 

activities. We provide workshops in schools in preparation for 

attending live opera. Low-priced student tickets are available to our 

performances. We launched our Open Foyer series – a project which 

invites people from local communities to perform or display their artistic 

talents in the theatre foyers ahead of our performances. We thank 

William Earley for his generous donation which makes the Open Foyer 

series possible. We hope that all these initiatives will widen the interest 

in, engagement with, and love for opera in the communities we serve. 

And possibly even inspire some of them to pursue a career in opera. 

Our INO Studio is an excellent professional development opportunity 

for budding opera artists and we strive to provide employment 

opportunities for emerging singers and other artists. All of this is made 

possible by the investment in opera from our principal funder the Arts 

Council and by donations from our members and supporters. 

Of course, we want to achieve even more. I hope you will stay with us 

and support us on our adventure of climbing Mount Olympus. 

06 

07

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Irish National Opera is Ireland’s leading producer of opera at home and 

on great operatic stages abroad. We are passionate about opera and its 

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and all over the world. We work with the cream of Irish creative talent, 

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produce memorable and innovative performances to a growing audience 

and we offer crucial professional development to nurture Ireland’s most 

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We aim to give everyone in Ireland the opportunity to experience the 

best of opera. We are a young company, still only in our seventh year, 

yet we have presented 236 performances and won popular praise and 

industry awards both nationally and internationally for our groundbreaking 

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We want to do more, and we need your help to do it. 

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Image: Soprano Claudia Boyle in the title role in Gerald Barry’s 

Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. ©ROH 2020. Photo: Clive Barda. 

08 

07

DIRECTOR’S NOTE 

DAISY EVANS 

Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade is an exciting mix of emotions, narrative, 

energy and ambition. It has the kind of pace that makes the entire 

thing feel like a race to the end. It is generous in its spread of 

narrative space and time between its diverse cast of characters: 

princes, shepherds, kings and servants. So we are drawn to really 

care who might win the great game that forms an arch over the 

whole opera. I present to you a piece of ensemble theatre, inspired 

by ancient Greece, but interpreted with the joyful gameplay of 

theatre. Our cast arrive on stage as a team of athletes, headed 

by their coach Aminta, to bring you the story of L’Olimpiade. 

While getting to know the opera I realised there was one major 

pitfall: its title would suggest it’s all about the Olympics. But 

we’re over and done with the games by the time we reach 

the beginning of Act II, and we never even get to see any of 

the action. Another possible interpretation of the title would 

be Olympiad, a classical Greek term used to denote a period 

of four years, marked by an opening festival of the Olympic 

Games. This makes more dramaturgical sense. The opera’s 

themes of rebirth, reconnection, and re-establishment of 

relationships can all be understood as the dawning of a new 

era, or the opening of a new Olympiad. 

The opera is set in ancient Greece, and the opportunity to use 

the practice of Greek theatre was too strong to ignore. My own 

directorial practice was originally inspired by these Aristotelian 

techniques. For me, the presence of the ensemble, the unities of 

place, action and time, and the pressing urgency of fate, all drive 

intense and engaging theatre. Certainly, in L’Olimpiade, we open 

with a great prophecy: King Clistene (in a very King Priam move) 

receives a prophecy that his son will grow up to kill him. Like 

Priam, he instructs a servant, Alcandro, to do away with the child, 

but Alcandro can’t bring himself to do the dreadful deed. Instead, 

he abandons him on a hillside, where the baby is rescued and reared in the house of the King of 

Crete as Prince Licida. Unlike the accursed Priam, King Clistene dodges the fateful assassination 

attempt and father and son are joyfully reunited. 

Another intriguing Greek character is Licida’s tutor, Aminta, a presence in the drama that seemed 

to me far more technical. Aminta is the one who tells us what happens off stage, who is thrice left 

to soliloquise on the state of humanity, and who is the voice of reason to all. This is a Greek chorus 

leader, someone who drives the action and helps us understand the drama. She is the one who 

delivers important news, and who the ensemble look to for their next move. 

In creating the visual world of the piece, designer Molly O’Cathain and I looked to antiquity for our 

amphitheatre-inspired set, and to Greek pottery for our colour palette of clay, high-shine black, and 

ash. You’ll also see Greek-inspired friezes throughout the show. Original Olympic pottery friezes 

inspired our own depiction of the games as well as Molly’s pattern designs. However, we didn’t want 

to take the piece down the Greek route entirely. As classicists might point out, while this libretto has 

many similarities with Greek drama, it is also a Baroque interpretation of events. And, of course, 

you’re hearing it all through its wonderful Baroque score. That’s why we decided to visually interpret 

ancient Greece through a Baroque lens, our characters clothed in fashion from the 1730s. 

The final layer is our own 21st-century view of all of this. The super-arch over it all is you, sitting in 

the audience watching it, and us, the players. It would be a shame to deny us any sporting visuals 

because of the absence of gameplay in the libretto. So my final layer of interpretation comes back to 

the Olympic Games, as the ensemble arrive in their base costume: a modern day sports uniform. They 

put on their characters like you might don a team sweater to enter the fray of the match. And in so 

doing they change and alter the course of the piece, progressing and adding pace to the narrative as it 

unfolds before us, just as a sports player might. It helps us accept and understand the twisting, turning 

narrative of L’Olimpiade, while helping us care and build a connection with each of the characters. 

Ultimately, this piece is a journey from loneliness to joy: almost Shakespearean with its lost lovers, 

its complicated love triangles, and its family cast adrift through time. We begin in a dark place. The 

young ones are emotionally damaged from living under the strictures of their elders, in a world 

where daughters are prizes to be won, and sons must do what their fathers say on pain of exile. But 

all is overcome in the turning of this Olympiad. Perhaps it will be the King who changes his ways, 

and opens his eyes. In this sense, the piece holds a poignant and contemporary message for us all. 

Perhaps we should consider new modes of governance and judgement. We might be happier. 

10 

11

OPERA ALL OVER – 

AND FOR EVERYONE 

Image: Students 

watching the INO 

film of Gerald Barry’s 

Alice’s Adventures 

Under Ground. 

Photo by PJ Malpas. 

Opera is our passion. And we want to share that 

passion. Not just through live events in cities and 

towns, large and small, but also through educational 

initiatives in schools and colleges, and community 

activities that appeal to young and old alike. 

OPERA WHEREVER YOU ARE 

We take our productions to all corners of the land, from Dublin to Galway, Tralee 

to Letterkenny, Wexford to Sligo. Our site-specific productions and outdoor 

screenings have taken our filmed productions to some of the most remote 

corners of Ireland. And our Street Art operas, created for outdoor projection, 

now use our Isolde app to work with mobile phones. Much of our work is 

available online. Partnerships with platforms like operavision.eu and RTÉ 

lyric fm have expanded our international audience to over 1 million and 

counting. More info at Discover and Participate on irishnationalopera.ie. 

TRAILBLAZING DEVELOPMENTS IN THE COMMUNITY 

In June 2022, our first youth opera, David Coonan and Carys D Coburn’s 

Horse Ape Bird, explored relationships between humans and animals, and 

gave young people the experience of performing in a professional operatic 

production. Our groundbreaking virtual reality community opera, Finola 

Merivale’s Out of the Ordinary/As an nGnách was first seen at Kilkenny Arts 

Festival and Dublin Fringe Festival in 2022 and continues to tour around 

Ireland. The INO Schools Programme offers subsidised tickets to students 

for INO performances and also provides free workshops that introduce 

young people to specific works as well as the wider world of opera production. 

Through our Open Foyer series we collaborate with local community groups, 

who perform in the foyer before a performance, exploring connections with 

the opera they’re about to see. We have worked with youth theatre groups in 

Ennis, a hip-hop collective in Cork and a group of singer-songwriters in Dundalk. 

In our Explore and Sing initiative members of the public get to sing alongside 

Image: Stephanie 

Dufresne in an outreach 

session with pupils of 

St Peter’s, Dunboyne, 

about INO’s production 

of Cosí fan tutte. 

Image, still from video 

by Charlie Jo Doherty. 

the chorus or orchestra in specially designed workshops. Our pre-performance 

talks and online In Focus sessions delve into varied aspects of our productions 

with opera makers, from the histories of specific works, the development of 

the characters, and the issues facing performers and composers. 

NURTURING THE NEXT GENERATION OF OPERA TALENT 

The professional development and employment of Irish artists are key to 

the success of Irish National Opera itself. The Irish National Opera Studio is 

our artistic development programme. It provides specially-tailored training, 

professional mentoring and high-level professional engagements for singers, 

répétiteurs, conductors, directors and composers whose success is crucial to the 

future development of opera in Ireland. Through our partnership with TU Dublin, 

we have created a répétiteur scholarship, which offers an opportunity for a 

pianist to work on our productions across the season whilst also studying towards 

a Masters in Music. We also provide workshops for third-level music students 

designed to give them a fuller understanding of professional engagement with 

that heady mixture of musical, artistic, theatrical and management skills that 

make possible the magic that is opera. Colleges and universities we have worked 

with include University College Dublin, National College of Art and Design, 

Maynooth University, University of Galway, TU Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy 

of Music, DCU, Trinity College Dublin and the MTU Cork School of Music. 

WE PRODUCE GREAT WORK 

Our commissioned works explore issues from climate change to mental health. We 

present opera in thought-provoking and relevant ways. We nurture and develop 

emerging talent to ensure that the Irish opera landscape provides equitable 

opportunities and pay. We champion gender equality in the creative teams we 

work with. Opera is for everyone, and we are committed to inclusivity and diversity. 

Everyone should have access and the opportunity to participate in opera. 

12 

13

TAKE WHAT YOU NEED 

You don’t have to look very far to find 

some astonishing differences between 

the world of opera that Vivaldi worked 

in, and the world of opera as it is today. 

When Vivaldi set Pietro Metastasio’s 

L’Olimpiade libretto in 1734 he was 

following hot on the heels of Antonio 

Caldara, for whom, a year earlier, 

Metastasio had written the text. 

The speed of the follow-up puts Hollywood 

remakes to shame, as does the fact that 

the libretto would be set again by Giovanni 

Battista Pergolesi in 1735, and, ultimately, by 

dozens of other composers before the end of 

the century. It’s a sequence of events that’s 

simply unimaginable in today’s operatic world. 

The 18th century saw more than 120 editions 

of Metastasio’s L’Olimpiade, and the list of 

composers who engaged with the text – or parts 

of it – even extends to Beethoven. 

Rozzi in Siena in September 1939 were the 

first of any opera by Vivaldi since the 18th 

century. 

Among the driving forces behind the new, 

20th-century attention on Vivaldi were 

two Americans, the long-lived violinist 

Olga Rudge (1895–1996) and the writer 

and amateur composer Ezra Pound 

(1885–1972), who first encountered 

Rudge through his work as a music critic; 

they would later become lovers and have a 

child together. Their shared enthusiasms 

extended to early music, and also the 

work of American composer and selfstyled 

bad boy of music, George Antheil 

(1900–59), who wrote incidental music for 

WB Yeats’s ballet-play Fighting the Waves 

at the Abbey Theatre in 1929. Rudge 

prepared a catalogue of Vivaldi’s works, 

was secretary of the Accademia Musicale 

Chigiana in Siena from 1932 to 1961, gave 

an all-Vivaldi concert in 1937, and founded 

a centre for Vivaldi studies in Siena the 

following year. 

Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade was a turning point in the 

composer’s career. Its success has been credited 

with opening up the Venetian theatres controlled 

by the powerful Grimani family to his work. And 

the opera would become a turning point in 

the revival of his music in the 20th century. Its 

performances at the Teatro dell’Accademia dei 

The 1939 performance of L’Olimpiade was 

of an arrangement by Virgilio Mortari (1902–93). Mortari took a leaf out of the 18th-century 

opera handbook, and his adaptation introduced music from Vivaldi’s Dorilla in Tempe. Vivaldi 

himself had introduced even earlier music into Dorilla in Tempe, part of the Spring concerto 

from The Four Seasons. Irish audiences had an opportunity to see that work at Wexford Festival 

Opera in 2019. And, according to Brian Boydell’s A Dublin Musical Calendar, 1700–1760, the 

Spring Concerto was the most performed work by Vivaldi in 18th-century Dublin. 

14 

Image: Pietro Metastasio ca 1770, attributed to 

both Martin van Maytens and Pompeo Batoni 

Image: Programme details from the 1939 Vivaldi festival in which 

L’Olimpiade had its first modern performance 

15

Image: Title page of Metastasio’s 

libretto for Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade, 1734 

PASTICCIO from the 

New Grove Dictionary of Music 

SETTINGS OF METASTASIO’S 

L’OLIMPIADE 

The term ‘pasticcio’ has been applied to 

several different kinds of work 

* composers featured in the recorded 

2012 pasticcio 

The artistic director of the 1939 Vivaldi week was Italian 

composer Alfredo Casella (1883–1947), and he explained the 

reasoning behind the changes to L’Olimpiade in the festival’s 

programme book. 

“The opera needed patient work in editing, especially because 

of the necessity to shorten to the absolute minimum the 

recitatives which modern audiences surely would not listen 

to. Since, in addition, some important pieces were missing, 

these were taken from another opera by Vivaldi, Dorilla, which 

was also performed at the Teatro San Angelo in Venice during 

the same year (1734). The Turin score of Dorilla contains the 

remark ‘three acts with sinfonia and choruses which sing and dance;’ the work is much richer 

in ensembles than L’Olimpiade, especially in choruses and dances. For this reason, what was 

missing in L’Olimpiade was borrowed from this opera, in the knowledge that nothing was done 

that the masters of that period had not been doing continually . (In my research in the Turin 

National Library, I found one identical aria in four different operas by Vivaldi!).” 

Audiences’ impatience at long stretches of recitative may not have changed, but research 

has moved on since 1939. Italian conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini’s note for his recording of 

L’Olimpiade includes the calculation that some 37 percent of the opera has been “recycled 

from elsewhere”. Vivaldi also ditched six arias and made major cuts to the recitatives in 

Metastasio’s libretto. 

Peter Whelan, conductor of tonight’s performance, says, “There’s nothing wrong with recycling or 

upcycling. The director will be looking for certain dramatic aspects that maybe aren’t quite there. 

There might be a moment where they have to move scenery, or characters. So we are filling in 

some of the gaps with appropriate music, music in the right character for the moment. There are 

a couple of moments where there are a lot of people on stage, and you’re hungry for a chorus. But 

choruses are something Vivaldi really shies away from. As you say Spring was hugely popular and 

his ‘Fifth Concerto’ crops up time and time again. So we’re going to add that as a chorus, where 

we needed a dramatic moment with four-part voices. It’s perfect in terms of tonality, feel, for a 

fiery moment in the opera.” The 18th-century spirit of adaptation is still alive and well. 

MICHAEL DERVAN 

(i) Revival with substitutions: arias 

by various composers are substituted 

for pieces thought unsuitable for the 

available singers 

(ii) True pasticcio: 

(a) a patchwork in which singers, 

librettist or impresario fill out an 

existing libretto entirely with arie di 

bagaglio (‘suitcase’ arias), or 

(b) a composite original, in which 

diverse arias by several composers are 

fashioned into a new plot 

(iii) a composer patchwork: a composer 

incorporates his own arias, old or new, 

into another’s score 

(iv) a self-pastiche: an amalgam of a 

composer’s own arias in a new context. 

TWO SIGNIFICANT 

PASTICCIOS OF THE 21st 

CENTURY 

The Metropolitan Opera’s The Enchanted 

Island featured music for 10 characters 

and a vocal quartet extracted from 

works by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, 

Campra, Purcell, Ferrandini and Rebel, 

to a libretto by Jeremy Sams after 

Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A 

Midsummer Night’s Dream. The cast was 

headed by David Daniels, Danielle de 

Niese, Joyce DiDonato, Luca Pisaroni 

and Lisette Oropesa, and Willam Christie 

conducted. It was first performed on 31 

December 2011, and broadcast live as 

part of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD 

series in January 2012. 

A recording of L’Olimpiade using arias 

for six of the opera’s seven characters by 

16 of the 18th-century composers who 

set the libretto was issued on the Naïve 

label to tie in with the Olympic Games 

of 2012. The singers were Romina 

Basso, Franziska Gottwald, Karina 

Gauvin, Nicholas Phan, Ruth Rosique 

and Nicholas Spanos, and Markellos 

Chryssicos conducted the Venice 

Baroque Orchestra. 

Antonio Caldara (Vienna 1733)* 

Antonio Vivaldi (Venezia 1734)* 

Pietro Giuseppe Sandoni (pasticcio, 

Genoa 1733) 

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Rome 1735; 

Pergolesi’s setting, “the Arcadian opera par 

excellence,” according to The New Grove, 

was a popular source in later pasticcios)* 

Anon (Prague 1735) 

Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio (Turin 1737) 

Giuseppe Maria Orlandini (Florence 1737) 

Leonardo Leo (Naples 1737)* 

Domenico Alberti (Venice 1737 or 1739) 

Anon (Lisbon 1737) 

Anon (Florence 1738) 

Anon (Cortona 1738) 

Anon (Catania 1740) 

Giovanni Battista Pescetti (Padua 1741) 

Anon (Bologna 1743) 

Anon (pasticcio, Vienna 1743) 

Francesco Corradini (Madrid 1745, 

with the title La más heroica amistad y el 

amoy más verdadero – The Most Heroic 

Friendship and the Truest Love) 

Ignazio Fiorillo (Venice 1745) 

Giuseppe Scarlatti (Lucca 1745) 

Giuseppe Scolari (Venice 1747) 

Baldassare Galuppi (Milan 1747)* 

Giovanni Battista Lampugnani (Florence 

1747) 

Georg Christoph Wagenseil (Vienna 1749) 

Rinaldo di Capua (Rome 1750) 

Pietro Pulli (Modena 1751) 

Gaetano Latilla (Venice 1752) 

Nicola Bonifacio Logroscino (Rome 1753) 

Davide Perez (Lisbon 1753)* 

Francesco Antonio Uttini (Copenhagen 

1754) 

Egidio Duni (1755) 

Anon (pascticcio, Bologna 1755) 

Johann Adolph Hasse (Dresden 1756)* 

Anon (Mannheim 1756) 

Anon (pasticcio, London 1756) 

Giuseppe Carcani (Mantua 1757) 


Carlo Monza (Milan 1758) 

Tomasso Traetta (Verona 1758)* 

Gregorio Sciroli (Venice 1760) 

Niccolò Piccinni (Rome 1761)* 

Niccolò Jommelli (Stuttgart 1761)* 

Vincenzo Manfredini (Moscow 1762) 

Domenico Fischietti (Prague 1763) 

Antonio Sacchini (Padua 1763) 

Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi (Naples 1763; 

in Venice in 1766 Giuglielmi’s Act I was 

performed with Act II by Francesco Brusa 

and Act III by Antonio Gaetano Pampani) 

Anon (pasticcio, Pisa 1763) 

Andrea Bernasconi (Munich 1764) 

Florian Leopold Gassmann (Vienna 1764)* 

Ferdinando Bertoni (Venice 1765) 

Thomas Arne (London 1765, the 

composer’s only, and unsuccessful opera 

in Italian; only the libretto survives) 

Giovanni Andrea Calisto Zanotti 

(Modena 1767) 

Niccolò Piccini (Rome 1768) 

Pasquale Cafaro (Naples 1769) 

Anon (pasticcio, London 1769, with music 

by Johann Christian Bach, Giuseppe Sarti, 

Niccolò Piccinni and Tommaso Traetta) 

Anon (pasticcio, Palermo 1770) 

Anon (pasticcio, Palermo 1772) 


Pasquale Anfossi (Venice 1774) 

Luigi Gatti (Salzburg 1775) 

Antonio Rossetti (Milan, 1777) 

Giuseppe Sarti (Florence 1778)* 

Josef Mysliveček (Naples 1778)* 

Anon (Genoa 1778) 

Francesco Bianchi (Milan 1781) 

Antonio Gatti (Mantua 1781) 

Gaetano Andreozzi (Pisa 1782) 

Johann Gottfried Schwanberger 

(Braunschweig 1782) 


Luigi Cherubini (opera never completed)* 

Domenico Cimarosa (Vicenza 1784)* 

Giovanni Battista Borghi (Modena 1784) 

Anon (Lucca 1784) 

Giovanni Paisiello (Naples 1786)* 

Anon (Senigallia 1787) 

Ambrogio Minoja (Rome 1788) 

Vicenzo Federici (Turin 1789) 

Johann Friedrich Reichardt (Berlin 1791) 

Angelo Tarchi (Rome 1792) 


Marcello Perrino (Naples 1795?) 

Ludwig van Beethoven (setting of O care 

selve from Metastasio’s libretto for unison 

choir and piano, 1795) 

Michele Arditi (Naples 1800?) 

Ludwig van Beethoven (setting of 

Nei giorni tuoi felici from Metastasio’s 

libretto, 1802–3) 

Johann Nepomuk von Poißl (Munich 

1815, as Der Wettkampf zu Olympia, oder 

Die Freunde, The Olympic Contest, or The 

Friends; the opera was praised by Weber) 

Gaetano Donizetti (unfinished fragment 

1817) 

16 

17

Irish National Opera 

presents 

STRAUSS 

Salome 

streaming 

19 April – 19 October 2024 

★★★★★ 

IRISH EXAMINER 

★★★★★ 

IRISH TIMES 

★★★★ 

BACHTRACK 

free stream on operavision.eu 

Sinéad Campbell Wallace (Salome) & Tómas Tómasson (Jochanaan) in INO’s production of Strauss’ Salome. Photo: Patricio Cassinoni. 

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

SYNOPSIS 

THE BACKGROUND 

KING CLISTENE AND FILINTO 

In the kingdom of Sicyon, King Clistene 

fathers two children, a son Filinto and 

a daughter Aristea. When he hears of a 

prophecy from the oracle of Delphi that 

his death will be at the hands of his own 

son, he abandons Filinto and leaves him 

to die. 

ARISTEA AND MEGACLE 

Aristea develops a romantic attachment 

to Megacle, an Athenian of exceptional 

athletic prowess. King Clistene again 

imposes his will, and forbids the 

relationship, because of his disdain 

for Athenians. 

LICIDA AND ARGENE 

Prince Licida of Crete has become 

engaged to Argene, but his father also 

interferes. He forbids the marriage, 

and reprimands Licida after a foiled 

elopement. Argene flees the court and 

disguises herself as a shepherdess under 

the name of Licori. 

LICIDA AND MEGACLE 

The connection between Licida and 

Megacle runs deep. Licida rescued his 

friend from certain death and Megacle 

feels greatly indebted because of this. 

He wants to find a way of repaying him. 

THE ACTION 

The action opens as the Olympic games draw close. King Clistene has promised the 

hand of his daughter Aristea in marriage to the winner. Licida, who wants to impress his 

father and thus redeem himself, hatches a plan to win and marry Aristea. Megacle, who 

wants to honour his friend for having saved his life, competes in the games disguised as 

Licida. Licida, however, is unaware of Megacle’s previous attachment to Aristea. 

Meanwhile Argene (who is still in love with Licida) and Aristea meet and discuss their 

past relationships with Licida and Megacle. Argene discloses the only way to get over her 

heartbreak was to leave court entirely, while Aristea is still stuck in a vicious power battle 

with her father. 

Megacle (disguised as Licida) is victorious in the games, and accidentally runs into 

Aristea who is excited to meet him. However he holds back, and the plot to win Aristea 

on behalf of Licida comes out. The revelation leaves Aristea heartbroken, and Licida’s 

own lover, Argene is enraged with him. 

Chaos ensues, including reports of Licida in exile and Megacle’s death. In a final twist 

it’s revealed that Licida is in fact King Clistene’s long-abandoned son. Through the 

expression of passionate love, heroic friendship and unwavering loyalty, the story 

culminates in a resolution demonstrating the consequences of tempting fate and the 

complexity of human emotions. 

20 

21

BEING PETER WHELAN... 

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THE 

FIRST OPERA YOU WENT TO? 

I’ve absolutely no idea what the first opera I 

went to was. Isn’t that embarrassing? The first 

opera that I remember listening to was Gilbert 

and Sullivan. We had LPs in my house growing 

up of The Mikado and The Gondoliers. Which I 

listened to all the time and didn’t realise that 

it was tongue in cheek and a kind of parody of 

some of Verdi’s style and grand 19th-century 

tradition. It turned out that they belonged to 

my great grandfather who used to go across 

to Cork from Kerry to listen to the operas. I 

remember the really beautiful sleeve of the LP 

with pictures of how it’s staged and, you know, 

the Gondoliers and the flowers and all the 

rest of it. I was captivated by the drama of it 

and trying to work out what was going on from 

listening to the words. 

The first opera I remember going to was 

Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Komische Oper 

Berlin, probably just before the Millennium. It 

felt pretty incomprehensible, overwhelming as 

an experience. I couldn’t see particularly well, 

I couldn’t hook it together easily in my brain, 

so it was a difficult experience. I didn’t enjoy it 

that much. But I realised it was a big machine at 

work here and there was work to do on my part 

to try and understand what was happening. 

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THE 

FIRST OPERA YOU CONDUCTED? 

I’d done some small things, but the first that 

counts as an opera was Handel’s Acis and 

Galatea. [With the Irish Baroque Orchestra 

and Opera Theatre Company in 2017, with 

Eamonn Mulhall as Acis, Susanna Fairbairn 

as Galatea, Edward Grint as Polyphemus and 

Andrew Gavin as Damon. Tom Creed directed, 

the set designer was Paul O’Mahony, the 

costume designer was Catherine Fay, and the 

lighting designer was Aedín Cosgrove.] That 

was a wonderful experience. What I remember 

from it is the camaraderie. And it’s really nice 

linking the characters in the opera to people 

you actually know. You see your friends or 

colleagues becoming a different character 

and then it kind of stays with you. It’s an 

indelible connection between the people 

you’re working with and the characters, and 

how they overlap. 

WHAT WAS THE BEST OPERA-RELATED 

ADVICE YOU EVER GOT? 

Let me think... I think it’s about always seeing 

the bigger picture. Opera rooms can come 

to feel very like a Big Brother house kind 

of environment. So it’s always good to see 

the big blue sky image and to keep that in 

mind. That’s a super helpful thing. I can’t 

remember who told me that, but yeah, it’s 

something I try to adhere to. 

WHAT IS THE MOST ANNOYING 

MISCONCEPTION ABOUT OPERA? 

Oh, it’s definitely the elitist thing. I don’t get 

that at all. Like there’s nobody you meet in 

the opera world at any level in my experience 

who’s at all snobby or difficult. I think there’s 

a lot of very ordinary people really fighting 

for an art form that they love. Yeah, that’s 

something I wish could be shifted, that kind 

of public stereotype. 

WHAT MOMENT DO YOU MOST LOOK 

FORWARD TO WHEN YOU GO TO A 

PERFORMANCE OF L’OLIMPIADE? 

I haven’t been to one. While working on it, 

now, it’s just making the characters come 

to life. And again, pulling everybody into the 

same page. If I’m listening to a recording of it, 

I’m living for the dramatic moments. Vivaldi 

spins out the story in such a way that there’s 

a kind of vanilla music that you find like very, 

very typical of Vivaldi. But then he chooses 

a moment to grab you, pull the heart strings 

with some really amazing accompanied 

16 

Image: Peter Whelan. 

Photography: Marco Borggreive 

23

Image: Peter Whelan. 

Photography: Marco Borggreive 

recitative out of the blue. He’s a genius at 

how he structures it and how he manipulates 

the audience. It always surprises me, his 

music. But for a particular moment, it’s just 

the accompanied recitatives and the drama 

that he squeezes into them. 

WHAT’S THE MOST CHALLENGING 

ASPECT OF CONDUCTING L’OLIMPIADE? 

The most challenging aspect must be pulling 

everybody onto the same page as each other. 

You have a load of different personalities and 

a lot of different voice types, instrumentalists 

all coming from different backgrounds. And 

my job as I see it is to kind of mould a shape 

within the room. So you have to choose your 

words carefully. You have to try and mould 

what’s in front of you, try to encourage, cajole 

people to be on the same page, so you have a 

coherent feel to the whole show. That can be 

the most challenging aspect. 

WHAT’S YOUR AMBITION AS AN OPERA 

CONDUCTOR? 

[He laughs] I feel I’m doing my job well if 

I’m enabling the people in front of me to 

give the best of themselves while also giving 

them some direction. So it’s a freedom that 

hangs loosely over a direction that I’m giving. 

Simply put, it’s to enable the people in front 

of me to give their best. Career wise, I’m 

more interested in the people and the work 

rather than the where. I’ve never particularly 

fussed about that, whether it be last year in 

San Francisco, or at the beginning, travelling 

around smaller venues, with Opera Theatre 

Company. It doesn’t make a big difference 

to me as long as the atmosphere and the 

chemistry are right. 

Repertoire wise, I totally adore the Mozart 

repertoire, all of it. Luckily, I’ve done quite 

a few Mozart operas, and there’s so much 

more to explore. You could look forward a 

bit to something like Bellini, who is really 

fascinating. And, dare I say it, Gilbert and 

Sullivan. I still have a really soft spot for them, 

they are the way I got into opera in the first 

place. And then there are these amazing 

operas that are overlooked. By people around 

Vivaldi’s time like Hasse and Stradella. 

Really, really beautiful works that are very 

overlooked. So they’d be interesting to do as 

well. When I was a bassoonist I spent a bit 

of time working in the Zurich Opera House. I 

remember I did Wagner’s Götterdämmerung 

there. It was overwhelming, amazing music. 

I said I’d save that for my retirement, to kind 

of listen to and get into it, or else I’d be too 

sidetracked. There isn’t enough time in the 

day. I think that would just become an allconsuming 

thing. So as far as conducting 

Wagner repertoire, I don’t know, but that’s 

something I’m saving for slightly later in life. 

IF YOU WEREN’T A MUSICIAN, WHAT 

MIGHT YOU HAVE BECOME? 

I don’t know. It’s just a kind of sappy answer. 

But I always had a strong kind of feeling. 

It was like a vocation, so I never really 

considered doing anything else or thought 

about it. Yeah, I guess I can’t even imagine 

what else that might be. Is that a terrible 

answer? I’d have to make it up otherwise. 

I’ve just never given anything else any 

thought on it, I guess. If I lost the muscle 

control to conduct or play, I would definitely 

still be involved with music, or maybe the 

academic side, the pedagogic side. There’s 

always another level to be involved, but 

it would still stubbornly be in the musical 

realm, I reckon. 

IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL DERVAN 

24 

25

CAST IN ORDER OF VOCAL APPEARANCE 

Licida Meili Li Countertenor 

believed to be the son of the King of Crete, 

suitor of Aristea, former lover of Argene, 

and friend of Megacle 

Aminta Rachel Redmond Soprano 

tutor of Licida 

Megacle Gemma Ní Bhriain Mezzo-soprano 

lover of Aristea and friend of Licida 

Argene Sarah Richmond Mezzo-soprano 

Cretan lady, dressed as a shepherdess 

under the name of Licori, lover of Licida 

CREATIVE TEAM 

Conductor 

Director 

Set & Costume Designer 

Lighting Designer 

Movement Director 

Assistant Director 

Répétiteurs 

Language Coach 

Peter Whelan 

Daisy Evans 

Molly O’Cathain 

Jake Wiltshire 

Matthew Forbes 

Christian Hey 

Oliver John Ruthven, Aoife Moran 

Annalisa Monticelli 

Aristea Alexandra Urquiola Mezzo-soprano 

The King’s daughter, lover of Megacle 

Clistene Chuma Sijeqa Baritone 

King of Sicione, father of Aristea 

Alcandro Seán Boylan Baritone 

confidant of Clistene 

26 

27

IRISH BAROQUE ORCHESTRA 

PRODUCTION TEAM 

First violins 

Michael Gurevich LEADER 

Conor Gricmanis 

Second violins 

Alice Earll 

Anita Vedres 

Viola 

Joanna Patrick 

Cello 

Sarah McMahon 

Double bass 

Rosie Moon 

Lute 

Pablo Fitzgerald 

Bassoon 

Luís Tasso Santos 

Harpsichord 

Peter Whelan 

Production Managers 

Veronica Foo 

Peter Jordan 

Company Stage Manager 

Paula Tierney 

Stage Manager 

Anne Kyle 

Assistant Stage Manager 

Ross Smith 

Technical Crew 

Abraham Allen 

Martin Wallace 

Chief LX 

June González Iriarte 

LX Programmer 

Eoin Lennon 

Set Construction 

Triangle Productions 

Scenic Artist, Props 

Dragana Stevanic 

Costume Supervisor 

Sinéad Lawlor 

Costume Assistant 

Ciara Coleman Geaney 

Touring Supervisor 

Maisey Lorimer 

Costume Makers 

Denise Assas Tynan 

Helen Garvey 

Tailor 

Gillian Carew 

Breakdown and Dye Artist 

Molly Brown 

Surtitle Operator 

Maeve Sheil 

Technical Suppliers 

QLX 

Cue One 

Karl Taylor 

Gorilla Design 

ADDITIONAL THANKS 

Production Photography 

Ros Kavanagh 

Rehearsal Photography 

Ste Murray 

Rehearsal Video 

Mark Cantan 

Behind the scenes video 

Charlie Joe Doherty 

Graphic Design 

Colin Denham 

Promotional video 

Gansee Films 

Transport 

Trevor Price 

Wigs, Hair & Makeup 

Supervisor 

Carole Dunne 

28 29

BIOGRAPHIES 

PETER WHELAN 

CONDUCTOR 

DAISY EVANS 

DIRECTOR 

MOLLY O’CATHAIN 

DESIGNER 

JAKE WILTSHIRE 

LIGHTING DESIGNER 

Peter Whelan is among the most 

dynamic and versatile exponents 

of historical performance of his 

generation, with a remarkable 

career as a conductor and director. 

He is also an acclaimed solo artist 

with an extensive and award-winning discography as 

a solo bassoonist. As conductor, he has a passion for 

championing neglected music from the Baroque and 

Classical eras. Recent engagements have included 

appearances with English Concert, Scottish Chamber 

Orchestra, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Netherlands 

Chamber Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, 

Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Oulu Symphony Orchestra 

and Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg. In the 

2022–23 season, he conduced Vivaldi’s seldomperformed 

Bajazet with Irish National Opera, which 

was met with outstanding reviews and won an 

Olivier Award for outstanding achievement in opera. 

He also made his debut at San Francisco Opera, 

conducting Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Highlights of 

the 2023–24 season include Orchestra of the Age 

of Enlightenment, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Dunedin 

Consort, la festa musicale, Meininger Hofkapelle and 

Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. He also makes 

his debut conducting the Monteverdi Choir and 

Orchestra in their European tour of Handel’s Israel in 

Egypt, with venues including the Elbphilharmonie and 

Salzburg Festival. 

Daisy Evans works in opera, film and 

theatre as a director and writer. She 

won the Royal Philharmonic Society 

opera award and the Canadian 

Dora award for best director for her 

production of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s 

Castle. Notable productions include Mozart’s The 

Magic Flute for Welsh National Opera, Wolfgang 

Mitterer’s Peter Pan – The Dark Side for Fondazione 

Haydn, Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle for Theatre 

of Sound, Menotti’s The Telephone for Edinburgh 

International Festival and Scottish Opera, Donizetti’s 

Don Pasquale for Welsh National Opera, Verdi’s La 

traviata for Longborough Festival Opera, Purcell’s 

King Arthur for the Academy of Ancient Music at the 

Barbican, Verdi’s Falstaff for Wilton’s Music Hall and 

Fulham Opera, and Britten’s Awakening Shadow for 

Glyndebourne Festival Opera. As founder director 

of Silent Opera, she has directed new versions of 

Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Janáček’s Cunning 

Little Vixen, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Monteverdi’s 

L’Orfeo, Puccini’s La bohème and Purcell’s Dido and 

Aeneas. As librettist, her English translations include 

Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle 

and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. 

Molly O’Cathain is a set and 

costume designer working across 

theatre, dance, opera, and 

photography. She is a founding 

member and company designer 

for the award-winning Malaprop 

Theatre. Previous designs for Irish National Opera 

include Vivaldi’s Bajazet, a co-production with Royal 

Opera House, which won outstanding achievement 

in opera at the Olivier Awards in 2022. Her other 

credits include Mozart’s The Magic Flute (set 

design, Sofia Opera), An Octoroon (costume design, 

Abbey Theatre), Constellations (Gate Theatre), 

The Wrens (DanColley/Draíocht), Haunted/If These 

Wigs Could Talk (THISISPOPBABY), The Realistic 

Joneses (Smock Alley/Laguna Playhouse, California), 

The Playboy of the Western World (Dublin Theatre 

Festival/Gaiety Theatre/Lyric Theatre Belfast), To 

the Lighthouse (costume design, The Everyman/ 

Hatch Productions), It Was Easy (In The End) 

(THEATREclub/Abbey Theatre), Absent The Wrong 

(set design, Peacock Theatre), Ask Too Much of Me 

(Peacock Theatre/National Youth Theatre), Love 

Songs (Philip Connaughton Dance) and Minseach 

(Sibéal Davitt Dance), and her designs for Malaprop 

Theatre, HOTHOUSE, Where Sat the Lovers, 

Before You Say Anything, Everything Not Saved, 

BlackCatfishMusketeer and LOVE+. 

Jake designs extensively both in 

the UK and worldwide. His work 

has been seen with major opera 

companies and festivals including 

Welsh National Opera, Garsington 

Opera and St. Galler Festspiele, 

Switzerland, as well as nearly all of the UK’s top 

music conservatoires. Internationally, he’s worked 

throughout Europe, North America, and Asia in a 

variety of venues from traditional proscenium arch 

theatres to unique site-specific spaces. In 2009 

he was made an honorary associate of the Royal 

Academy of Music and in 2023 he was nominated for 

a Dora Mavor Moore Award in Canada for outstanding 

lighting design. Recent credits include Giordano’s 

Andrea Chenier for St. Galler Festspiele; Mozart’s 

Don Giovanni for Kilden Opera in Norway; Mozart’s 

The Magic Flute and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale for 

Welsh National Opera; Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle 

for Theatre of Sound (winner of a Royal Philharmonic 

Society Award), Atlanta and Toronto; Handel’s 

Amadigi and Rossini’s Le comte Ory for Garsington 

Opera; Wolfgang Mitterer’s Peter Pan – The Dark 

Side for Haydn Fondazione, Italy; Vixen (a version of 

Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen) for Silent Opera in 

association with ENO (London, Helsinki, Trento, Hong 

Kong and Beijing). He has also lit multiple productions 

for Buxton International Opera Festival, Longborough 

Festival Opera and Opera Holland Park. 

30 

31

BIOGRAPHIES 

MATTHEW FORBES 

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR 

OLIVER JOHN RUTHVEN 

RÉPÉTITEUR 

CHRISTIAN HEY 

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR 

ANNALISA MONTICELLI 

LANGUAGE COACH 

Matthew trained as an actor in 

London at the Royal Central School 

of Speech and Drama, specialising 

in collaborative and devised theatre. 

He works internationally as a 

director and actor, with a strong 

focus on puppetry, object manipulation and physical 

theatre. Puppetry and movement directing credits 

include War Horse (National Theatre, West End, 

Europe, South African and UK tours); War Horse – 

The Prom (BBC Proms); The Curious Incident of the 

Dog in the Night-Time (UK tour); Mozart’s The Magic 

Flute (Welsh National Opera); Bartók’s Bluebeard’s 

Castle (Beijing Music Festival); A Christmas Carol 

(Nottingham Playhouse, Alexandra Palace, BBC 

and cinema release); The Good Life (UK tour); 

Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (British Youth 

Opera); Holes (Nottingham Playhouse and UK tour); 

Skellig (Nottingham Playhouse); Babe, The Sheep-Pig 

(Polka Theatre and UK tour); Treasure Island (Leicester 

Haymarket Theatre); Dinner at the Twits and Adventures 

in Wonderland (Les Enfants Terribles, The Waterloo 

Vaults); The Witches (Dundee Rep); Ragtime and Once 

on This Island (ArtsEd); The Steadfast Tin Soldier (Little 

Angle Theatre). Stage acting credits include The Lion 

King (UK tour); Sleeping Beauty (Mercury Theatre); 

The Little Gardener (UK tour and Kew Gardens); Kiki’s 

Delivery Service (Southwark Playhouse); The Wizard of 

Oz (national tour); The Witches (Dundee Rep); Alice’s 

Adventures Underground (Les Enfants Terribles); War 

Horse (National Theatre & West End); Beauty and the 

Beast (Dundee Rep); Permission to Play (Shakespeare’s 

Globe); Boy A (Embassy Studios); Midsummer Night’s 

Dream (Embassy Theatre). TV and film acting credits 

include Robin Hood (BBC), Hot Fuzz (Working Title 

Films) and The Silent Cormorant (Passion Pictures). 

Oliver John Ruthven is a conductor 

and continuo player based in 

London. He began his musical 

career as a chorister at Westminster 

Abbey, and went on from there to 

Tonbridge School and the University 

of Manchester where he graduated in 2006 with a first 

class honours degree in music. In opera, he was music 

director of Hampstead Garden Opera from 2008 to 

2017, conducting a huge variety of repertoire ranging 

from Monteverdi to Jonathan Dove via Handel, Mozart 

and Donizetti. He has worked for The Royal Opera, 

Opera North, the Grange Festival, Garsington Opera, 

and the Early Opera Company. Since 2010, he has 

worked with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque 

Soloists under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner. This 

has principally been as a continuo keyboard player, 

but he has also sung as a tenor in the choir, acted as 

assistant conductor on several tours, and produced a 

recording of renaissance and early Baroque polyphony, 

which was released in April 2019. He is a founder 

member of Musica Poetica and has also played with 

Stile Antico, Academy of Ancient Music, The Hanover 

Band, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, the English 

Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, and Solomon’s Knot. 

As a choral conductor and accompanist, he has worked 

with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, the Hallé 

Youth Choir, the Brighton Early Music Festival, and the 

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s education 

department. He has been conductor of the Morgan 

Stanley Choir since 2013. 

Christian Hey is an emerging 

stage director of opera and staged 

classical music performance, 

based between London and Cardiff. 

With a background in theatre and 

design, he takes a multidisciplinary 

approach to opera. Recent directing work includes 

assistant director to Adele Thomas on Et Voilà!!, 

the National Opera Studio’s Welsh National Opera 

Residency; stage director Handel’s The Choice of 

Hercules (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama) 

A Perfectly Ordinary Recital (Atmospheres Festival, 

Cardiff), Remote from Tumult (Sands Films Music 

Room); and postgraduate opera scenes from Weill’s 

The Threepenny Opera and Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, 

and assistant director to Rachael Hewer on Poulenc’s 

The Dialogues of the Carmelites (RWCMD Spring 

Opera). He has also designed sets and costumes 

for Cavalli’s L’Egisto (Hampstead Garden Opera), 

Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie (Grimeborn Opera 

Festival), Cavalli’s Il Xerse (Grimeborn Opera Festival), 

and Handel’s Alcina (John McIntosh Arts Centre). He 

graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech 

and Drama in 2021 with a BA (Hons) in performance 

design, and will be graduating from Royal Welsh 

College of Music and Drama this year with an MA in 

opera directing. His work also includes transgender 

advocacy within classical music and he has generated 

material for the BBC Symphony Chorus and Aloud! 

choirs. His training has been generously supported by 

Philip Carne MBE, The Leverhulme Trust, and Taith. 

Annalisa Monticelli is a highly 

sought-after musician who has 

performed and recorded in Europe, 

Asia, North and South America as a 

soloist, with vocal and instrumental 

ensembles, and with various 

orchestras. She studied piano, voice, conducting, 

chamber music, jazz and education in Italy and the 

USA, with renowned musicians including Bruno 

Canino, Daniel Rivera, Eugenia Rozental, Cinzia Gizzi 

and Douglas Weeks. She gave her first solo recital 

at the age of 10 and gained her first piano degree at 

the age of 16 with maximum marks. She started her 

professional coaching career working for the Montalto 

Opera program in Montalto Ligure in Italy under the 

guidance of tenor Ugo Benelli and accompanying 

masterclasses by Wagnerian soprano Rebecca Turner 

and others. After spending three years in the USA, 

she moved to Ireland in 2014. She has worked at the 

Royal Irish Academy of Music, and Dundalk Institute 

of Technology, performed in all Irish major venues, 

and released several albums. She has also performed 

and taught in Warsaw, Zurich, Vilnius, Glasgow, Paris, 

Johor Bahru (Malaysia), Porto and Scotland. She is 

working on her PhD at TU Dublin and her research 

focuses on Michele Esposito and his piano school 

based in Dublin in the late nineteenth century. She 

has worked as répétiteur, vocal and/or diction coach 

for more than 30 operas, both in Europe and the USA. 

She is an eclectic musician who loves performing 

classical music alongside tango, jazz and Latin- 

American music, both as a pianist and a singer. 

32 

33

BIOGRAPHIES 

MEILI LI 

COUNTERTENOR 

LICIDA 

RACHEL REDMOND 

SOPRANO 

AMINTA 

GEMMA NÍ BHRIAIN 

MEZZO-SOPRANO 

MEGACLE 

SARAH RICHMOND 

MEZZO-SOPRANO 

ARGENE 

Meili Li is the first Chinese 

countertenor to have an 

international career. He is the 

winner of the Farinelli Prize (2016) 

and second prize at the London 

Handel Festival Singing Competition 

(2022). Recent credits include Adone in Salvatore 

Sciarrino’s Venere e Adone (Hamburg State Opera), 

Eunuch in Shostakovich’s The Nose (Bavarian State 

Opera), Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s 

Dream (Hungarian State Opera and Theater Gießen), 

Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo e Euridice (Blackwater Valley 

Opera Festival), Spirito in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (The 

Royal Opera, London), Lian Shanbo in Richard Mills’s 

The Butterfly Lovers (Victorian Opera Melbourne), 

Peleo in Fux’s Arianna (Styriarte Festival), and the 

title roles in Handel’s Giustino (Theater an der Wien), 

Alessandro and Tolomeo (International Handel 

Festival Karlsruhe and Theater Lübeck), Fernando 

(London Handel Festival), and Dardano in Handel’s 

Amadigi (Meiningen State Opera). Venues he has 

performed in include Carnegie Hall, Barbican Centre, 

the Concertgebouw and Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, 

Moscow. He has worked with conductors and stage 

directors such as Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, 

Peter Whelan, Laurence Cummings, Attilio Cremonesi, 

Maxim Emelyanychev, Federico Sardelli, Alfredo 

Bernardini, Kirill Sererbennikov, Georges Delnon, 

Benjamin Lazar, Adrian Schvarzstein, and Graham 

Vick. He holds a degree in film and philosophy 

from Peking University, an MA and DipRAM (with 

distinction) in voice from the Royal Academy of Music, 

where he remains one of the few students to have 

been awarded full marks for his final recital; and an 

artist diploma (with distinction) in opera from the 

Guildhall School of Music and Drama. 

Rachel Redmond trained at the 

Royal Scottish Conservatoire and 

the Guildhall School of Music and 

Drama. She performs regularly 

with Les Arts Florissants and 

other leading European baroque 

ensembles. She recently made her débuts with 

the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Academy of 

Ancient Music, Tafelmusik, Britten Sinfonia, Helsinki 

Baroque Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Les 

Talens Lyriques, The English Concert, Netherlands 

Bach Society, Le Poème Harmonique and the 

Gulbenkian Orchestra. She performed Handel’s 

Messiah at the Salzburg Festival and Bach’s B minor 

Mass with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment 

at the BBC Proms. She made her stage début at the 

Opéra-Comique in Lully’s Atys, followed by Campra’s 

Les fêtes vénitiennes in Paris, Toulouse and New 

York. Her other operatic roles include Susanna in 

Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with English Touring 

Opera, Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and 

Arethuse in Charpentier’s Actéon with Les Arts 

Florissants, Purcell’s Fairy Queen at Atelier Lyrique 

de Tourcoing, Second Woman in Purcell’s Dido 

and Aeneas at Aix-en-Provence Festival, Fortuna in 

Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at Opéra du 

Rhin, and Loena in Offenbach’s La belle Hélène at the 

Théâtre du Châtelet. This season’s highlights include 

Dorinda in Handel’s Orlando with the Academy of 

Ancient Music, Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea 

and Venus in Blow’s Venus and Adonis with Ensemble 

Masques, Handel’s Messiah with the Dunedin 

Consort, Bach cantatas with Stradivaria, Orchestre 

Baroque de Nantes, and a program of Blow and 

Purcell with Le Caravansérail. 

Dublin mezzo-soprano Gemma Ní 

Bhriain graduated from the Royal 

Irish Academy of Music where she 

studied with Veronica Dunne. She 

went on to become a member of 

the Atelier Lyrique Opera Studio 

at Opéra national de Paris, where her roles included 

Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Proserpina 

in Monteverdi’s Orfeo. This was followed by two years 

with the International Opera Studio at Zurich Opera 

House in Switzerland. Her roles there included Ramiro 

in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, Zweite Dame in 

Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and Alisa in Donizetti’s Lucia 

di Lammermoor. Her performances with INO include 

Siébel in Gounod’s Faust, Dorabella in Mozart’s Così 

fan tutte, Anna in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, Niklausse 

in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann and Mother 

Elaine Agnew’s Paper Boat in association with Music 

for Galway. In 2021 she co-founded a new chamber 

ensemble, Trio Cantare, with pianist Cahal Masterson 

and cellist Yseult Cooper Stockdale. Their debut 

recital was part of the Drogheda Classical Music 

Festival in October 2021, and was later broadcast 

on RTÉ lyric fm. 

Sarah Richmond won the 2021 

Toronto Mozart Vocal Competition 

and was a finalist at the 2022 

Montserrat Caballé International 

Competition at the Teatro Real, 

Madrid. She is known for emotional 

engagement, and Opera Now wrote of her Rosina 

in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville: “her consistently 

supple and finely shaped coloratura portrayed the 

kaleidoscope of feelings endured by her character. 

Brava.” Conductors she has worked with include 

Mark Elder, Vasily Petrenko, Paul Daniel and Michael 

Collins. International credits include Monte Carlo and 

Soriano nel Cimino. She gave a recital with Florent 

Mourier for the Royal Opera House in London and was 

broadcast performing in their first Create Day. Notable 

opera gala appearances include English National 

Opera and Brunswick Vocal Arts. Her 2023–24 

roles include Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and 

Gretel, Idamante in Mozart’s Idomeneo, Komponist 

in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, Rosina in Rossini’s 

Il barbiere di Siviglia and Helen in the premiere of 

Conor Mitchell’s The Headless Soldier. For Wexford 

Festival Opera she has sung Willie in Mascagni’s 

Guglielmo Ratcliff. In the festival’s smaller productions 

she created the role of Lucrece in Andrew Synnott’s 

What Happened to Lucrece, and sang in Walton’s The 

Bear, Bizet’s Le docteur miracle and Verdi’s Falstaff. 

Other roles include Mezzo in Freya Waley Cohen’s 

Spell Book and Terza damigella in Francesca Caccini’s 

La liberazione di Ruggiero for Longborough Festival 

Opera, La zia principessa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica 

for Random Opera, and Bianca/Gabriella in Puccini’s 

La rondine for Iford Arts. 

34 

35

BIOGRAPHIES 

ALEXANDRA URQUIOLA 

MEZZO-SOPRANO 

ARISTEA 

CHUMA SIJEQA 

BARITONE 

CLISTENE 

SEÁN BOYLAN 

BARITONE 

ALCANDRO 

IRISH BAROQUE ORCHESTRA 

ORCHESTRA 

Born in New York of Cuban origin, 

Alexandra Urquiola graduated 

at the Yale School of Music and 

participated in various training 

programs such as the Merola Opera 

of San Francisco. Among the many 

roles she has performed are Hänsel in Humperdinck’s 

Hänsel und Gretel, Dritte Dame in Mozart’s Die 

Zauberflöte, Mother Goose in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s 

Progress, Jade Boucher in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man 

Walking and Zita in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. In 2019 

she established herself in Europe when she joined the 

opera studio of the Stuttgart State Opera. In Stuttgart 

the diverse roles she has sung include Dinah in 

Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Fyodor in Mussorgsky’s 

Boris Godunov and Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina. 

In 2022 she made her debut at Madrid’s Teatro Real 

singing Plotina opposite Thomas Hampson in the title 

role of Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian, and has since 

sung the title role in Bizet’s Carmen and La Marchesa 

Melibea in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims for Theater 

Aachen. 

Rapidly-rising South-African 

baritone Chuma Sijeqa has been 

winning high praise. “The emotional 

temperature rose when Chuma 

Sijeqa’s powerful Rigoletto made 

his entrance,” (Opera magazine). 

“Sijega is one to watch,” (Opera Today). He was born 

in Johannesburg, is an Opera for Peace emerging 

artist, and a Les Azuriales and Jette Parker Artists 

Programme alumnus, who studied in the vocal arts 

department of Tshwane University of Technology 

under Pierre du Toit. He joined Gauteng Opera 

in 2017, and appeared in a wide range of roles 

including Gasparo in Donizetti’s Rita and Schaunard 

in Puccini’s La bohème. In 2018 he won the second 

prize at the South Africa International Singing 

Competition, and the Joseph Karaviotis Prize in 

the vocal competition of the Les Azuriales Opera 

Festival. In 2019 he took part in The New Generation 

Festival in Florence, where he was Don Bartolo in 

Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. He furthered his studies 

at the Guildhall School of Music and completed his 

masters under the guidance of Gary Coward. He 

has sung Father in Debussy’s The Prodigal Son and 

Landlord in Philip Hagemann’s Passion, Poison and 

Petrification for a Pegasus Opera double bill. Other 

roles include Harašta in Janáček’s The Cunning Little 

Vixen, Angelotti in Puccini’s Tosca, Second Philistine 

in Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila, Second Nazarene 

in Strauss’s Salome, and Speaker in Mozart’s 

Die Zauberflöte. He was Dottore Grenvil in Opera 

Glassworks’s film production of Verdi’s La traviata, 

and Franz in Jonathan Dove’s Marx in London for 

Scottish Opera. 

Irish baritone Seán Boylan studied 

at the Royal Irish Academy of Music 

in Dublin with Virginia Kerr; the 

Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden bei 

Wien in Austria; and the Guildhall 

School of Music and Drama [GSMD] 

in London, with Robert Dean, supported by the Amar- 

Franses and Foster-Jenkins Trust. He has performed 

at concerts and recitals in venues including the 

National Concert Hall, Dublin, Kilkenny Castle, 

Ulster Hall, Belfast, Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall, 

London, and Lincoln Center, New York. His previous 

roles include Moralès in Bizet’s Carmen (Irish National 

Opera); Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s 

Dream (GSMD), Novice’s Friend in Britten’s Billy Budd 

(St Endellion Festival), Tarquinius in Britten’s The 

Rape of Lucretia (Potsdamer Winteroper), Guglielmo 

in Mozart’s Così fan tutte (Garsington Opera, GSMD); 

and the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Nevill Holt 

Opera and Garsington Opera). He has also covered 

Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scottish 

Opera) and Aristaeus/Pluto in Offenbach’s Orpheus in 

the Underworld (English National Opera). 

The Olivier Award-winning Irish Baroque Orchestra 

is celebrated as Ireland’s flagship period instrument 

orchestra and delivers world-class historicallyinformed 

performances across Ireland and abroad. 

Under the artistic direction of Peter Whelan, 

scholarship and musical excellence converge in 

a unique way through the IBO’s work, creating an 

original offering like no other organisation on the Irish 

classical music scene. Through this integration of 

research and practice the very idea of an orchestra 

is defined afresh, providing an unusual and enriching 

experience for today’s audiences. As an ambassador 

for the stories of Ireland’s musical past, the IBO uses 

its unique perspective to develop the growing store of 

knowledge surrounding the very early days of Baroque 

and Classical music in Ireland. The IBO’s research, 

recordings and performances offer audiences across 

Ireland a new opportunity to reevaluate and reclaim 

their cultural heritage, while also engaging the Irish 

diaspora through the increasing global reach of this 

work. Even Handel’s Messiah – an annual touring 

highlight in the IBO calendar – is a rekindled link 

to Dublin’s cultural life in 1742. The Irish Baroque 

Orchestra is generously funded by the Arts Council/ 

An Chomhairle Ealaíon. It also receives financial 

support from Culture Ireland to support an expanding 

international profile, and Dublin City Council for 

Dublin HandelFest. The orchestra has its own 

collection of period instruments, purchased with the 

assistance of an Arts Council capital grant and the 

Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The 

IBO is resident at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, 

and as of 2021 is an ensemble and Board member 

of the Réseau Européen de Musique Ancienne 

(European Early Music Network). 

36 37

FERGUS SHEIL AND 

INO STUDIO CONDUCTOR, 

MEDB BRERETON-HURLEY 

CONDUCT THE IRISH NATIONAL 

OPERA ORCHESTRA. 

OPEN FOYER 

NEW CREATIVE VOICES EXPLORE OPERA 

DEIRDRE HIGGINS SOPRANO 

MEGAN O’NEILL SOPRANO 

MADELINE JUDGE MEZZO-SOPRANO 

WILLIAM PEARSON TENOR 

INO’s Open Foyer series is a collaboration with local communities. INO’s outreach 

team works with venues around the country to seek creative responses to our 

touring operas from local, non-professional groups. The resulting performances or 

installations can be experienced in theatre foyers on the night of the shows. We’ve 

already worked with youth choirs, hip-hop groups, singer/songwriters and creative 

writing classes, and all participants have received a free ticket to an opera. 

The Open Foyer initiative brings INO into the heart of the community and opens 

local creative voices to the dynamic world of opera. Through collaboration, we 

develop a greater understanding of the communities we serve, which helps us 

build and maintain a sustainable opera ecosystem for Ireland. 

INO STUDIO 

SHOWCASE 

SUN 30 JUNE 2024 

PAVILION THEATRE 

DÚN LAOGHAIRE 

TIME: 4PM TICKETS: €22/18 

BOOKING: PAVILIONTHEATRE.IE 

PLUS €1 BOOKING FEE 

irishnationalopera.ie 

SATURDAY 20 APRIL 2024 

SIAMSA TÍRE, TRALEE 

A bespoke arrangement of the opening 

Sinfonia in L’Olimpiade by Music Generation 

Kerry conducted by Jenna Raggett. 

TUESDAY 23 APRIL 2024 

THE EVERYMAN, CORK, 7PM 

Inclusive Music Ensemble film installation 

curated by Gemma Ní Bhriain. 

THURSDAY 25 APRIL 2024 

THEATRE ROYAL, WATERFORD 

A blend of Vivaldi and Carolan from the SETU 

Irish Traditional Music Orchestra conducted 

by Karen Ní Bhroin. 

Open Foyer is generously supported by William Earley. 

SATURDAY 27 APRIL 2024 

LIME TREE THEATRE, LIMERICK, 7.20PM 

Vivaldi arias sung by Dean Power with Ceol na 

Mara conducted by James Bingham. 

TUESDAY 30 APRIL 2024 

AN GRIANÁN, LETTERKENNY, 6.30PM 

L’Olimpiade art installation by HSE’s Mental 

Health Service, Create-a-link. 

THURSDAY 2 MAY 2024 

THE SOLSTICE, NAVAN 

A screening of a performance by Julianstown 

Youth Orchestra of a bespoke arrangement of 

the opening Sinfonia in L’Olimpiade. 

39

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. 

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. 

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 

40 

41

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. 

42 

47 43

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 

Composer Amanda Feery wrote her 

first operas while she was a member 

of the INO studio between 2019 and 

2021. As Above, So Below sets texts 

that came out of poet Stephen James 

Smith’s writing workshops with service 

users from St Patrick’s Mental Health 

Services, and A Thing I Cannot Name 

has a libretto by author Megan Nolan. 

Part of her latest opera provides the 

soundtrack to artist Eimear Walshe’s 

installation Romantic Ireland, which 

opened in the Irish Pavilion at the 

Venice Biennale on Saturday 20 April. 

It will tour Ireland in 2025. 

Image: Eimear Walshe’s Romantic Ireland 2024. 

Photo: Faolán Carey. 

44 

45

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 

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