The Flying Dutchman programme book

Wagner

IRISH NATIONAL OPERA

PRINCIPAL FUNDER

A CO-PRODUCTION

WITH GARSINGTON OPERA.

SUPPORTED BY THE JOHN

POLLARD FOUNDATION.

RICHARD WAGNER 1813 – 1883

THE FLYING

DUTCHMAN

DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER

1843

A CO-PRODUCTION WITH GARSINGTON OPERA

ROMANTIC OPERA IN THREE ACTS WWV 63

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN CIRCLE

Jennifer Caldwell, Mary Canning, Caoive Collins, Howard Gatiss,

Catherine Ghose, Catherine Kullmann, John Schlesinger and

Margaret Rowe.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Artane School of Music, ITW Studios, RDS, CoisCéim

Dance Theatre, Once Off Productions, The Wagner Society of

Ireland, Gate Theatre, Opera North, IMMA, Jeffrey O’Riordan at

Orb and Panasonic Connect Europe.

Libretto by Richard Wagner. Published by Schott Music (1842–1880 version).

Complete edition by Egon Voss.

First Performance Königliches Hoftheater Dresden, 2 January 1843.

First Irish Performance Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, 9 August 1877.

SUNG IN GERMAN WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES

Running time: is 2 hours 45 min including one interval.

The performances on Tuesday 25 and Thursday 27 March are being recorded for future

streaming on www.operavision.eu

PERFORMANCES 2025

Sunday 23 March Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin

Tuesday 25 March Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin

Thursday 27 March Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin AUDIO DESCRIBED PERF.

Saturday 29 March Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin

#INODutchman

03

BOOKING &

INFORMATION

irishnationalopera.ie

SETTING SAIL WITH

WAGNER

Tonight’s Flying Dutchman is Irish National Opera’s first Wagner production.

It’s a big moment for the company and an all too rare opportunity for Irish

audiences to see a full production of one of Wagner’s masterpieces.

I first encountered Wagner’s music listening to recordings, playing excerpts

in youth orchestras and studying his scores while at Trinity College Dublin.

You can of course encounter many great performances on disc, but

FERGUS SHEIL nothing quite prepared me for the magnificence and emotional impact of

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR the live experience. Tonight will be very special for those of us who nourish

a deep love of this composer’s operas. I hope it’s also an opportunity for

anyone new to Wagner to be swept away by the lusciousness and inherent drama of his music.

Donizetti

The Elixir of Love

25 - 31 MAY

GAIETY THEATRE DUBLIN

WED 4 JUNE

NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE WEXFORD

SATURDAY 7 JUNE

CORK OPERA HOUSE CORK

Conducting Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with Wide Open Opera was a major turning point for

me as an opera conductor in my native Dublin. So you probably won’t be surprised to learn

how hugely excited I am to be taking INO on its maiden Wagnerian voyage with a cast and

creative team that I have found consistently inspirational to work with. I have treasured every

moment that I’ve spent with them on The Flying Dutchman. And I’m especially delighted that

our production has been made in collaboration with our friends in Garsington Opera, where it is

scheduled to be performed in an upcoming season.

All our work is underpinned by our core funding from The Arts Council, and our first Wagner

production has also been made possible through the generous support of the John Pollard

Foundation as well as a number of true Wagner champions in our Flying Dutchman Circle.

For me, personally, conducting The Flying Dutchman in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre inevitably

brings back memories of Tristan und Isolde there in 2012, and especially the contribution of

one of Ireland’s greatest Wagner sopranos, the late Miriam Murphy, who was so unexpectedly

taken from us in the summer of 2020. Her voice will be singing in my memory and I will feel her

spirit as I enter the pit.

After seven long years at sea, The Flying Dutchman gets just a single day on land to undergo a

transformational experience. I’m working hard to ensure that it won’t be that long until Ireland

can once again see Wagner live in the opera house. Keep your eyes peeled, and enjoy the show.

05

WAITING FOR

L’ELISIR

D’AMORE

“I feel very much at home in the bel

canto style with its sparkling vocal

virtuosity and simple, yet beautiful,

captivating melodies. And what I

especially love about L’elisir d’amore

is that it lifts my spirits every time I

hear the music – you can’t help but

feel uplifted, a little bit happier caught

by this infectiously lively, exciting

music!”

ERINA YASHIMA CONDUCTOR

“Donizetti’s charming L’elisir d’amore

is just the thing to herald in the

summer; bursting with bel canto,

rousing choruses, romance and

comedy it positively fizzes with mirth

and mischief. Even the exquisite

tenor aria, “Una furtiva lagrima”, that

opens so plaintively, miraculously

transforms sadness into joy. The

music is sparkling, the orchestration

expressive and the characters and

community warm and relatable.

L’elisir d’amore appeals to the young,

the young-at-heart, the opera lover

and the romantic.”

CAOIVE COLLINS INO MEMBER

“L’elisir d’amore is a genuinely

funny opera with great music. Our

new production for Irish National

Opera will be set in the Wild West

with characters drawn from classic

American movie culture. The show

promises to be sparkling, glamorous,

romantic and hilarious.”

CAL MCCRYSTAL DIRECTOR

25 MAY - 7 JUNE 2025

SUN 25 - SAT 31 MAY

THE GAIETY THEATRE DUBLIN

www.gaietytheatre.ie

WED 4 JUNE

NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE WEXFORD

www.nationaloperahouse.ie

SAT 7 JUNE

CORK OPERA HOUSE CORK

www.corkoperahouse.ie

TRANS-NATIONAL

COLLABORATIONS

DIEGO FASCIATI

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The business of opera is an international affair. This is in part because

operas were and are composed and created in so many different countries,

languages and styles. Usually, the singers, musicians and creative teams

who work together to create an opera hail from many parts of the world.

International opera stars were a fact of life even in Handel’s lifetime, a

reflection of the way in which opera has, for centuries, called for so many

individuals with highly specialised skills and experience. And, for decades

now, the internationalisation has also been partly fuelled by the desire of

opera houses to co-produce with other opera houses and companies.

Co-productions are a way for companies with shared perspectives and priorities

about particular repertoire to spread some the cost of designing and building sets

and making costumes; casts usually differ from co-producer to co-producer. Beyond

the fact that these collaborations bring financial benefits, they also ensure that

the physical productions can be used efficiently multiple times. And, of course,

co-production arrangements give companies the opportunity to collaborate and

exchange ideas with colleagues from around the world. Tonight’s production of The

Flying Dutchman is a collaboration with Garsington Opera, one of the premier opera

festivals in the UK (I highly recommend a visit!). Working again with our colleagues at

Garsington has been a rewarding experience. We worked together on Strauss’s Der

Rosenkavalier and we hope we will collaborate in the future, too.

We have of course also teamed up with many other opera houses and festivals. Our

recent production of Verdi’s Rigoletto will be presented this summer by our partners

Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico. Last season’s Bruno Ravella production of Richard

Strauss’s Salome, with its truly stunning role debut by Irish soprano Sinéad Campbell

Wallace, is being rented to the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, one of the leading opera

houses in Italy. We recently also received the excellent news that our Daisy Evans

production of Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade (a co-production with the Royal Opera House

in London, and Nouvel Opéra Fribourg, Switzerland) has been nominated for an

Olivier Award in the Best New Opera Production category. We have now earned

four Olivier Awards nominations, with one win. This is a major achievement for the

company and we thank everyone who contributed to our success.

06

07


SUPPORTERS 2025

EMBRACE THE

EXTRAORDINARY

JOIN THE INO COMMUNITY

THE FLYING

DUTCHMAN’S CIRCLE

Jennifer Caldwell

Mary Canning

Caoive Collins

Howard Gatiss

Catherine Ghose

Catherine Kullmann

John Schlesinger & Margaret Rowe

ARTISTIC

DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE

Mary Canning

INO GUARDIANS

Anonymous [1]

Jennifer Caldwell

William Earley

Ian & Jean Flitcroft

Howard Gatiss

Gernot Ruppelt

INO PATRONS

Denis & Jane Corboy

Mareta & Conor Doyle

Noel Doyle & Brigid McManus

Karlin Lillington & Chris Horn

Michael D. Kunkel

Rory & Mary O’Donnell

Patricia O’Hara

Carl & Leonora O’Sullivan

John Schlesinger & Margaret Rowe

Memberships over €300 are

eligible for the Charitable

Donation Scheme.

Join us today, and let’s

make history together.

Contact: Aoife Daly,

Development Manager

aoife@irishnationalopera.ie

T: +353 (0)85–2603721

INO CHAMPIONS

Valerie Beatty & Dennis Jennings

Anne Fogarty

Maire & Maurice Foley

Gerard Howlin

M Hely Hutchinson

Kintsukuroi

Silvia & Jay Krehbiel

Catherine Kullman

Stephen Loughman

Tony & Joan Manning

Lyndon MacCann & Claire Callanan

Petria McDonnell

Sara Moorhead

Máire O’Connor & Simon O’Leary

John & Mary O’Conor

Joseph O’Dea

Tiernán Ó hAlmhain

Geraldine O’Sullivan

James & Marie Pike

Dermot & Sue Scott

Matthew Patrick Smyth

INO ADVOCATES

Anonymous [5]

Desmond Barry

Maureen de Forge

Roy & Aisling Foster

Michael Duggan

Mary Finlay Geoghegan

Julian Hubbard

Nuala Johnson

Paul Kennan & Louise Wilson

John & Michele Keogan

Genevieve Leloup & John Lowe

Stella Litchfield

R. John McBratney

Ann Nolan & Paul Burns

Helen Nolan

Paul & Veronica O’Hara

Peadar O’Mórdha

Frances Ruane

Judith & Philip Tew

INO ASSOCIATES

Anonymous [5]

John Armstrong

Karen Banks

Deirdre Collier

Phillipa Cottle

Fionnuala Croker & Mark Tottenham

Cathy Dalton

Aisling De Lacy

Ciaran Diamond

Matthew Dillon

Veronica Donoghue

Noel Drumgoole

Stephen Fennelly & Niamh O’Connell

Tom Gaynor

Niall Guinan

Mary Holohan

Mairead Hurley

Michael Lloyd

Áine MacCallion

Dara MacMahon & Garrett Fennell

Eithne MacMahon

Aibhlín McCrann & Peter Finnegan

Katherine Meenan

Jane Moynihan

F.X. & Pat O’Brien

Dorrian O’Connor

Philip Regan

Susan Reidy

Jim Ryan

Catherine Santoro

Linda Scales

J & B Sheehy

Liam Shorten

Charlotte & Dennis Stevenson

Barry Walsh

In Memoriam Nadette King

Michael Wall & Simon Nugent

Philip Tilling

INO COMPANIONS

Anonymous [4]

Ann Barrett

Lisa Birthistle

Catherine Bunyan

Stephen Cahill & Patrick O’Byrne

Valerie Cole

Maureen Collins

Dr Beatrice Doran

Josepha Doran

Gretta Flynn

Gabriel Hogan

Ita Kirwan

Ciaran P. Lynch

Bernadette Madden

Cróine Magan

Sandra Mathews

Andrew McCroskery

Niall McCutcheon

John & Mary Miller

Jean Moorhead

Siobhan O’Beirne

Viola & John O’Connor

Liam O’Daly

Mary & John O’Gorman

Mary O’Kennedy

Jackie & Ellen O’Mahony

Prof Desmond O’Neill

Marion Palmer

Lucy Pratt

Hilary Pyle

Jeanette Read

John Rountree

Jim Smith

Mary Spollen

Brian Walsh & Barry Doocey

Niall Williams

Maureen Willson

Opera is more than an art form; it’s a journey that stirs the

soul and connects us across generations, weaving stories

and melodies into the fabric of our lives. At Irish National

Opera, we’re passionate about sharing this experience

with audiences across Ireland. By becoming a Member

of INO, you’re not just supporting the arts – you’re joining

a family that celebrates innovation, excellence, and the

magic of opera.

Your support makes breathtaking performances

possible, inspires young talent, and fuels groundbreaking

outreach across communities. As a member, you will

unlock exclusive access to behind-the-scenes including

masterclasses with world-renowned singers, special

performances, artist receptions, backstage tours and

much more.

Opera is for everyone. Together, we’re building a vibrant

community that reflects Ireland’s creativity and heart.

Our members are essential partners on this journey, fuelling

our passion and ambition. Join us and help make opera a

cherished part of life in Ireland.

FERGUS SHEIL, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, INO

Memberships over €300 are eligible for the Charitable

Donation Scheme. Join us today and be part of something

extraordinary. Your remarkable journey with INO begins now.

Contact: Aoife Daly, Development Manager

E: aoife@irishnationalopera.ie T: +353 (0)85–2603721

Visit irishnationalopera.ie

Image: Kabin Crew members performing The Sound of the Northside at Everyman, Cork

Photo: Cathal Noonan

08

09

SYNOPSIS

ACT I

Daland’s ship has been caught in a ferocious

storm and is driven off-course, miles from

home. Anchored in an unexpected port,

Daland sends his crew off to rest while his

Steersman is left to keep watch, but he soon

falls asleep while dreaming of his sweetheart.

A second ship arrives and drops anchor next

to Daland’s fishing vessel. An unfamiliar

character boards the deck and explores the

surroundings, while reflecting on his own fate:

that once every seven years he is permitted

to leave his own ship and crew to find a wife

on land. He has been cursed, and the only

way to find freedom from the curse is through

the promise of faithfulness from an honest

woman. If he finds her, he is released from

the spell and is redeemed from his deathless

wandering. Daland returns and discovers

the phantom ship along with the sleeping

Steersman and the stranger – a “Dutchman”.

The Dutchman offers treasure and jewels in

return for a night’s lodging with Daland and

his daughter, Senta. Daland agrees to give

Senta’s hand in marriage and they both set

sail for Daland’s home.

Image: Rachael Hewer and Giselle Allen in rehearsal.

Photography: Ste Murray

ACT II

Senta (Daland’s daughter) is captivated by

the portrait of The Flying Dutchman, and

has been spell-bound by the story of this

man’s mysterious fate since she was a child.

Mary and the other women from the fishing

community on land, tease Senta about

her infatuation with the portrait and Senta

describes to them the story of the myth and

the curse and she declares that she will be

the woman to save him. Senta’s previous

love-interest arrives – he is Erik, a huntsman

and butcher – and he announces that Daland

and the fishing crew have returned. Mary

instructs the women to prepare to be reunited

with the Sailors on board. Erik and Senta have

a passionate discussion about her feelings for

the Flying Dutchman, as Erik replays a dream

he has had, during which Senta sails away with

the Dutchman on his ship and is lost to him

forever. Senta declares that this is what she

must do and Erik flees in despair. Moments

later, the Dutchman arrives in Senta’s house.

They are both transfixed. Daland asks his

daughter to welcome the stranger and

suggests that she consider him as a husband.

Senta vows to be faithful to him unto death –

aware of the conditions of her commitment.

Daland is overjoyed and prepares to share

the news with the rest of the community.

ACT III

The Sailors are reunited with the rest of the

community and their celebrations escalate,

fuelled by food and wine. They taunt the

mysterious ship with the red sails and joke

that they must be the infamous ghost crew

of the Flying Dutchman. Suddenly, the ghost

crew can be heard, cursing Daland’s crew

and mocking their own captain’s quest to find

salvation. Senta tries to reason with Erik, who

pleads with her to not marry the Dutchman,

but instead remember her promise to him

and their future together. The Dutchman

overhears this exchange and mistakes

Senta’s friendship with Erik as betrayal. The

Dutchman proclaims that all is lost, and

that he cannot continue with his betrothal

to Senta, and that she should remain free

from the curse. Senta tries to stop him from

leaving, but it’s too late. The Dutchman

reveals his identity to the unsuspecting

community and leaves in his ship which sinks

into the water. Senta throws herself into the

sea, proving her faithfulness unto death.

10

11

DIRECTOR’S

NOTE

RACHAEL HEWER

DIRECTOR OF THE

FLYING DUTCHMAN

The Flying Dutchman is a complete gift for a director.

The story is immediate and absorbing; dramatic, romantic,

dangerous, passionate and balanced. Couple this with a

score that is as descriptive as it is epic, you have everything

you could ever wish for in a piece of music-drama.

As with any new production, I started by listening to the music while

following a full score; carefully documenting all of my thoughts, first

impressions and questions. I believe that the first time I experience

something (whether that’s listening, reading or watching) is the most important – as this will be

the closest I get to the experience of the audience at our performances.

And by that I mean as soon as we’ve rehearsed something more than once, we subconsciously

economise, plan our routes and reactions because we already know what’s coming up – but

the audience won’t! It’s important to keep the performances and storytelling fresh!

Image: in rehearsals for

The Flying Dutchman.


My first reaction to this piece was the urgency and the deliberate presence of the sea. Wagner

creates the sound, the movement and the unpredictability of the sea in the most perfect way.

No one else could have done it.

A lot of what I’ve tried to do with this show is trust the music, trust the characters and the story

and trust my own response to the journey from the first notes of the overture right through to

the final moments. And that’s been a very personal process for me.

I was born and grew up by the sea, in a fishing town where community and commerce relied

entirely on the sea and its produce. I feel the sea in my veins; it’s in my genetics and in my

heritage – and making that connection with Wagner’s music came very naturally.

Once that connection had registered, it was down to my imagination to place and position the

visual elements that you’ll see tonight alongside this remarkable and unforgettable music – so

brilliantly performed by Irish National Opera’s orchestra, chorus and our incredible soloists.

12

13

THE FATE OF THE

IRISH DUTCHMAN

Image: The Cunard Liner Servia

Outward Bound To America by

Joseph Witham, 1881

On Tuesday 23 February

1886, under the headline

A NEW BARITONE, The New

York Times carried a small

notice about a singer who had

recently crossed the Atlantic

to make his American debut.

“William Ludwig,” it ran, “the famous

baritone recently engaged by the

American Opera Company, arrived in

this city from England yesterday on

the steamship Servia [then the thirdlargest

ship in the world]. Mr Ludwig

is a large, fine-looking man, with brown hair and a full brown

beard. He is about 38 years old, and has the reputation of

being the foremost baritone who has sung in opera in English.

Until recently he has been singing in London with Carl Rosa’s

company. He is said to be especially strong in the Wagner

operas. The date of his first appearance at the Academy has

not yet been fixed.”

William Ludwig (1847–1923) had taken the week-long

crossing of the Atlantic to appear with the American Opera

Company, a venture dreamt up by Jeannette Thurber (1850-

1946). She was the woman who also established the National

Conservatory of Music, a racially integrated and presciently

inclusive institution. It is now best remembered for having had

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) as its director from 1892-95,

during which time he composed his final symphony, titled

From the New World.

The ground-breaking conservatory would remain active until 1928. The opera company lasted just

two seasons, having suffered losses that even its multi-millionaire backers were unwilling to shoulder.

And this in spite of having changed its name to the National Opera Company, in order to ditch its

debts while retaining its assets. As a headline in The New York Times of 24 March 1887 put it:

The transfer of assets to the new entity

had actually been completed the previous

December.

The company’s planning fell somewhere

between ambitious and reckless. In the first

five months of 1886, 56 performances of eight

operas were given in English in New York by a

company with a core team of 29 lead singers.

The productions also toured. American talent

was prioritised. Production values were high.

Theodore Thomas’s Orchestra, the large chorus

and ballet won great praise. And reaching out to

new audiences was a major aim.

The opening week of performances at the

Academy of Music in January 1886 pitted the

new company directly against the Metropolitan Opera, then just three years old. Against the

Met’s US premiere of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger on Monday 4, the American Opera Company

offered the US premiere of Hermann Goetz’s The Taming of the Shrew, a work last seen in

Ireland in a Wexford Festival Opera production in 1991. The company offered the same piece

against Wagner’s Tannhäuser on Wednesday, and also against Goldmark’s Queen of Sheba

(seen at Wexford in 1999) in a Saturday matinée, and presented Gluck’s Orpheus and Euridice

against Wagner’s Die Meistersinger on Friday.

Ludwig, who was born William Ledwidge into a musical Dublin family and was educated at

the O’Connell Schools, took the title role in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman in March 1886.

The production received four reviews in The New York Times that year, to take account of cast

14

15

Image: Advertisement in the New York

Amusement Gazette of 20 March 1886

for the American Opera Company’s

Flying Dutchman with William Ludwig.

changes. On the opening night the

paper said the work “was interpreted

with the general efficiency and

close attention to detail that has

characterised the achievements of

the English speaking company in

possession of the house this season.”

And also that the artists’ performances

“denoted intelligence, earnestness, and

careful preparation, and the outcome of

their joint labours was a well balanced

rendering of the work in hand – a

rendering that may not indeed have

left as vivid an impression as that of a

representation irradiated by occasional

flashes of genius, but that must have a

far more durable and valuable influence

than the uneven and unsymmetrical production of a

substantial work of art.”

The character of the Dutchman was often referred to as

Vanderdecken in the 19th century, after the accursed

seafarer was given the name Hendrick van der Decken in

a version of the story published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh

Magazine in May 1821.“From the first phrases of his

representation of Vanderdecken,” wrote The New York

Times, “it was apparent that Mr Ludwig was a thoughtful and

experienced artist, and the dignity and ease with which he

went through his part confirmed the belief inspired by his

earliest soliloquy.” But there were reservations, too, gently

ascribed to “incomplete acclimatisation” after his long sea

journey. “His tones yesterday lacked resonance and sounded

somewhat worn.” Later in March, a Times review of a concert

appearance remarked that, “Mr Ludwig was loudly applauded and thrice recalled, in approval

of a very bad rendering in English of Les Rameaux [the song by Jean-Baptiste Faure].”

The reservations were not shared by the opera company’s conductor, Theodore Thomas (1835–

1905), who was musical director of the New York Philharmonic as well as the opera company, and

would become the first music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1891. He chose

Ludwig as a soloist in a number of concerts with his own orchestra, as well as with the Brooklyn

Philharmonic, and the New York Philharmonic (in scenes from the third act of Anton Rubinstein’s

Nero). And he would reunite with Ludwig for Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust and Haydn’s Creation in

his opening season in Chicago, and again in 1901 for Handel’s Messiah.

The New York Times warmed to Ludwig as Telramund in Wagner’s Lohengrin, and in January

1887 wrote, “In The Flying Dutchman Mr William Ludwig’s portrayal of Vanderdecken stands

forth with great prominence; it is, in fact, the most thoughtful, elaborate, and striking of the

several excellent delineations this artist has revealed to the metropolitan public.”

The Dutchman was central to the singer’s repertoire. He took the role in the work’s Irish premiere at

Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre on 9 August 1877, and reprised it when the production returned to Dublin

at the much larger Theatre Royal the following April. Then The Irish Times wrote, “Mr Ludwig’s

first essay in the role of the Dutchman was made here during the autumn season. It might be said

that he has improved on his former performance, but even then there was scarcely any room

for improvement. His Vanderdecken is a really fine impersonation, brought out with the minutest

care, complete in every detail, admirably sung, and admirably acted.” It was his signature role, and

as principal baritone of the Carl Rosa company (the famous touring company founded by a German

to promulgate opera in the English language) he sang it for that company alone around eighty times.

Ludwig created the roles of Claude Frollo in Arthur Thomas Goring’s Esmeralda and Giuseppe

Barracini in Alexander MacKenzie’s Colomba in March and April 1883, and Sir Christopher

Synge in Charles Villiers Stanford’s The Canterbury Pilgrims in 1884, all in Carl Rosa

productions at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London.

In a 1908 article on the Carl Rosa company in The Idler magazine, George Cecil described

Ludwig as, “one of the finest artists ever known to the English lyric stage. His natural dignity and

intelligence make his Vanderdecken as satisfactory an impression as can be wished for; as Il Conte,

16

17

Image: William Ludwig as pictured in the

Festival edition of The Courier, Cincinnati,

in May 1892

in Le nozze di Figaro, he can give points

to the most successful of the younger

generation [Ludwig was then 61]; and

the restraint which he exercises is not the

least admirable of the qualities which have

endeared him to a discriminating public. It

is singers such as he who help the cause of

opera in the vernacular.”

The singer features in the first history of

the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, by

Philo Otis Adams, published in 1924.

Adams quotes Theodore Thomas’s

view of Ludwig as Méphistophélès in

Gounod’s Faust, that “in dress, action

and voice he was the personification of

Satan himself.”

Nearly two decades later Henry

Sherman Adams (1865–1948) wrote

four articles for Musical America about

his memories of life as an inveterate

opera-goer. Adams became music critic

of the Brooklyn Eagle and editor of the

luxury magazine, The Spur. His operagoing

life brought him to all but three

of the opera productions presented by

the Met over its first six decades. And

fifty years after he heard Ireland’s most

celebrated baritone he wrote, “I was

particularly struck by the excellence

of The Flying Dutchman, with William

Ludwig as the sea-wanderer.”

It has even been said that Wagner himself gave Ludwig a score of The Flying Dutchman with the

inscription, “To the incomparable Vanderdecken”. There was an opportunity for Wagner to see

Ludwig in the role in London. But I haven’t been able to uncover any evidence that he did, or

that the story about the score is true.

In addition to opera and oratorio, Ludwig had a career as a performer and promoter of concert

tours of Irish songs. Along with the singers, the lineups could also include uilleann pipes or

harp. He took the rebel Irish programmes on tour in the US, in Ireland and in the UK.

In July 1892 the poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) wrote from Dublin to his close friend,

the Fenian journalist John O’Leary (1830–1907) in Paris, and part of the news he related

was that “Miss Gonne who is back here since Sunday has secured Ludwic [sic] to sing at her

concert. He is coming over on purpose.” The writer Katharine Tynan (1859–1931), who Yeats

may have proposed to, made her first “real” (ie extended) visit to London in 1884. In one of her

volumes of autobiography, Twenty-five Years, Reminiscences (1913), she wrote,

English feeling against the Irish Nationalists was then very much inflamed by the dynamite

outrages. I remember wearing shamrock on St Patrick’s Day of that year in a London ’bus,

and being eyed by the occupants with positive hatred. Of course it stirred up all one’s

patriotic feeling, and at first the hostile atmosphere, the strangeness too, perhaps, had the

effect of making me very homesick... I went to see the baritone, William Ludwig, who was

an old friend of my father’s, and his singing of Irish melodies plunged me into an acute

state of loneliness, in which I dropped tears into my coffee cup.

The Irish republican Tom Clarke (1858–1916), who was executed for his part in the Easter

Rising, wrote to his wife Kathleen about the singer on 27 August 1899.

“Ludwig – of whom I heard a great deal in Limerick – was in Dublin last week. I took

my sisters to hear him and we got a splendid treat. He deserves all that I had heard of

his singing. But he had poor houses. The Ancient Concert Room [now the Huckletree

Dublin Coworking & Office Space on Pearse Street] wasn’t more than half filled. If I were

to pick out which of his songs and singing pleased me best I would say, God save Ireland.

Good lord how he did thunder that out and what feeling he threw into it. Since I was

18

19

Image: William Ludwig in The Illustrated London News,

29 November 1913, photo by Alvin Langdon Coburn

a schoolboy I can only recollect

tears flowing from me once – that

was when I heard of my father’s

death in Portland. Ludwig dragged

them out of me once again in

singing General Monroe – the

pathos he put into portions of that

was marvellous.”

It was Ludwig who introduced John

McCormack (1884–1945) to Lily Foley

(1886–1971, the woman who would

become the great tenor’s wife), at a

concert they were giving together in

Athlone – McCormack and Foley were

then supporting singers to Ludwig.

McCormack was a great admirer of the

older singer’s art. For an autobiographical

book published in 1918 he told critic,

editor and educator Pierre van Rensselaer

Key that, “It is a just tribute to one of the

greatest singers Ireland ever produced

to say, at this point, that William Ludwig

was a supreme artist.” He then offered an

instance. “A Mr Walker, an accompanist

whose father knew Mendelssohn well,

tells of having played for Ludwig the song,

There is a Green Hill Far Away. When

the baritone reached the phrase which

runs “There was no other good enough,”

Walker says that he was so completely

under the spell of Ludwig’s art that he

stopped playing, the better to listen. He stopped his accompaniment mechanically, and neither

he nor the audience was aware that for some time there was no piano, so marvellous was the

reality of Ludwig’s singing.”

The last of Ludwig’s many stage appearances in Dublin came at the end of 1910 as Danny Mann

in Benedict’s The Lily of Killarney, Don José in Wallace’s Maritana, and the Count in Balfe’s The

Bohemian Girl. They were followed by concerts conducted by Vincent O’Brien at the Abbey

Theatre in February, when he sang excerpts from The Flying Dutchman in costume. His plans

to retire from performing and start teaching were scuppered when a throat operation caused

him to lose his voice. He had been a generous supporter of charitable Irish and Catholic causes,

and in his two marriages he had fathered a total of nine daughters and three sons. In the face of

calamity, the English actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1852–1917) organised a benefit concert in

London in 1913 to raise funds for an annuity to help him see out his days. Stanford was among

those who took part. He conducted the overture to his most successful opera, Shamus O’Brien.

Ludwig also took work in silent cinema, where the loss of his voice was no barrier.

But perhaps the singer’s broadest claim to fame comes from the impression he made when

James Joyce heard him sing The Flying Dutchman in Dublin. Ludwig is mentioned in both

Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. The references in the latter are typically oblique: “ladwigs out of

his lugwags,” “landwage,” “Lodewijk,” and “Ledwidge Salvatorious”.

The focus is much clearer in Ulysses. “However, reverting to friend Sinbad and his horrifying

adventures (who reminded him a bit of Ludwig, alias Ledwidge, when he occupied the boards of

the Gaiety when Michael Gunn was identified with the management in the Flying Dutchman, a

stupendous success, and his host of admirers came in large numbers, everyone simply flocking

to hear him though ships of any sort, phantom or the reverse, on the stage usually fell a bit flat

as also did trains)”.

Sadly, the silence of his final decade can serve as a metaphor for his musical legacy. He never

made any recordings, so his singing only lives on through the printed word.

MICHAEL DERVAN

20

21

BEING FRANCIS O’CONNOR

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THE

FIRST OPERA YOU WENT TO?

in the northeast of England in Middlesbrough

in a council estate. I’d not been exposed

it was big in terms of my own work, because

I’d mainly done plays up to that point. It was

I’m trying to even remember what the first

one was. That’s so annoying. I think it was

probably at English National Opera (ENO) and

it was almost certainly when I was at college in

Wimbledon School of Art. It would have been

probably Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of

Mtsensk. Or it could have been Britten’s Peter

Grimes. It was one or the other of them. And

to anything like that before. So it was the

combination of the grandness, that brilliant

vivid storytelling, and probably the location as

well, just the opera house itself.

You’re triggering memories. At ENO in the

mid-Eighties, when David Pountney was

there, it was a sort of golden era. And during

dress rehearsals people used to take flasks of

a great learning experience, especially just

to be with the singers. Their values are so...

they’ve got to be able to sing, they’ve got

to be able to act, they’ve got to be able to

move. They were great people in that show,

just lovely, lovely people to be with as well

work with. It was more relaxed being with the

singers than it is sometimes being with actors.

it would have been a dress rehearsal. In fact,

tea and picnics! I loved the kind of egalitarian

I love the variety of work, all of the different

I’m going to say it was Peter Grimes, and it was

nature of it. I used to go on a regular basis,

facets of work that I do with different

the old Elijah Moshinsky production, the one

and you’d always sit in the same place. And

individuals. But there’s something about

at Covent Garden. I used to get free student

there was always this fellow there, Charlie,

singers...I just find them just really rounded

tickets for dress rehearsals, always for ENO

and we started sharing sandwiches and stuff.

human beings. I don’t want to sound naff

and often for Covent Garden. Whichever it was,

It was just a really brilliant, brilliant thing.

or anything because I actually mean this. I

they’re not the normal starting point in opera.

just think they’re a great crowd of people to

Image: Francis O’Connor

I thought Peter Grimes was the most vivid bit

of storytelling I’d ever seen on stage. I couldn’t

believe it, because I’d not seen or heard

anything like it before. And I remember I had

no expectations of either of those experiences.

I hadn’t heard Britten before. I hadn’t heard

any of that music. It was just amazing.

Because this is total theatre and, obviously, I

was studying theatre design. Plus, it was Philip

Langridge singing the title role, and he was just

amazing. I had no idea about opera. I grew up

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THE

FIRST OPERA YOU DESIGNED?

That would be Rossini’s Barber of Seville

for English Touring Opera (ETO) and it was

directed by a guy called Martin Duncan. The

first thing that I remember is the ending of

it. I had a sunrise, but the sun was a huge

Outspan orange. That’s the first thing I

remember. It was a very jolly production. Very

colourful. ETO was not a huge company but

be with. I remember that from The Barber

of Seville. I remember really enjoying the

experience and also just the way opera is

so meticulously organised. Putting on an

opera, you can’t faff about. You have to make

decisions. You have to know what you want.

22

23

Image: Model box of set design for

The Flying Dutchman

Photography: Francis O’Connor

WHAT’S THE BEST OPERA-RELATED

ADVICE YOU EVER GOT?

Go and see everything!

WHAT’S THE MOST ANNOYING

MISCONCEPTION ABOUT OPERA?

That it’s for posh people. Because I think

that’s total bollocks. I mean, it’s not that

everything is relatable and easy to take. I’m

not a posh person and, granted, I’m a creative

“artist,” but it doesn’t give me any greater

ability to appreciate something than any

other person has. I really do think, if you find

the right trigger piece for somebody, it opens

up so many more doors for them. And I think

some people get put off by seeing maybe the

wrong thing or getting the wrong impression,

or being misled by clichés, before they’ve

even experienced it. That’s just so sad.

WHAT MOMENT DO YOU MOST LOOK

FORWARD TO WHEN YOU GO TO

A PERFORMANCE OF THE FLYING

DUTCHMAN?

I suppose I’d be intrigued by the

interpretation the production team have

got on it. I mean, the music I love anyway,

and I actually think it’s a really brilliant story

But it’s one that’s open to different ways

of interpreting it. So I suppose what I’d be

looking for is the way that the creative team

have decided to tell that story. That would be

what my key interest.

WHAT’S THE MOST CHALLENGING

ASPECT OF DESIGNING THE FLYING

DUTCHMAN?

Making the world believable for the entire

story. That sounds a bit nonsense...but making

a vivid enough world that this story can be told

and sound true. Do you know that’s it?

HAS THERE BEEN A GOLDEN AGE FOR

DESIGN IN OPERA?

That’s a good question. I’m sure it’s cyclical.

But I do think the mid 1980s at ENO was

a pretty amazing time. Stefanos Lazaritus,

Maria Björnson, that era certainly for me

was incredibly exciting and even stuff that

was going on in Germany around that time.

There was great work happening there,

not that I saw much of it other than in

photographs. So I do think there was a time

around that period. Those years I think were

really special. And they include that Elijah

Moshinsky Peter Grimes, designed by Tim

O’Brien, I think. But that could be informed

by the fact that was the time I discovered it.

Do you know what I mean? So that would be

really resonant with me, because it’s when I

was most alive to it. I mean there’s fantastic

work going on. Don’t get me wrong, there’s

brilliant work being done now. I have friends

who are making brilliant work. But I suppose

you have to be informed by your own history

and your own sense of discovery.

IF YOU WEREN’T A DESIGNER, WHAT

MIGHT YOU HAVE BECOME?

I know what I’d like to have become. I can tell

you what I might have become – a probably

now unemployed ex steel worker in the

northeast of England. That was the sum total

of ambition that I was told to expect at school.

Do you know what I mean? I would have

gone into an apprenticeship. If I hadn’t gone

into design, that’s kind of the world I would

have gone into. And very quickly I would

have found myself out of a job, because it all

closed down. I could have been that. But if I

hadn’t been and I’d had to make a different

choice, I would have loved to have been a

landscape gardener. My hobby is gardening. I

wouldn’t want to choose anything other than

this career because I love it. So if I could have

chosen a career that wasn’t this career, yeah,

... landscape, garden designer, creator. That

would be another dream job.

IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL DERVAN

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25

CAST IN ORDER OF VOCAL APPEARANCE

Daland James Creswell Bass

The Steersman Gavan Ring Tenor

The Dutchman Jordan Shanahan Baritone

Mary Carolyn Dobbin Mezzo-soprano

Senta Giselle Allen Soprano

Erik Toby Spence Tenor

Little Senta Caroline Wheeler Non-singing

CREATIVE TEAM

Conductor

Fergus Sheil

Director

Rachael Hewer

Set & Costume Designer

Francis O’Connor

Lighting Designer

Howard Hudson

Projection Design

Neil O’Driscoll

Choreographer

Stephanie Dufresne

Répétiteur

Brenda Hurley

Chorus Director

Richard McGrath

Chorus Répétiteur

Aoife Moran

Language Coach

Pia Lux

Assistant Conductor

Peter Joyce

Assistant Director

Chris Kelly

Studio Répétiteur

Ella Nagy

IRISH NATIONAL OPERA CHORUS

Sopranos

Laura Aherne

Caroline Behan*

Rheanne Breen

Eiméar Harper

Eadaoin Hassett

Deirdre Higgins*

Tara Lacken

Maria Matthews

Megan O’Neill*

Niamh St John*

* INO Company Chorus

^ Off-stage Chorus

PARTICIPATING

INO STUDIO MEMBERS

Assistant Conductor

Studio Répétiteur

Mezzo-sopranos

Anna Carney

Olha Doroshchuk

Leanne Fitzgerald*

Sarah Kilcoyne*

Sarah Luttrell*

Bríd Ní Ghruagáin

Olha Palazhchenko

Emma Power

Oryna Veselovska

Erin Fflur Williams

Peter Joyce

Ella Nagy

INO STUDIO MEMBERS CHORUS

Soprano

Deirdre Higgins

Mezzo-soprano Leanne Fitzgerald

Tenor

Cathal McCabe

Bass

David Kennedy

Tenors

Evan Byrne

Ciarán Crangle^

Fearghal Curtis^

David Corr

Ben Escorcio*

Luke Horner

Keith Kearns

Rory Lynch^

Andrew Masterson*

Cathal McCabe

Patrick McGinley

Oisín Ó Dálaigh*

William Pearson*

Tommy Redmond^

Seán Tester

Jacek Wislocki

NEW DUBLIN VOICES

(OFF-STAGE CHORUS)

Founder-Artistic Director Bernie Sherlock

Tenors

Ishan Banik

Blathanid Daly

Patrick Kennedy

Stephen Kenny

Matt Lynch

Niall Stafford

Dermot Wildes

Basses

Adam Cahill

William Costello

Michael Ferguson*

Ryan Garnham

David Kennedy*

William Kyle

Boyu Liu

Maksym Lozovyi*

Matthew Mannion*

Gerry Noonan

Dylan Rooney

Luke Stanley

Basses

James Connolly

Dónal Dignam

Sean Doherty

Sebastian Grube

Greg Hayes

Brian Kelly

Donncha McDonagh

Ben O’Brien

Ryan O’Donnell

26

27

IRISH NATIONAL OPERA ORCHESTRA

PRODUCTION TEAM

First Volins

Sarah Sew LEADER

David O’Doherty

Siobhán Doyle

Anita Vedres

Jennifer Murphy

Jacqueline Lambart

Emma Masterson

Maria Ryan

Mollie Wrafter

Yuzhe Qiu

Second Violin

Larissa O’Grady*

Aoife Dowdall

Cillian Ó Breacháin

Christine Kenny

Sarah Perricone

Justyna Dabek

Roisin Dooley

Erin Hennessey

Violas

Paul Silverthorne*

Giammaria Tesei

Abi Hammett

Aoise O’Dwyer

Martha Campbell

Abigail Prián Gallardo

Cellos

David Edmonds*

Yseult Cooper-Stockdale

Paul Grennan

Paula Hughes

Caitríona Finnegan

Jonathan Few

Double Basses

Dominic Dudley*

Maeve Sheil

Roger McCann

William Hollands

Flute

Lina Andonovska*

Meadhbh O’Rourke

Piccolo

Susan Doyle

Oboe

Aoife McCambridge*

Rebecca Halliday

Cor Anglais

Rebecca Halliday

Clarinet

Conor Sheil*

Suzanne Forde

Bassoon

Sinéad Frost*

Clíona Warren

Horn

Hannah Miller*

Peter Ryan

Peter Mullen

Dewi Jones

Louise Sullivan

Trumpet

Colm Byrne*

Glen Carr

Trombone

Ross Lyness*

Paul Stone

Bass Trombone

Paul Frost*

Tuba

Stephen Irvine*

Timpani

Noel Eccles*

Harp

Dianne Marshall*

Off-stage Percussion

Patrick Nolan

Brian Dungan

Off-stage Piccolos

Sinéad Farrell

Emma Roche

Adam Richardson

Off-stage Horns

Peter Ryan

Cuan Ó Seireadáin

Ian Dakin

Javier Fernandez

*Section Principal

Production Manager

Peter Jordan

Company Stage Manager

Paula Tierney

Stage Manager

Anne Kyle

Assistant Stage Manager

Oliver Kampman, Dragana

Stevanić

Chaperones

Meabh Gallagher, Gillian Oman

Technical Crew

Abraham Allen, Peter Boyle,

Sasha Bryan, Conor Courtney,

Tom Knight, Jason Lambert,

Lucas Lundgren, Joey Maguire,

Fergus McDonagh, Pawel

Nierowaj, Martin Wallace

Contract Crew

Event Services Ireland

Chief LX

Donal McNinch

LX Programmer

Eoin McNinch

LX Crew

June González Iriarte, Adam

Malone

Follow Spot Operators

Ada Price

Set Construction

TPS

Technical Effects

Jim McConnell

Props Makers

Dragana Stevanic, Ian

Thompson

Scenic Artist

Sandra Butler

Assistant Scenic Artists

Susan Crawford, Rachel Baum

Cloths

Rutters

Printed Wall

Horizon Digital Print

Wigs, Hair & Makeup Supervisor

Carole Dunne

Wigs, Hair & Makeup Assistants

Tee Elliot, Paula Meliàn,

Rebecca Wise, Daisy Doolan

Costume Supervisor

Sinéad Lawlor

Costume Technicians

Maija Koppinen

Veronika Romanova

Costume Assistants

Maisey Lorimer, Maeve Smyth

Dressers

Ben Hackett, Alison Meehan

Costume Makers

Denise Assas Tynan, Anne

O’Mahony, Caroline Butler

Tailor

Gillian Carew

Breakdown & Dye Artists

Oona McFarland, Elaine

McFarland, Cathy Connell,

Heather Roche

Surtitle Creation

Maeve Sheil

Surtitle Operator

Mairéad Hurley

Lighting Provider

QLX

Rigging

Irish Rigging Services

Photography

Patrick Redmond, Ste Murray

Videos

Charlie Joe Doherty,

Mark Cantan, David Laird,

Johnathan deBurca Butler

Graphic Design

Detail

Transport

Trevor Price, Owen Sherwin

28

29

BIOGRAPHIES

FERGUS SHEIL

CONDUCTOR

RACHAEL HEWER

DIRECTOR

FRANCIS O’CONNOR

SET & COSTUME DESIGNER

HOWARD HUDSON

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 Richard Strauss’s

Salome, Der Rosenkavalier and Elektra, Rossini’s

William Tell and La Cenerentola, Verdi’s Aida and

Rigoletto, Brian Irvine and Netia Jones’s Least Like

The Other, Searching for Rosemary Kennedy, 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, Searching for

Rosemary Kennedy 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.

Rachael was born in Grimsby, UK

and trained at the Bristol Old Vic

Theatre School. This is her first

production with Irish National

Opera. Rachael has worked at

Les Arts, Valencia; Metropolitan

Opera, New York; Dutch National Opera; and

Bergen National Opera in Norway. In England, she

was worked with Royal Academy of Music, English

National Opera, Glyndebourne, Royal Opera House,

Opera Holland Park, Garsington Opera, Buxton Opera

House, Royal College of Music, National Opera Studio,

Sadler’s Wells, Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatre

Royal Bath and Soho Theatre, as well as extensive

television and film work, including BBC, ITV and Sky.

She founded VOPERA – The Virtual Opera Project in

2020, and directed its film of Ravel’s L’enfant et les

sortilèges, which won the South Bank Sky Arts Award

for Opera and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award

for Opera and Music Theatre. Rachael also won the

Special Prize at the IV International Competition for

Young Opera Directors in Moscow, 2018. Forthcoming

work, both as director and librettist, includes

productions at Aldeburgh Festival, Glyndebourne

and Theatre Basel.

Francis O’Connor designed

Beethoven’s Fidelio and Gounod’s

Faust for Irish National Opera. He

has designed numerous productions

for the National Theatre, the Royal

Shakespeare Company, the Royal

Court Theatre and Hampstead Theatre in England.

Further afield, his designs include productions for

Komische Oper Berlin, Grand Théâtre de Genève,

Spoleto Festival and Opéra de Monte-Carlo. He has a

long association with Garsington Opera, the Grange

Festival and Opera North. Notable works include the

premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Kevin Puts’s

Silent Night for Minnesota Opera. His Opera North

designs for Jonathan Dove’s Pinocchio won acclaim

and a German Theater Prize DER FAUST nomination.

He has worked with many directors but he is perhaps

best known for his collaboration with Garry Hynes’s

Druid Theatre in Galway. He was honoured to have his

work in Irish theatre represent Ireland in Fragments at

the Prague Quadrennial 2018. Other opera includes

Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa, Ponchielli La Gioconda,

Rimsky-Korsakov Ivan the Terrible, George Gershwin’s

Porgy and Bess (Grange Park Opera); Mozart’s The

Abduction of the Seraglio (Opéra de Marseille);

Janáček’s Šárka, Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle

(Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn Switzerland); Kurt

Weill’s Street Scene, Dove’s Pinocchio (Opera North);

Offenbach’s Fantasio (Garsington Opera); Verdi’s La

traviata (ENO); Kevin Puts’s Silent Night (Premier

Minnesota Opera); Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Ural

State Opera) and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (Grand

Théâtre de Genève).

This is Howard Hudson’s first

production with Irish National Opera.

His previous opera and dance

production credits include Strauss’s

Ariadne auf Naxos (Teatro Comunale

di Bologna); Verdi’s Rigoletto; Kurt

Weill’s Street Scene (Opera North); George Benjamin’s

Written On Skin (Opera Philadelphia); Gavin Higgins’s

The Monstrous Child; Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s

Adventures in Wonderland (Linbury, Royal Opera

House); Rossini’s The Barber of Seville; Jonathan Dove’s

Mansfield Park (Grange Festival); The Barber of Seville,

Smetana’s The Bartered Bride; Offenbach’s Fantasio;

Beethoven’s Fidelio; Offenbach’s Vert-Vert (Garsington

Opera); Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus; Delibes’s Lakmé

and Puccini’s La bohème (Opera Holland Park). Other

musical theatre credits include Starlight Express

(Troubadour); & Juliet (nominated for Olivier and Tony

Awards, winner of Whatsonstage Award for Best Lighting

Design); A Chorus Line (Curve Theatre, UK Tour; Sadler’s

Wells); Just For One Day (Old Vic/Toronto); The Little

Big Things (West End); In Dreams (Leeds Playhouse/

Toronto); When Winston Went to War With the Wireless

(Donmar Warehouse); Stumped (Hampstead/UK Tour);

What’s New Pussycat? (Birmingham Rep); Titanic (UK

& World Tours); Orlando (Michael Grandage Company,

West End); Blackmail (Mercury Theatre); 9 to 5 (West

End, UK & Australia); Tell Me On A Sunday (UK Tour);

The Phantom of the Opera (Oslo, Bucharest & Athens);

Strictly Ballroom (West End); Romeo & Juliet (Kenneth

Branagh Theatre Company, West End); Guys and Dolls;

Kiss Me Kate (Sheffield Crucible); Gaslight; Strangers

On A Train (UK Tour); 101 Dalmatians; The Little Shop of

Horrors; On The Town (Regents Park Open Air Theatre);

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾: The Musical

(West End, Menier Chocolate Factory, Leicester Curve).

30

31

BIOGRAPHIES

NEIL O’DRISCOLL

PROJECTION DESIGN

STEPHANIE DUFRESNE

CHOREOGRAPHER

BRENDA HURLEY

RÉPÉTITEUR

RICHARD MCGRATH

CHORUS DIRECTOR

Neil O’Driscoll is a projection

designer based in Ireland whose

recent work includes Tchaikovsky’s

Eugene Onegin at the Belfast Opera

House (NI Opera), Lisa Kron’s

Fun Home at The Gate Theatre,

Dublin, CoisCéim Dance Theatre’s Palimpsest at

The Complex, and The Summer I Robbed a Bank at

The Everyman, Cork. Having completed a degree in

Film and TV at Edinburgh College of Art in 2008, Neil

worked as a freelance illustrator and independent

filmmaker before moving into projection design, often

integrating drawing and other handmade elements

into his theatre work.

Stephanie is a dancer, actor and

choreographer from the west

of Ireland. She has worked with

Irish National Opera on Gluck’s

Orfeo ed Euridice, Gerard Barry’s

Alice’s Adventures Under Ground,

Bizet’s Carmen, Rossini’s William Tell, and Strauss

II’s Die Fledermaus. She made her opera-directing

debut in Benedict Schlepper-Connolly’s Dust in

the highly praised 20 Shots of Opera. Stephanie

was one of four performers in INO’s production of

Brian Irvine and Netia Jones’s Least Like The Other,

Searching for Rosemary Kennedy at the Royal Opera

House in London, where it was nominated for an

Olivier Award. She holds a BA in Dance from the

Rotterdam Dance Academy and is a graduate of the

full-time programme for screen-acting at Bow Street

Academy, Dublin. Since graduating she has enjoyed

combining her skills as a performer for companies

and choreographers like CoisCéim Dance Theatre,

Protein Dance, Chrysalis Dance, Dam Van Huynh,

Marguerite Donlon, Liz Roche, Emma Martin/United

Fall and Junk Ensemble. She played the lead role

of Karen in Selina Cartmell’s production of The Red

Shoes for Gate Theatre in 2017 and has appeared as

a performer in music videos for Junior Brother, Talos,

Dean Lewis, Crash Ensemble and Galia Arad among

others. As an actor Stephanie most recently finished

playing the lead role of Ellie in Deirdre Kinahan’s

Tempesta and was an ensemble member/movement

director of Cathal Cleary’s production of A Streetcar

Named Desire in December 2024. As choreographer,

Stephanie’s show After Love premiered at the Galway

International Arts Festival in 2021.

Brenda Hurley is a vocal consultant

for the Irish National Opera Studio

and is a member of the vocal staff of

the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

She is also Professor of Opera

Mentoring at the Royal Academy

of Music in London and is regarded as one of the

leading vocal coaches of her generation. In the course

of a long international career, she has worked with

many of the world’s leading conductors, directors and

singers. From 2012–20 she directed the International

Opera Studio in Zurich and from 2020–24 she was

the Head of Opera at the Royal Academy of Music in

London. As pianist and vocal coach she has worked at

the Metropolitan Opera New York, Salzburg Festival,

Wexford Opera Festival, Scottish Opera, Teatro

Massimo di Palermo, Opera North, the Dutch National

Opera, English National Opera, Opera Bastille, the

Ruhr Triennale, Opera Zuid and Glyndebourne, where

she received the Janni Strasser Award for the best

répétiteur. As a passionate advocate of young singers,

Brenda coaches for training programmes at Salzburg

Festival’s prestigious Young Singers Project, the Royal

Opera House, Covent Garden, The National Opera

Studio, the Young Artists Training Programme, Tokyo,

Jerwood Young Artists Programme, Glyndebourne,

the Semperoper, Dresden, the Opera Academy

Teatr Wielki in Polish National Opera and the Opera

Studio of the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam.

She is a regular jury member of international singing

competitions, including the Moniuszko International

Singing Competition, Warsaw and the International

Opera Awards.

Richard studied at Maynooth

University, the Royal Irish Academy

of Music, and the Guildhall School

of Music and Drama, London.

He was a trainee répétiteur at

English National Opera and since

then he has worked with companies including Irish

National Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, Wide

Open Opera, Opera Theatre Company, and Lyric

Opera Productions. Previous productions with these

companies include Verdi’s Rigoletto, Verdi’s La

traviata (INO, ENO and Lyric Opera Productions),

Puccini’s La bohème (INO, Opera Theatre Company,

ENO and Lyric Opera), Berlioz’s Beatrice & Benedict,

Gounod’s Faust, Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier,

Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Bartók’s Bluebeard’s

Castle, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Gerald Barry’s

Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (INO), Donnacha

Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s The First Child and

The Second Violinist (Landmark Productions/INO),

Beethoven’s Fidelio, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and

Bizet’s Carmen (Lyric Opera Productions), Rossini’s

The Barber of Seville (Lyric Opera Productions, Wide

Open Opera and ENO), Donnacha Dennehy and Enda

Walsh’s The Last Hotel (Landmark Productions/Wide

Open Opera), Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (Opera

Theatre Company and NI Opera) and John Adams’s

Nixon in China (Wide Open Opera). Richard is a

répétiteur in the vocal department at the TU Dublin

Conservatoire and a coach for the INO Studio.

32

33

BIOGRAPHIES

AOIFE MORAN

CHORUS RÉPÉTITEUR

PIA LUX

LANGUAGE COACH

PETER JOYCE

ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR

CHRIS KELLY

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Aoife is an Irish collaborative pianist

and répétiteur based in Dublin.

For Irish National Opera Aoife

has worked on Mark O’Halloran

and Emma O’Halloran’s Trade/

Mary Motorhead and Vivaldi’s

L’Olimpiade. Other opera work includes Stanford’s

The Critic, Donizetti’s Zoraida di Granata, Rossini’s

L’Italiana in Algeri (Wexford Festival Opera); and Luke

Byrne/Shirley Keane’s The Ballybruff Trilogy (Opera

Workshop); Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Longhope

Opera); Holst’s Sāvitri, Jake Heggie’s Dead Man

Walking, Weill’s Der Zar lässt sich photographieren,

Judith Weir’s Miss Fortune, Menotti’s The Telephone

(Guildhall School); and Vaughan Williams’ Sir John

in Love (British Youth Opera). She was a member of

the Factory programme for young artists at Wexford

Festival Opera 2023. A graduate of TU Dublin

Conservatoire, where she studied with Catherina

Lemoni-O’Doherty for her Bachelor of Music degree,

she went on to complete a Junior Fellowship as a

repetiteur at Guildhall School of Music and Drama

after having studied on the Opera Course, where her

studies were generously supported by the Guildhall

School Foundation. She had also previously graduated

from Guildhall with an Artist Masters in piano

accompaniment, where she studied with Pamela

Lidiard and Carole Presland.

Pia Lux studied classical philology

and German language and literature

and worked as a teacher for many

years until 2005, when she became

a lecturer in German and later a

language coach for the Opernhaus

Zürich. Pia has supervised numerous productions in

the German opera repertoire and was responsible for

guiding artists’ pronunciation at Opernhaus Zürich,

Luzerner Theater, Opéra national de Bordeaux, and

Theater Basel, where she completed Wagner’s Ring

Cycle in 2024. She also works online for the MELBA

programme in Melbourne and for the Adler Fellowship

Program at San Francisco Opera. Pia also works with

soloists on developing roles in the Wagner, Strauss,

Beethoven and Mozart repertoire. The German Lied

repertoire is particularly important to her.

Peter Joyce is currently assistant

conductor and member of the

Irish National Opera Studio. After

initial musical studies in Ireland

Peter went on to study conducting

and composition at the University

of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he

graduated with honours in June 2024. Winner of

the First Prize and Orchestra Prize of the 2023 Feis

Ceoil Conducting Competition, Peter has worked in

symphonic, musical theatre, opera and choral settings

including with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra

Vienna, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Sofia

National Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert

Orchestra, Szolnok Symphony Orchestra, Podlasie

Opera and Philharmonic, Max Brand Ensemble,

Ensemble Ars Nova and the Webern Chamber Choir,

performing in concert halls including the Golden Hall

of the Vienna Musikverein, the Vienna Konzerthaus

and the National Concert Hall Dublin. Peter is

the founder and conductor of the Esker Festival

Orchestra, which celebrated its tenth anniversary

in 2023 with performances of Mahler’s Second

Symphony. As well as performing and conducting

many world premieres by emerging composers,

Peter’s own compositions have been performed by

groups such as the Arditti Quartet, Platypus Ensemble

and at festivals including Wien Modern. In 2020 he

won of the Feis Ceoil IMRO Composition Award and in

2025 was a finalist in the Maurico Kagel Composition

Competition.

Chris is a director based in Dublin,

working in opera and theatre.

For Irish National Opera, he was

assistant director for Rossini’s

William Tell, Strauss’s Der

Rosenkavalier, Massenet’s Werther,

Puccini’s La bohème and Emma O’Halloran’s Trade/

Mary Motorhead. For Opéra Orchestre National

Montpellier, he assisted on Puccini’s La bohème. For

Opera Collective Ireland, he was assistant director

for Britten’s Owen Wingrave, Raymond Deane’s

Vagabones, Handel’s Semele and Jonathan Dove’s

Flight. He holds a BMus from TU Dublin and a

MA in Theatre Practice from The Gaiety School of

Acting and UCD. Previous 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. Theatre credits

include Suicide Tuesday (Hugh Hick) 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.

34

35

BIOGRAPHIES

ELLA NAGY

STUDIO RÉPÉTITEUR

JAMES CRESWELL

BASS

DALAND

GAVAN RING

TENOR

THE STEERSMAN

JORDAN SHANAHAN

BARITONE

THE DUTCHMAN

Ella is an Irish-Hungarian pianist

based in Dublin. She is a member

of the Irish National Opera Studio in

the 2024–25 season as répétiteur.

She recently completed her

Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees

with First Class Honours in the Royal Irish Academy

of Music. Her interest in opera started in 2017 when

she began accompanying singers in their lessons

with the late Veronica Dunne. Since winning the

2022 BVOF | John Pollard RIAM Bursary as the first

instrumental musician, Ella has performed in the

Blackwater Valley Opera Festival in both 2023 and

2024, where she most recently accompanied fellow

bursary winners Rory Lynch and Seán Tester. She

won the 2019 Maura Dowdall Concerto Competition,

the 2023 RIAM Chamber Festival Dublin Prize and

was runner-up in the 2023 Irish Freemasons Young

Musician of the Year competition. Ella has performed

in most of Ireland’s concert venues, including the

National Concert Hall where she performed Chopin’s

Piano Concerto No. 2 with the National Symphony

Orchestra. Internationally, Ella has given recitals in

the UK, Portugal, Hungary and in the USA. Ella’s

performances have been broadcast on RTÉ lyric fm,

Dublin South FM and BBC Radio Ulster.

American bass James Creswell has

established himself as one of the

leading basses of his generation.

This is his first appearance with Irish

National Opera. He graduated from

Yale University and his early career

included apprenticeships with Los Angeles Opera

and San Francisco Opera until moving to Germany

as a soloist with the Komische Oper Berlin. In the

2024/25 season, James performs the roles of Comte

des Grieux in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at Palau de les

Arts Reina Sofia; Sergeant of the Police in Gilbert &

Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance with English National

Opera; and Jacopo Fiesco in Grange Park Opera’s

production of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. James

has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera New York,

Dutch National Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Bilbao

Opera, Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma, San Francisco

Opera, LA Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, Oper Frankfurt,

Theater an der Wien, Opéra national de Bordeaux,

Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera,

Edinburgh International Festival, Nederlandse

Reisopera, Ravinia Festival and Bergen International

Festival. He is also very much in demand on the

concert stage. His previous performances include

staged performances of Mozart’s Requiem at the

Komische Oper Berlin, King Mark in Wagner’s Tristan

und Isolde with the Bremer Philharmoniker, Mahler

Symphony No. 8, Dvořák St. Ludmilla and Schoenberg

Gurrelieder for the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Sir

Mark Elder, Gurrelieder with the Bergen Philharmonic

with Edward Gardner and Tippet’s A Child of our Time

and Rocco in Beethoven’s Fidelio for the BBC Proms.

Gavan has previously performed

with Irish National Opera in

Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Gerald

Barry’s Mrs Streicher (in 20 Shots

of Opera), Peter Maxwell Davies’s

The Lighthouse and Gerald Barry’s

Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, and also sang in

Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde for Wide Open Opera.

Gavan read Education and Music at St Patrick’s

College, Dublin and, after post-graduate studies

at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, trained at the

National Opera Studio in London. Recent and future

opera appearances include Karl Jenkins’s The

Armed Man and Mozart’s The Magic Flute for English

National Opera; returning to Garsington Opera for

Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte; La Monnaie/De

Munt Brussels for Cecil in ‘Bastarda’ (drawn from

Donizetti’s Tudor tetralogy) and Gustav Adolph Ekdahl

in Fanny and Alexander by Mikael Karlsson; and his

debut at Glyndebourne as a tenor, singing the First

Commissioner in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites.

Gavan recently performed Stephen McNeff’s The

Celestial Stranger, a new commission for tenor and

orchestra with the National Symphony Orchestra and

BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and will return to

Glyndebourne later this year. Other performances in

his native Ireland have included Frederic in Gilbert

and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance and Rodolfo in

Puccini’s La bohème at Cork Opera House; Juan in

Massenet’s Don Quichotte and Azim in Stanford’s

The Veiled Prophet for Wexford Festival Opera; and

a number of appearances on RTÉ Radio including

as Evangelist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the

National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

In recent years, American baritone

Jordan Shanahan has made a

name for himself internationally,

particularly with his charismatic

interpretations of dramatic roles.

This is his first appearance with Irish

National Opera. In the 2024/25 season, Jordan sings

Monterone in Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Metropolitan

Opera New York, makes his Portuguese debut at

the Casa da Música in Porto in Zemlinsky’s Lyric

Symphony, performs in a new production of Richard

Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten as Barak at the

Deutsche Oper Berlin (directed by Tobias Kratzer)

and makes his house debut at the Vienna State

Opera as Telramund in Wagner’s Lohengrin with

Christian Thielemann. In addition, he will return to the

Bayreuth Festival, where he will perform three roles:

Klingsor in Wagner’s Parsifal, Kothner in Wagner’s

Die Meistersinger and Kurwenal in Wagner’s Tristan

und Isolde. Jordan made his professional opera debut

in 2002 as Silvio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci at the

Natchez Opera Festival in the USA. In addition to

performing the standard repertoire, Jordan has also

made a name for himself in contemporary opera, with

roles such as Joseph de Rocher in Jake Heggie’s Dead

Man Walking, Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams’s

Dr Atomic, The Protector in George Benjamin’s

Written on Skin and Il Uomo in Péter Eötvös Senza

Sangue. On the concert stage, Jordan Shanahan

has performed works including Handel’s Messiah,

Mendelssohn’s Elias, Stravinsky’s Oedipius Rex, and

Verdi’s Requiem. Jordan now lives in Switzerland and

performs regularly in Europe, North America, Asia,

and in his native Hawaii.

36 37

BIOGRAPHIES

CAROLYN DOBBIN

MEZZO-SOPRANO

MARY

GISELLE ALLEN

SOPRANO

SENTA

TOBY SPENCE

TENOR

ERIK

NEW DUBLIN

VOICES

Carolyn Dobbin has previously

appeared with Irish National Opera

in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel

and in Conor Mitchell’s A Message

for Marty (in 20 Shots of Opera). A

graduate of the Royal Conservatoire

of Scotland, Carolyn began her career as an Opera

Theatre Company Young Artist, before becoming an

Associate Artist at Welsh National Opera and soloist in

Luzerner Theater, Switzerland. Her performances this

season include Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin for Northern

Ireland Opera, Wagner’s Die Walküre for Longborough

Festival Opera, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with AKAMUS

Berlin, Opera Collective Ireland and Christian Curnyn,

Verdi’s Falstaff for St Endellion Festival, and Dvořák’s

Stabat Mater with the Ulster Orchestra and Jac van

Steen. Other recent appearances include Marquise de

Berkenfield in Donizetti’s La fille du régiment and Lene

in Marco Tutino’s La ciociara for Wexford Festival Opera,

Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with English Touring

Opera, and Mary in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer with

Sir Bryn Terfel at Grange Park Opera. Carolyn established

the Northern Irish Song Project which has seen her collect

and perform songs by Northern Irish composers such

as Hamilton Harty, Charles Wood, Joan Trimble, Dorothy

Parke and Howard Ferguson, and in 2018 she released her

recording Calen-O with pianist Iain Burnside, on Delphian

Records. This collaboration has been followed by Songs

from the North of Ireland (with soprano Amy Ní Fhearraigh)

and, due for release this year, Charles Wood: songs

for voice and piano (with baritone Roderick Williams).

Other recordings include A Song More Silent with the

London Mozart Players for Chandos, and Ethel Smyth’s

Fête Galante (conducted by Odaline de la Martinez)

and Edward Loder’s Raymond and Agnes (conducted

by Richard Bonynge), both for Retrospect Opera.

Northern Irish soprano Giselle

Allen has garnered a reputation

for dramatic role portrayals,

establishing a versatile career with

leading international opera houses

and orchestras. She performed the

title role in Richard Strauss’s Elektra for Irish National

Opera. Her other career highlights to date include

Marie in Berg’s Wozzeck (Canadian Opera Company);

3rd Norn in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung (Opernhaus

Zürich); Miss Jessel in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw

(Opernhaus Zürich; La Monnaie/De Munt; Opéra national

de Lyon; Glyndebourne); Lisa in Tchaikovsky’s Pikovaya

Dama (English National Opera); Praskov’ya Osipovna in

Shostakovich’s The Nose (La Monnaie/De Munt); Senta

in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (Northern Ireland

Opera); Gutrune, Gerhilde and Freia in Wagner’s Der

Ring des Nibelungen (Opera North); title role in Richard

Strauss’s Salome (Opera North; Northern Ireland Opera);

Ellen Orford in Britten’s Peter Grimes (Komische Oper

Berlin; Bergen International Festival; Opera North;

Aldeburgh Festival); Magda Sorel in Menotti’s The

Consul (Welsh National Opera); The Duchess in Thomas

Adès’s Powder Her Face (Northern Ireland Opera);

Puccini’s Tosca (Opera Australia; Opera North); Mila in

Janáček’s Osud and Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria

Rusticana (Opera North); Wellgunde in Wagner’s Das

Rheingold and Gutrune Götterdämmerung (Covent

Garden Festival); Parasya in Mussorgsky’s Sorochyntsi

Fair (Singapore). She has performed with conductors Sir

Simon Rattle, Sir Mark Elder, Marin Alsop, Gianandrea

Noseda, Richard Farnes, Edward Gardner, Jac van Steen

and Ben Glassberg. Forthcoming engagements see

her make her debut in the roles of Foreign Princess in

Dvořák’s Rusalka and Sieglinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre.

This is Toby Spence’s first

appearance with Irish National

Opera. He has sung at the Royal

Opera House London, Metropolitan

Opera New York, Wiener Staatsoper,

Opéra national de Paris, Bayerische

Staatsoper, English National Opera, Teatro Real,

Madrid, Liceu, Barcelona, San Francisco Opera,

Theater an der Wien, and the Staatsoper Hamburg,

as well as at the Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence and

Edinburgh festivals. Recent operatic engagements

include his role debuts as Erik in Wagner’s Der

fliegende Holländer for Teatro la Fenice, Alonso in

Britten’s The Tempest for Teatro alla Scala and Wiener

Staatsoper, the title role in Wagner’s Parsifal for

Opera North, and Alwa in Berg’s Lulu for La Monnaie/

De Munt Brussels. Plans for the 2024/25 season

include performances of Der Mönch in Schoenberg’s

Die Jakobsleiter with the NDR Elbphilharmonie

Orchestra. On the concert platform, Toby will perform

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Royal Albert

Hall, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings

with Ben Goldscheider and Fantasia Orchestra, and

Handel’s Messiah with the Hallé Orchestra.

New Dublin Voices was founded by its international

award-winning conductor Bernie Sherlock. Renowned

for programming that strives to captivate, surprise and

reward its audiences, New Dublin Voices takes special

pleasure in exploring the music of living composers

and has given more than 87 world premieres. It leads

the way in commissioning, premiering, performing

and disseminating choral music by Irish composers,

both in Ireland and abroad, and in introducing music

from outside Ireland to audiences at home. New

Dublin Voices regularly travels to give concerts at the

invitation of international festivals, including tours in

Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, the UK and the

US. The choir also has a long track record of success

at international competitions, winning multiple prizes

at competitions in France, Italy, Hungary, Germany,

Finland, Belgium, Spain, England, Northern Ireland,

Slovenia, Latvia, and Wales. Alongside numerous

prizes in various classes, the choir has won the overall

Grand Prix on many occasions, most recently in

Poland at the 13th International Krakow Choir Festival

Cracovia Cantans in 2024. Bernie Sherlock is a

leading choral conductor. She is founder-conductor of

New Dublin Voices, Artistic Director of the Irish Youth

Choirs, a former co-conductor of EuroChoir (2021),

and a guest conductor with Chamber Choir Ireland.

She has won conducting prizes in Finland, Hungary,

Belgium, Italy, Slovenia, Wales, and Ireland. She holds

Masters and Doctorate degrees in conducting and is a

Lecturer in Music at the TU Dublin Conservatoire.

38

39

BIOGRAPHIES


ORCHESTRA


CHORUS

Puccini

STARRING CELINE BYRNE

The Irish National Opera Orchestra performs in most

of INO’s productions and 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, Der Rosenkavalier in 2023 (“delivers all the

swelling romanticism and range of tone and colour

you could ask for,” Irish Examiner) and Salome in

2024 (“a thumping triumph” 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,” Business Post in 2023 on La bohème).

The orchestra also performs chamber reductions

for touring productions, including 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.

The Irish National Opera Chorus is a dynamic

ensemble of leading professional singers that has

ranged in number from four, in Gluck’s Orfeo ed

Euridice, to 60, in Verdi’s Aida. The INO Chorus has

been heard in venues large and small throughout

Ireland as well as internationally. There is a core of

16 members of the INO Company Chorus who are

engaged to perform in all of the company’s mainscale

productions requiring chorus. Additional singers are

engaged in the Extra Chorus for each individual opera

as required. In 2022 the chorus appeared in Rossini’s

William Tell, one of the most chorally demanding

operas. INO Company Chorus members are regularly

featured in solo roles and have most recently been

heard in INO’s productions of Richard Strauss’s

Der Rosenkavalier, Puccini’s La bohème and Verdi’s

La traviata. During the 2024/25 Season, chorus

members will also feature in solo roles Donizetti’s

L’elisir d’amore and in a touring production of

Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus.

2 - 8 NOVEMBER 2025

BORD GÁIS ENERGY THEATRE

DUBLIN

TICKETS FROM €15

bordgaisenergytheatre.ie

41


STUDIO – NURTURING THE FUTURE OF IRISH OPERA

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

The Irish National Opera Studio is at the heart

of our mission to nurture the next generation

of Irish opera talent. This programme offers

a unique opportunity for emerging artists to

develop their skills and build their careers.

Highlights include:

Performance Opportunities: Members

participate in Irish National Opera productions,

learning from seasoned artists, performing

onstage, singing in the chorus, understudying

lead roles or assisting in rehearsals.

Professional Mentoring: Participants receive

individual coaching, attend masterclasses and

benefit from the expertise of renowned Irish

and international artists and coaches including

Brenda Hurley, Elīna Garanča, Danielle de

Niese, Joseph Calleja and Tara Erraught.

Skill Development: Support on all aspects

of the industry is a key feature of the

programme including advice on performance,

presentation, language skills, personal musical

growth and professional career guidance.

For information contact Studio

& Outreach Producer James Bingham at

james@irishnationalopera.ie

STUDIO SPOTLIGHT

Davey Kelleher was a member of the

INO Studio from 2020–2022 where

he worked as an assistant director

on a number of productions for the

company. Recently, Davey was given

the opportunity to direct a production

Strauss’s Die Fledermaus for the

company, which enjoyed a sell-out

national tour and five star reviews,

described as ‘delight from start to finish’

by the Irish Times.

Image: Davey Kelleher in rehearsals for Die Fledermaus


42

43

WELCOMING NEW

AUDIENCES WITH

TECHNOLOGY

REIMAGINING THE BOUNDARIES OF OPERA IN THE DIGITAL AGE

At Irish National Opera, we believe opera is for everyone.

By infusing our work with a pioneering spirit and cuttingedge

technology, we invite an ever-growing audience to

access the dynamism of opera.

Our innovative ‘Isolde’ project offers a ground-breaking

platform for synchronising visuals and audio on personal

devices, allowing audiences to use their mobile phones with

projected or screened performances in public or site-specific

locations. Isolde’s user-friendly interface replaces amplified

audio equipment, with potential applications for museums,

galleries, and audio descriptions for the visually impaired in

theatre settings.

INO is part of an exciting new project funded by Horizon

Europe, titled Hybrid Extended reAliTy, or HEAT, exploring

the impact of hologram technology on the opera experience.

HEAT paves the way for next-generation multi-sensory, hyperrealistic,

immersive experiences. We look forward to this latest

journey in the opera-meets-innovation space.

Our award-winning virtual reality community opera, Out of the

Ordinary/As an nGnách, was created by communities from

Inis Meáin to Tallaght in collaboration with composer Finola

Merivale, librettist Jody O’Neill, and director Jo Mangan.

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.

44

47 45

The Wagner

Society of Ireland

INO FUTURE LEADERS

NETWORK

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN WAGNER’S OPERAS,

WHY NOT JOIN THE WAGNER SOCIETY OF IRELAND?

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA IS A GREAT

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REGULAR PROGRAMME OF LECTURES

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TRAVEL ABROAD TO ATTEND PERFORMANCES

Annual Subscripon €50 + €30 Registraon Fee

Join between June and December for reduced annual fee of €30

For a Membership Applicaon Form and further details see our website:

www.wagnersociety.ie / Email: info@wagnersociety.ie

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.

The next Future Leaders event will take place in

May. 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: participants at an INO Future Leaders

Network event

Photographer: Mark Stedman

Founded in 2002, The Wagner Society of Ireland is affiliated with the Internaonal Richard Wagner Verband.

A non profit organisaon devoted to furthering the music of Richard Wagner.

47

INSPIRATIONAL

INNOVATIVE IMPACTFUL

SHARING OUR PASSION FOR OPERA

WITH AUDIENCES AROUND IRELAND AND BEYOND

INO OPEN FOYER

Our Open Foyer initiative unites communities through opera.

During our recent tour of Emma O’Halloran’s Trade and Mary

Motorhead we worked with local community groups in Cork,

Tralee and Ennis to produce creative responses to the opera,

which were showcased in the theatre foyers before each

show. They included art exhibitions, poetry recitals and music

performances by singer songwriters. All participants received

free tickets to our performances. The INO Open Foyer Series is

generously supported by INO Member, William Earley.

INO ON OPERAVISION

Through OperaVision, select INO productions have reached

over 210,000 viewers worldwide, with our recent production

of Salome attracting over 50,000 views. We look forward to

sharing more in 2025 including our 2024 Studio Gala and The

Flying Dutchman.

INO SCHOOLS PROGRAMME

This season we will welcome over 400 school students to

productions at the Gaiety and Board Gáis Energy Theatre with

subsidised tickets. Our outreach team will provide resource

packs and school workshops with opera professionals

including directors, singers and dancers. The INO Schools

Programme is generously supported by Mary Canning in

memory of Timothy King.

“I didn’t know there were so many components that go

together in an opera. There’s so much work that goes

into it. It’s really amazing.”

“Outstanding performance, outstanding orchestra,

wonderful production. Thoroughly engrossing, and

the finale was spellbinding.”

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

Cate Kelliher

Business & Finance Manager

Lauren Kelly Maternity cover

Studio & Outreach Executive

Anne Kyle

Stage Manager

Amy O’Dwyer Maternity cover

Digital Producer

Gavin O’Sullivan

Head of Production

Renata Rîmbu

Development Administrator

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

Howard Gatiss

Gerard Howlin

Dennis Jennings

Paula Murrihy

Suzanne Nance

Davina Saint

Imelda Shine

Bruce Stanley

Jonathan Friend

Artistic Advisor

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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