INO La traviata 2024 programme book

GIUSEPPE VERDI 1813–1901
LA TRAVIATA
1853
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA
PRINCIPAL FUNDER
OPERA IN THREE ACTS
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave after the play La dame aux camélias by
Alexandre Dumas fils.
First Performance, Teatro La Fenice, Venice, 6 March 1853.
First Irish Performance, Theatre Royal, Dublin, 14 October 1856.
SUNG IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES
Running time 2 hours 20 minutes with interval.
The performances on 23 & 25 May will be recorded for future broadcast on RTÉ lyric fm.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to The Lir National Academy of Dramatic Arts, The Gate
Theatre, Eimer Murphy, CoisCéim Dance Theatre, Peter Jordan,
Ian Thompson, Suirdzign.
#INOTraviata
PERFORMANCES 2024
Friday 17 May National Opera House Wexford
Tuesday 21 May Gaiety Theatre Dublin
Wednesday 22 May Gaiety Theatre Dublin
Thursday 23 May Gaiety Theatre Dublin
Friday 24 May Gaiety Theatre Dublin
Saturday 25 May Gaiety Theatre Dublin
Wednesday 29 May Cork Opera House Cork
Friday 31 May Cork Opera House Cork
03

LIVE IN THE MOMENT
FERGUS SHEIL
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Verdi’s La traviata is the final production of our current season. And
the details of our 2024–25 season have already been announced.
Just in case you’ve missed them, we’re giving the Irish premiere
of Emma O’Halloran’s highly-praised double-bill, Trade/Mary
Motorhead (an INO co-commission with New York’s Beth Morrison
Projects, Trinity Church Wall Street, and Nancy & Barry Sanders),
Verdi’s Rigoletto, Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Wagner’s Der
fliegende Holländer, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, and a concert
performance of Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict.
We are now in our seventh year. Our major strength is the people
who are part of our extended operatic family – that includes every
one of you – who have made us a company from Ireland that can
stand shoulder to shoulder with any other around the globe. We have
the international awards, accolades and engagements to prove it.
Opera is a long haul. Planning starts years before opening night.
We discuss concepts, explore design ideas, and cost the sets, props,
costumes and tech that will deliver what you will see on stage.
Nothing can be left to chance, from rehearsal schedules to the cut of
a wig or the shape of a weapon. The five weeks of full-time rehearsal
mostly take place with piano accompaniment in a large studio that
has the full-size outline of the set mapped out on the floor. Then,
around a week before opening, we have rehearsals with orchestra
before we are ready to move into the theatre. It’s only at this stage
that we finally get to experience all the elements coming together
– singing, set, costumes, lighting, music – as you, our audience, will
encounter them. These final rehearsals are my favourite part of the
process. They are where the magic really happens.
It’s not an unconstrained adventure. What any audience gets to
experience is governed by the character and layout of the individual
venues. The performers need to be easily seen and heard from every
seat, no matter how many balconies or boxes there may be. The placing
of the orchestra in the pit ensures that the musicians are visually not
part of the picture. They’re there to be heard. The shape and depth of
stage and pit affect the balance between singers and orchestra, and the
acoustic also varies significantly from theatre to theatre.
We only have three locations in the country with theatres which can
accommodate operas with full orchestra and chorus, Dublin, Cork and
Wexford. And we’re bringing La traviata to all three. But of course we take
our smaller productions to a much wider range of venues, each with its
own configuration and ambience. Although operas were composed with a
sunken orchestral pit in mind, many audience members tell me they love
it when they can actually see the orchestra as they watch the action on the
stage. They can do just that in various venues on our touring productions.
Opera is this amazing interplay between the score the composer has
written, the culture and artistry of those who perform it, the expertise and
imagination of the creative team and everyone working backstage, and
the performing space. So, even though we have a highly experienced cast,
many of whom have sung their roles previously, a director and conductor,
Olivia Fuchs and Killian Farrell, who have worked on other La traviatas,
our production and its marriage of people and place as you experience it
tonight, are unique and of this moment. This is why people who have seen
the opera many times still come back to experience it anew. It’s a live and
visceral experience that always excites and moves us.
Savour the moment. No other La traviata will ever look or sound exactly
like this again.
04 05

1
OCTOBER
2024
2024–2025
BEATRICE
Berlioz
& BENEDICT
11–26
OCTOBER
2024
Verdi
Emma O’Halloran & Mark O’Halloran
8–11
AUGUST
2024
1–7
DECEMBER
2024
THE HEARTBEAT
OF THE UNIVERSE
DIEGO FASCIATI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Like many of Verdi’s great works, La traviata is of literary origin with
a libretto based on the autobiographical novel and play La dame aux
camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils. For me, it is the quintessential 19thcentury
Italian opera. Much of the score follows the bel canto structure
of the double aria, notably Violetta’s bravura Act I finale, Sempre libera.
At the same time, the texture of the music is very much of the romantic
period, with a hint of verismo sprinkled here and there. Violetta’s heartbreaking
exhortation Amami Alfredo! (Love me, Alfredo!) in Act II is
particularly powerful. It is as if Verdi adopted the best elements of
19th-century styles and fashioned them into a masterpiece. Not a single note seems to be
out of the place. From the very gentle first few bars of the overture to the dramatic finale,
the music and the melodies, and the unfolding drama, sweep us up and away.
J. Strauss
FOR BOOKING AND MORE
INFORMATION SEE
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1–23
FEBRUARY
2025
Wagner
23–29
MARCH
2025
25–31
MAY
2025
4 & 7
JUNE
2025
La traviata is the finale to our 2023–24 season. I don’t mean to seem smug, but what a season
it was! Jennifer Davis as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust, Celine Byrne as Mimì in Puccini’s La
bohème and Sinéad Campbell Wallace in the title role of Strauss’s Salome are just some of
the standout performances that left memories I will treasure for a long time. While La traviata
is playing in Ireland, we are also presenting Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade in London (Linbury Theatre
at the Royal Opera House) and at Nouvel Opéra Fribourg, Switzerland. Meanwhile, our
co-production of Puccini’s La bohème is in Montpellier, France, until the end of May, and our
co-production of Rossini’s William Tell is enjoying a revival in St Gall, Switzerland in May and June.
It is gratifying to see that the impact we have made in Ireland has extended internationally
in the past few years. It is a testament to the high-quality work delivered by our technical
teams, artistic teams, singers, musicians and our core INO executive team and board of
directors. Our success is underpinned by the support of the Arts Council, our individual
production sponsors, and our INO friends and supporters. A recurring refrain in La traviata
is the beautiful quell’amor ch’è palpito dell’universo intero – love is the heartbeat of the
whole universe. You, our audience, are the heartbeat Irish National Opera.
Donizetti
L’ELISIR D’AMORE
The Elixir of Love
Thank you for joining us tonight and I hope you are excited as I am by the new season we
have just announced.
07

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Opera is not just an art form; it’s an experience that transcends time and
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08
Image: Sinéad Campbell Wallace in INO’s 2024 production of Salome
Photo: Patricio Cassinoni.
07

DIRECTOR’S NOTE
OLIVIA FUCHS
Giuseppe Verdi based his La traviata, literally meaning
‘the fallen woman’, on Alexandre Dumas fils’ La Dame
aux Camélias, a semi-autobiographical novel published
in 1848, which was later adapted for the stage and
performed in Paris. In it Dumas romanticised the affair he
had had with Marie Duplessis (Marguerite Gautier in the
novel), a famous and beautiful courtesan who captivated
men’s hearts and extravagantly spent their money, but
died in poverty from consumption at the age of 23. Verdi
attended the play’s premiere in 1852 with his lover,
the singer Giuseppina Strepponi. This contemporary
and deeply contentious subject-matter was an unusual
and bold choice for an opera, but the story must have
resonated deeply with Verdi, who was struggling with
his local community’s censure of his relationship with
Strepponi. He had bought a farm in his hometown of
Busseto and was living there with her, unmarried. As
Verdi explains in a letter from 1852: ‘My nature rebels
against conformity...In my house there lives a lady, free
and independent, who, like myself, prefers a solitary life...
Neither I nor she is obliged to account for our actions...
In my house she is entitled to as much respect as myself,
more even.’
her. He points out the hypocrisy and double standards of a
society where men rule by birth, through status and money,
happy to keep women as their mistresses, but worried for
the purity of their daughters and for their own reputations.
The opera’s premiere at La Fenice in Venice in 1853 was
a fiasco partly due to its shocking and contemporary
subject-matter. Since then, however, it has rightly become
one of Verdi’s most successful operas.
La traviata is an intimate drama about the fragility of
human relationships, of the human body, indeed of human
existence itself, in this case seen through the suffering
caused by consumption (tuberculosis), regarded in the
19 th century as an ‘artistic’ disease, which did not, however,
lead to the ‘beautiful’ death imagined by artists.
Verdi movingly contrasts the depiction of a society in which
everyone is always on display, playing a part, wearing a
mask and trying to outshine each other, with the intimacy
and domesticity of love torn apart. He radically challenges
conformity and convention, and condemns the false
morality of a hypocritical male society.
Deeply humane in his views, Verdi always saw the pain
and suffering of those oppressed and judged by society,
and he was a great champion of women. Having seen the
play, Verdi immediately began work on setting his heroine’s
story and sacrifice to music, showing her to be much more
sensitive and noble than the men who exploit and judge
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

THE MORALITY OF LA TRAVIATA
The opera composers and theatre managers
of the 19th century had to deal with censors
who examined and evaluated each work
before giving – or refusing – permission for
it to be staged.
Some of the interventions were almost ludicrously
extreme. The Verdi opera we know as Un ballo in
maschera (A Masked Ball) was originally titled Gustavo
III. Simply because it dealt with the assassination of
King Gustav III of Sweden while he was at a masked
ball in 1792. But the censors in Naples did not
approve. Verdi scholar Julian Budden laid out the list
of changes that were required, “There were seven
requirements: (1) The King must become a Duke;
(2) The action must be transferred to a pre-Christian
age when witchcraft and the summoning up of
spirits were believed in; (3) Anywhere in the north
would be possible except for Norway and Sweden;
(4) The hero’s love must be noble and tinged with
remorse; (5) The conspirators must hate the duke for
hereditary reasons, such as usurpation of property;
(6) The feast should conform to the customs of the
epoch chosen; (7) No firearms.”
Verdi and his librettist, Antonio Somma, investigated
a range of alternative scenarios and titles, first Il duca
Armanno, and later Una vendetta in domino, set in
Stettin, Adelia degli Adimari, set in Florence with
about a third of the text changed, until finally the
work became Un ballo in maschera, set in Boston.
In London the Lord Chamberlain
acted as stage censor between
1737 and 1968, and caused
Verdi’s Nabucco to be performed
under two other titles, as Nino in
March 1846 and Anato in 1850.
The locations of the libretto were
changed, Jerusalem and Babylon
became Assyria and Nineveh,
Hebrews were presented as
Babylonians, and God became Isis.
The Times was unhappy about
Nino. “In conformity with the
feelings of the English, as to the
unsuitableness of Biblical subjects
for theatrical representation,”
the paper said, “the misfortunes
of Nebuchadnezzar, which
constituted the subject of the
original piece, are transferred to
Ninus, the ancient King of Assyria, and the opera is, therefore, styled Nino. Finding himself
in a region of very remote antiquity, the adapter has allowed himself to create history at
pleasure, and if he cannot demonstrate the accuracy of his own views, he at all events
may safely defy every objector to prove the contrary. We are to suppose the Babylonians,
a people independent of Assyria, devoted to the worship of the Egyptian god Isis, and [that]
the sin of Ninus, who subjugates them, consists in profaning the temple of this faith.”
Image: Marietta Piccolomini as Violetta in Act II, Scene 2 of La traviata at Her
Majesty’s Theatre, London, but with no money thrown at her feet. Image from
Illustrated London News, 31 May 1856.
Opera was actually treated somewhat more leniently than plays, as it was often given in a
language most of the listeners were unlikely to understand. Sometimes the Italian text which
was submitted, and which would be sung, was left unaltered. Changes were made only in
the English translation provided to the Lord Chamberlain’s Office. And it was common for
swearing and oaths to be rendered innocuous in the translations supplied to the censor.
14
Image: Marietta Piccolomini on the cover of “Three Songs” from Verdi’s La traviata
after her English success as Violetta. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
15

jury, “Is it a book that you would even wish your wife or servants to read?” Poet Philip Larkin
would later write:
Image: Luigi Arditi wrote his most famous song, Il bacio, for Piccolomini to a melody he conceived in Dublin in
1859. The song has remained popular to this day, and its many recordings include ones by Adelina Patti (who
used to insert it into the singing lesson in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia), Joan Sutherland, Edita Gruberova
and Anna Netrebko. Facsimile of sketch from Arditi’s Reminiscences, 1896.
William Bodham Donne (1807–82) was the Examiner of Plays for most of the time between
1849 and 1874, and he explained his process to a parliamentary committee in 1866. “All
the manuscripts performed at the theatres in Great Britain,” he said, “must be sent in for
my examination, in order to their being afterwards recommended for a licence by the Lord
Chamberlain. I read all those manuscripts, and if I find anything objectionable, I endorse on
the licence the objectionable passages, with a direction to omit them in the representation,
and then I recommend them to the Lord Chamberlain, or if I am doubtful about the whole
bearing of the piece, it is then referred to the Lord Chamberlain to confirm or reject my
opinion against it; if his opinion coincides with mine, the play is refused a licence.”
Although Verdi’s La traviata was approved in 1856, the play on which it was based, La
dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, was refused a licence in 1853 and again in
1859. It did not make it on to a London stage until 1881. The philosopher and critic George
Henry Lewes (1817–78) fulminated against the play in 1853: “this unhealthy idealisation
of one of the worst evils of our social life...I know of few things in the way of fiction more
utterly wrong, unwholesome, and immoral...hideous parody of passion...idealisation of
corruption...a subject not only unfit to be brought before our sisters and our wives, but
unfit to be brought before ourselves.”
This is reminiscent of the notorious 1960 obscenity case against DH Lawrence’s Lady
Chatterley’s Lover, in which the prosecutor Mervyn Griffith-Jones (1909–79) asked the
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) –
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.
The first English performance of La traviata was given at Her Majesty’s Theatre in
London on 24 May 1856, with 22-year-old Tuscan soprano Marietta Piccolomini
(1834–99) in the title role. Piccolomini was from a noble Italian family which had
produced Popes Pius II (Swiss composer Conrad Beck wrote a symphony in homage
to him in 1957) and Pius III, a superior-general of the Society of Jesus, a Bishop of
Grosseto, an Archbishop of Siena (who was also a cardinal), and a military man who
served the house of Habsburg and has a named role in Schiller’s trilogy of Wallenstein
plays. Unsurprisingly, she had a protracted family struggle before she was allowed to
follow a career on the stage.
As Violetta, she was a sensation. Opera manager Benjamin Lumley, who promoted the
performances, was not exaggerating when he wrote, “The enthusiasm she created was
immense. It spread like wildfire. Once more frantic crowds struggled in the lobbies of
the Theatre, once more dresses were torn and hats crushed in the conflict. Once more a
mania possessed the public. Marietta Piccolomini became ‘the rage’...she exercised an
almost magical power over the masses.”
Lumley quoted from a French review, “She sings with infinite charm; but is not a cantatrice.
She acts with talent; but is not an actress. She is a problem – an enigma!” The great
success of the opera in London was attributed to her. People were entranced by the
super-real character she created, though some cavilled at her singing. Verdi, on the other
hand, got little credit. It was, explained Joseph Bennett in the Illustrated London News,
“Piccolomini, not Verdi, who was the object of the splendid ovation of last Saturday night.”
16
17

Image: Marietta Piccolomini, photographed
by Nelson and Marshall, 11 Upper Sackville
Street, Dublin, 22 October 1857 © Victoria
and Albert Museum, London
The Times published a laudatory review in May 1856,
and returned to the opera in August, with a leader of
some 1,350 words. Having explained the importance
of Greek tragedy, Shakespeare, Goethe and Dante, it
unsheathed its knife. “There is a wide step from these
representations,” it says, “to the impersonation of all
that is most foul and hideous in human nature, and its
exhibition upon the stage with all the alluring additions
of scenery and song...The novel is the apotheosis of
prostitution, and upon the stage is practically added a
clinical lecture upon consumption in its direst form.”
Ireland was not without its own chiding moralists.
The Nation of 4 October 1856, carried a long letter
to the editor from John McHugh, a chaplain living in
Blackrock. He railed about “This abominable piece, La
Traviata,” and used quotes from The Times, the Era and
the Leader, as a prompt to ask, “If Protestant journals in
England exclaimed against this piece, will the protectors
of public morality in Catholic Ireland be silent?”
He came back to the subject ten days later in a letter to the editor of the Freeman’s
Journal, this time including the text of a separate letter he had sent to the Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland in which he had written,
“My Lord, I respectfully entreat you to interpose your vice-regal authority to
save the public morals of the people of Dublin from such a gross outrage to
their Christian and moral feelings”.
And he quoted the Lord Lieutenant’s reply, which said that,
“his Excellency does not imagine he can exercise any control in the matter, nor
has he reason to believe that the opera in question is more exceptionable than
others which are constantly performed without objections being made to them.”
This does not mean that Ireland’s first Traviata was uncensored. The production came
from Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, and the Freeman’s Journal review of the Dublin
performance unwittingly mentions one of the changes. “In the third act we are introduced
to Violetta at a grand fete. Here she meets Alfred, who, believing that she has wantonly
deserted him, reviles her, and flings her miniature, which she had given him, at her feet.”
The Lord Chamberlain’s view was that for Alfred to throw money at her would have been
too direct a suggestion of prostitution. He had to throw a locket with her image instead.
So it was Piccolomini who brought Ireland its first Violetta, at Dublin’s Theatre Royal on
14 October 1856, and she would later reprise the role in Traviata’s first performances in
Paris and New York, and bring it back to Dublin in 1857. Her success was as great as it had
been in London. By November, the Freeman’s Journal was advertising the sale of a stud in
Co. Kildare, which included “a chestnut mare” with her surname. The singer came back a
year later, not just to perform at the Theatre Royal. She also sang at the Rotunda in Dublin
(or the Rotondo, as they called it then), and at the new Atheneum in Cork, which would
be renamed The Munster Hall in 1875 and, after an extensive rebuild, became the Cork
Opera House in 1877.
Piccolomini was a divisive performer. The moral outrage had served to boost her
popularity, especially among women curious to see what the fuss was about. But her
career turned out to be limited, and she retired after her marriage to Marquis Francesco
Caetani della Fargna in 1860.
The last word should be given to Verdi. When he was looking for a Cordelia for the opera he
was planning on King Lear, there were only three sopranos he thought suitable for it. They
were Virginia Boccabadati (1830–1922), Maria Spezia (1828–1907) and Piccolomini
(1834–99). “All three have small voices,” he said, “but great talent, deep feeling and a
sense of the theatre. All three were excellent in Traviata.” He contacted Piccolomini himself,
and she was so enthusiastic – even prepared to relinquish engagements in St Petersburg –
that he backed off, lest she commit to him for a opera that might never see the light of day.
He was right. In spite of the amount of time he spent on it, the project went nowhere.
MICHAEL DERVAN
18
19

SYNOPSIS
ACT 1
Violetta Valéry, a well-known Parisian
courtesan, has been convalescing from
consumption and throws a party to mark
her return. The young Alfredo Germont
now arrives at the party, introduced by their
mutual friend Gaston. During Violetta’s
illness he has been asking after her every
day. Violetta goads her rich patron, Baron
Douphol, and asks Alfredo to propose a
toast. As the guests proceed to the dance
hall she collapses and, left alone, Alfredo
takes the opportunity to declare his love for
her. She warns him that there is no room
for love in her life but gives him a camellia
and asks him to return when it has withered.
He joyfully agrees to visit her the next day.
When all the guests have left, Violetta
recalls the sincerity of Alfredo’s feelings,
and contemplates allowing true love into
her life. However, she decides to live by her
motto: Sempre libera - to always stay free.
ACT 2, SCENE 1
Violetta and Alfredo have been living together
for three months in the country, far removed
from Violetta’s old life. Alfredo cannot believe
his luck. However, Violetta’s maid Annina
reveals that Violetta is having to sell all her
possessions to afford their life together.
Shocked and humiliated by this information
Alfredo hurries to Paris with the aim of raising
some money. Violetta receives an invitation
to a party that night at Flora’s, her friend and
rival, but she discards it. A guest is announced.
It turns out to be Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s
father. He bluntly demands that Violetta give
up Alfredo and stop living off his allowance.
When Violetta reveals it is she who is paying for
their life together he is surprised, but asks her
to leave Alfredo for his daughter’s sake: she
cannot get married with this scandal hanging
over the family. He demands Violetta leave
Alfredo and not tell him why. Eventually, Violetta
agrees to give up Alfredo for the young girl’s
sake. In return she asks Germont to promise
that, after her death, he will tell Alfredo of her
undying love for him. Distraught, she writes
a farewell letter to Alfredo, who then walks in
unexpectedly. She asks him to always love her.
Once she leaves, a messenger gives Alfredo her
farewell letter. He breaks down and his father
tries to comfort him. Alfredo sees the invitation
to Flora’s party and rushes after Violetta.
ACT II, SCENE 2
Flora’s party is in full swing, with a variety
of entertainment. Gossip about Violetta
leaving Alfredo abounds. To everyone’s
astonishment Alfredo walks in and starts
gambling. He is on a winning streak. When
Violetta arrives with her former patron,
Baron Douphol, Alfredo challenges the
baron to a game. The baron loses. The
guests go to the next room for dinner,
and Violetta warns Alfredo of goading the
baron. Alfredo demands an explanation for
her departure. Reluctantly, she tells him
she is in love with the baron. Outraged,
Alfredo calls all the guests and publicly
humiliates Violetta by throwing his entire
winnings at her to pay for their time
together. Alfredo’s father arrives to witness
his son’s bad behaviour, and the baron
challenges Alfredo to a duel.
ACT III
Some months later Violetta is dying of
tuberculosis. The doctor tells Annina that
she only has a few hours to live. Outside, a
carnival passes by and Violetta decides to
donate her remaining money to the poor.
She rereads a letter from Giorgio Germont,
in which he tells her that Alfredo wounded
the baron in the duel and then fled the
country, but now father and son are on
their way to Violetta’s sickbed. Germont
has told Alfredo about Violetta’s sacrifice.
Alfredo comes rushing in and, beside
themselves with joy, they start planning a
future together, but it is too late.
20
21

BEING MARIO CHANG
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THE
FIRST OPERA YOU WENT TO?
Well, I’m from Guatemala. So the first opera I
went to and saw was at the Met – when I was
already starting at the Met. The first one was
Handel’s Rodelinda. It was the first I saw live
in the audience. Before that, I was part of the
opera and I was watching only the acts I was
not in during rehearsals. One of the things
that amazed me in the Met production, which
I think they still have [Stephen Wadsworth’s
2004 production], there was a moment where
I think it’s the soprano who starts running
from one side of the stage to the other. When
she is more or less in the centre of the stage,
then the whole stage starts moving and she
keeps walking and the things keep moving and
moving. I was amazed. I thought it was just
endless. It was such a huge stage. Then I saw
behind the stage, and I discovered how it was
done. It stole the magic of the production.
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THE
FIRST OPERA YOU APPEARED IN?
The first opera I participated in, I was in the
chorus. It was Verdi’s Aida and that was in
Guatemala, my home country. It was this
gigantic production they did in the open
and the chorus was almost 200 people.
The government helped. Putting... I don’t
remember exactly... 400 soldiers, just to
march, to do the big entrance. That was
my first contact with opera, basically, and I
fell in love. I said, ‘Oh, I want to do this for a
living.’ The first role I sang was in Traviata. I
was Gastone, that was my first role. I just did
one opera in the chorus and then from that I
went to Traviata and it was such a completely
different thing. Yeah, I have a special place
for Traviata in my heart because it’s the first
real gig I had as a soloist.
WHAT WAS THE BEST OPERA-RELATED
ADVICE YOU EVER GOT?
I think the best advice I’ve gotten since
I started is that you never stop learning.
Whenever you think you know everything
that’s the moment you have to retire,
because you’ve lost interest in it. So I’m
always open to learn new stuff. And every
time I take a score and I rework a piece
that I’ve done many times before, I always
find something different, something new,
something that I didn’t explore the previous
time. Maybe because in my development
as a singer, I was in a certain position, a
certain moment in my career, and I didn’t
like that detail, or I just didn’t realise what
existed in that detail. The opera I’ve done
most is Puccini’s La bohème, and Traviata is
second. But I’m still learning and discovering
the details that I can just emphasise a little
bit, just a word or an inflection in a phrase,
just to, you know, repurpose it. It’s like you
rediscover the piece.
WHAT IS THE MOST ANNOYING
MISCONCEPTION ABOUT OPERA?
There are a lot of annoying misconceptions.
But I think the worst is that it is for the elite,
you know, that it’s unreachable and that it’s
boring. I’ve seen people who say that opera
is boring, because they don’t understand
it. The advice I always give to someone like
that, is it’s the only show you go to where you
need to know the ending. You need to know
as much as you can of the opera to be able
to appreciate how it’s being done. You’re not
going to spoil the ending. The ending has
been written 100, 150, 200 years ago. It’s
been like that for forever, right? We are not the
first production. We are not going to be the
last production. We are a new alternative. So,
knowing the ending gives you the possibility
of enjoying more the arc that takes you to the
ending. That is the magic in opera, because
everybody does little details differently.
16
Image: Mario Chang.
Photography: Christian Monterroso
23

Image: Mario Chang.
Photography: Christian Monterroso
WHAT MOMENT DO YOU MOST LOOK
FORWARD TO WHEN YOU GO TO A
PERFORMANCE OF LA TRAVIATA?
There are two key moments for me in every
opera. And it doesn’t matter which opera
I’m singing. The moment that the orchestra
starts tuning. Then, for me, there is no going
back. And specifically in Traviata, I have to
say, I love the second part of the Second Act.
I get to be the mean character. Usually, I’m
the victim, or naive person, or just the lover of
the principal character. But in this one,
I get to be all of those plus the mean guy.
WHAT’S THE MOST CHALLENGING
ASPECT OF PERFORMING ALFREDO?
Well, I think that arc that I was talking about,
the character arc is really interesting. One
of the first things he says to Violetta is, ‘I’ve
been coming here for the past month.’ So,
you start the story halfway through the
beginning, right? Then in the Second Act
you have to like build up three months of
something having happened, that their
relationship has solidified. And then to be able
to go the opposite direction in the second
part of that same act, after the lapse of days
or hours – the duration depends on the
production. From a very good relationship to
really hating the person who has betrayed you.
And then you have to pretend that a long time
has passed and you’re trying to rekindle the
relationship, all those deep emotions that you
developed with time. That is the challenging
thing, to build that arc, that transition, and
make it believable. That is the biggest challenge
there is. Not just for me, for everybody.
WHAT’S BEST AND WORST ABOUT
BEING A TENOR?
Woo! Well... the best, I think, is the range.
If you want to be the hero, you can be the
hero. If you want to be a mean person, you
can be mean. The resources you have are
so rich. The worst part, I think, is managing
your criteria to choose the roles. You have
to be very specific, because it’s very easy to
go in the wrong direction and mess up your
voice. And I don’t think it’s just because I’m
a tenor, but I believe the tenor voice is one of
the most difficult to keep healthy, because
it’s the most... I don’t want to say fragile, but
it just takes just a little bit of misconception to
mess up everything. You have to be careful,
and not do certain roles ten years before
you’re ready. Because, if you are a good
tenor and you have a solid technique, a lot of
theatres are going to ask you to sing bigger
and bigger stuff every time. You have to know
your limits, and you have to really try to reach
the limit, but not go over. Now, Donizetti’s
L’elisir d’amore is a little light for me. I’ve done
it lots of times. But now that I’ve been singing
Puccini’s Tosca and Verdi’s Ernani and that
kind of stuff – which is a little heavier – going
back to Elisir is going to take a little while to
adjust. Of course I can do it, but I have to work
towards it. And if I’m coming from Tosca, for
example, going to Elisir directly is impossible. I
would overstretch myself trying to do it. I have
to have some time or work on an opera that
helps me to achieve that high tessitura again.
Cavaradossi in Tosca is very deep and rich
and very passionate. And Nemorino in Elisir
is a very noble, naive person, a very innocent
character. You have to show that in your voice
too. You have to be really, really careful with
your schedule.
IF YOU WEREN’T AN OPERA SINGER,
WHAT MIGHT YOU HAVE BECOME?
Well, I studied a couple of things before
becoming a singer. I remember I got into law
school at the beginning. That didn’t work. I
started in TV and radio production, and that
didn’t work either. I have a big passion for audio
and working in recording studios and that kind
of stuff. I love it. So, if I weren’t a singer, maybe
a recording studio engineer or live performance
technician. Something like that. And it’s always
around music. I’m impressed always, how
a good, really good audio engineer can
make, like, a huge sound system sound as
if you were just listening in the theatre. Like
the sound system doesn’t exist, like it’s not
forced. And of course, I always like the old
recordings, the old vinyl discs.
IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL DERVAN
24
25

CAST IN ORDER OF VOCAL APPEARANCE
Violetta Valéry Amanda Woodbury Soprano
WEXFORD 17 MAY; DUBLIN 21, 23, 25 MAY; CORK, 29, 31 MAY
Violetta Valéry Máire Flavin Soprano
DUBLIN 22, 24 MAY
Flora Bervoix Aebh Kelly Mezzo-soprano
Marchese d’Obigny Ben McAteer Baritone
Barone Douphol Brendan Collins Baritone
Dottore Grenvil Graeme Danby Bass
Gastone de Letorières Patrick Hyland Tenor
Alfredo Germont Mario Chang Tenor
WEXFORD 17 MAY; DUBLIN 21, 23, 25 MAY; CORK, 29, 31 MAY
Alfredo Germont Yongzhao Yu Tenor
DUBLIN 22, 24 MAY
Annina Madeline Judge Mezzo-soprano
Giuseppe Ben Escorcio Tenor
Giorgio Germont Brett Polegato Baritone
WEXFORD 17 MAY; DUBLIN 21, 23, 25 MAY; CORK, 29, 31 MAY
Giorgio Germont Anthony Clark Evans Baritone
DUBLIN 22, 24 MAY
Commissioner David Scott Bass
Flora’s servant Matthew Mannion Bass
PARTICIPATING INO STUDIO MEMBERS
Alfredo Germont COVER William Pearson Tenor
Assistant Conductor
Studio Répétiteur
Medb Brereton Hurley
Adam McDonagh
CREATIVE TEAM
Conductor
Conductor
Director
Set & Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Choreographer
Chorus Director
Assistant Conductor
Assistant Director
Répétiteur
Language Coach
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA CHORUS
Sopranos
Caroline Behan*
Deirdre Higgins*
Emma Hils
Tara Lacken
Maria Matthews
Bláthnaid Nicholson
Megan O’Neill*
Niamh St John*
*INO Company Chorus Member
Mezzo-sopranos
Áine Cassidy
Sinead Carroll
Madeline Judge*
Sarah Kilcoyne*
Sarah Luttrell
Bríd Ní Ghruagáin
Iris-Fiona Nikolaou
Heather Sammon*
Killian Farrell ALL DATES EXCEPT CORK 31 MAY
Fergus Sheil CORK 31 MAY
Olivia Fuchs
Katie Davenport
Paul Keogan
Jessica Kennedy
Richard McGrath
Medb Brereton Hurley
John King
Aoife O’Sullivan
Annalisa Monticelli
Tenors
David Corr
Ben Escorcio*
Andrew Masterson*
Cathal McCabe
Patrick McGinley
Oisín Ó Dálaigh*
William Pearson*
Seán Tester
Basses
Adam Cahill
Desmond Capliss
Maksym Lozovyi*
Matthew Mannion*
Gerry Noonan
Lorcan O’Byrne
David Scott*
Oisín Treacy
26
27

IRISH NATIONAL OPERA ORCHESTRA
PRODUCTION TEAM
First violins
Sarah Sew LEADER
David O’Doherty
Hugh Murray
Molly O’Shea
Jennifer Murphy
Emma Masterson
Maria Ryan*
Mollie Wrafter*
Second Violins
Larissa O’Grady
Aoife Dowdall*
Cillian Ó Breacháin
Christine Kenny
Sarah Perricone
Nasenbilige Ta*
Violas
Andreea Banciu
Gawain Usher
Carla Vedres
Abi Hammett*
Cellos
David Edmunds
Aoife Burke
Yseult Cooper Stockdale
Paula Hughes*
Double Basses
Dominic Dudley
Stephane Petiet*
Paul Stephens*
Harp
Dianne Marshall
Flutes
Lina Andonovska
Marie Comiskey
Piccolo
Marie Comiskey
Oboes
Aoife McCambridge
Jenny Magee
Clarinets
Conor Sheil
Suzanne Forde
Bassoons
Sinéad Frost
Cliona Warren
Horn
Hannah Miller
Niamh Huethorst
Dewi Garmon Jones
Louise Sullivan
Trumpet
William Palmer
Erick Castillo Mora
Trombones
Ross Lyness
Colm O’Hara
Paul Frost
Cimbasso
Grady Hassan
Timpani
Noel Eccles
Percussion
Catríona Frost
Richard O’Donnell
BANDA
Flute
Katie Hyland
Piccolos
Kieran Moynihan
Katie Hyland
Trumpets
Nathan McDonnell
Jane Hilliard
Trombones
Casey Trowell
Ross McDonnell
*Wexford & Dublin Performances only
Production Manager
Michael Lonergan
Company Stage Manager
Clive Welsh
Stage Manager
Paula Tierney
Assistant Stage Manager
Ilona McCormick
Lir Intern Stage Manager
Oliver Kampman
Technical Crew
Abraham Allen
Peter Boyle
Joey Maguire
Fergus McDonagh
Pawel Nieworaj
Martin Wallace
Props Supervisor
Stephanie Ryan
Chief LX
Donal McNinch
LX Programmer
Eoin McNinch
LX Crew
Nate Lennon
Adrian Moylan
Set Construction
TPS
Scenic Artist
Sandra Butler
Wigs, Hair & Makeup Supervisor
Carole Dunne
Wigs, Hair & Makeup assistants
Tee Elliott
Sharon Hersee
Linda Mullan
Marion O’Toole
Costume Supervisor
Sinéad Lawlor
Costume Makers
Denise Assas Tynan
Caroline Butler
Pauline McCaul
Anne O’Mahony
Veronika Romanova
Tailors
Caroline Butler
Gillian Carew
Denis Darcy
Breakdown Artist
Molly Brown
Costume Assistants
Nicola Burke
Ciara Coleman Geaney
Roisin Ní Ghabhann
Anne Reck
Tiel Starzynski
Dressers
Jessica Healy Rettig
Dolores Kavanagh
Michelle Kiely
Maeve Smyth
Jenny Whyte
Surtitle Operator
Mairead Hurley
Lighting Provider
QLX
Photography
Ros Kavanagh
Ste Murray
Video
Mark Cantan
Gansee Films
Graphic Design
Colin Denham
Programme edited by
Michael Lee
Transport
Trevor Price Transport
Owen Sherwin
28 29

BIOGRAPHIES
KILLIAN FARRELL
CONDUCTOR
FERGUS SHEIL
CONDUCTOR CORK 31 MAY
OLIVIA FUCHS
DIRECTOR
KATIE DAVENPORT
SET & COSTUME DESIGNER
Killian is currently Generalmusikdirektor
of Staatstheater Meiningen. He
began his career at Theater Bremen,
serving as First Kapellmeister and
conducting a range of repertoire
including Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte
and Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz, Richard Strauss’s Der
Rosenkavalier, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,
Handel’s Alcina, Dvořák’s Rusalka, and Beethoven’s
Fidelio. He also held the position of First Kapellmeister at
Staatsoper Stuttgart, where he conducted Monteverdi’s
Orfeo and Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges.
Recent and upcoming performances have brought
him to Semperoper Dresden, Irish National Opera,
Komische Oper Berlin, De Nationale Opera Amsterdam,
and Theater Heidelberg, and concert engagements
with Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Ulster
Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, National
Symphony Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra,
Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, and Georgian
Chamber Orchestra. Killian served as a Conducting Fellow
at the Tanglewood Music Centre in 2019, conducting
the Tanglewood Music Centre Orchestra and receiving
guidance from conductors such as Andris Nelsons,
Thomas Adès and Giancarlo Guerrero. He is a former
Young Artist at the National Opera Studio, Britten-Pears
Young Artist, and alumnus of the Académie du Festival
d’Aix-en-Provence, participating in the Mozart Residency.
A former member of the German Conductors’ Forum, he
was awarded a scholarship from the Bryden Thomson
Trust. Killian comes from Dublin and is a former Deputy
Head Chorister of the Palestrina Choir. He made his
professional conducting debut aged 17 with J.S. Bach’s
St. John Passion. He studied conducting, piano and
organ at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama
and read musicology at Trinity College Dublin.
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, Brian
Irvine and Netia Jones’s Least Like The Other,
half of 20 Shots of Opera, and Beethoven’s Fidelio
(Irish National Opera). He has also conducted
Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, John Adams’s Nixon in
China, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (Wide Open
Opera), Mozart’s Don Giovanni and the first modern
performance and recording of Robert O’Dwyer’s Irishlanguage
opera, Eithne (Opera Theatre Company).
Abroad he has conducted Least Like The Other in the
Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House, London,
and William Tell for Nouvel Opéra Fribourg, and has
also conducted for Scottish Opera and Welsh National
Opera. At home he has also conducted the National
Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra,
the Ulster Orchestra, and the Irish Chamber
Orchestra. With the State Choir Latvija he gave the
world premiere of Arvo Pärt’s The Deer’s Cry and
has also conducted the BBC Singers. He has fulfilled
engagements in the USA, Canada, South Africa,
Australia, the UK, France, Netherlands, Denmark,
Sweden, Malta and Estonia. Before founding INO
he led both Wide Open Opera and Opera Theatre
Company. Since 2011 he has been responsible for
the production of over seventy different operas,
which have been seen around Ireland and in London,
Edinburgh, New York, Amsterdam and Luxembourg.
Olivia Fuchs is an international
opera and theatre director. She
won the 2007 Green Room and
Helpmann Awards for Dvořák’s
Rusalka at Sydney Opera House.
Notable productions include:
Britten’s Death in Venice, Janáček’s The Makropulos
Affair and Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier
(Welsh National Opera); Verdi’s Falstaff (Opera North)
Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro (English National Opera);
Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream (Royal Opera
House, Linbury); Dvořák’s Rusalka (Opera Australia/
Opera North); Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande
(Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires); MacMillan’s Inés de
Castro (Scottish Opera) and the world premiere of
Engel’s Grete Minde (Oper Magdeburg). She has
directed many productions in Germany, for Danish
National Opera, in Oviedo, Spain, and in the UK for
Opera North, Garsington Opera and Opera Holland
Park. Future work includes: Rimsky-Korsakoff’s
The Snowmaiden (English Touring Opera) and
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Karlsruhe).
Katie is a set and costume designer
based in Dublin. She won the Irish
Times Irish Theatre Award for Best
Costume Design (2021/2022) and
was nominated in this category in
2019 for The Tales of Hoffman for
Irish National Opera. She represented Ireland at The
Prague Quadrennial 2019, at which she presented a
digital render of her INO set design for Offenbach’s The
Tales of Hoffmann. Previously for INO she designed
set and costumes for Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda,
Vivaldi’s Griselda, and costumes for 20 Shots of Opera
and Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Other recent designs
include Audrey or Sorrow (Landmark Productions/
Abbey Theatre), Tartuffe, The Fall of the Second
Republic (Abbey Theatre), Krapp’s Last Tape (Landmark
Productions), Endgame, Once Before I Go, Peter Pan,
A Christmas Carol and The Visiting Hour (Gate Theatre),
Yes and Yes and Dēmos (Liz Roche Company), Night
Dances, Dolorosa, King | Shrine and This is Ireland
(United Fall), What We Hold (Irish Arts Centre, NYC),
Michael Gallen’s Elsewhere (Straymaker/Abbey Theatre)
and the pop-up theatre cafe Pegeen’s for the Abbey
Theatre. She has designed for many other theatre,
dance, and opera companies in Ireland, including NI
Opera, Junk Ensemble, CoisCéim, THISISPOPBABY,
and Rough Magic. She has been associate designer
at St Ann’s Warehouse (New York) and The Barbican
(London). She has also designed for RTÉ and Ardmore
Studios art department, and won an ICAD Award for
Piranha Bar in 2016. Katie was Vice Chair of the Irish
Society Performance Designers (2020–2024) and was
Designer in Residence at the Gate Theatre Dublin in
2017. Katie has recently archived her set and costume
work in a book: Archive #1 [2016–2021]. She makes her
International Opera debut in Bergamo later this year.
30
31

BIOGRAPHIES
PAUL KEOGAN
LIGHTING DESIGNER
JESSICA KENNEDY
CHOREOGRAPHER
RICHARD MCGRATH
CHORUS DIRECTOR
MEDB BRERETON HURLEY
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
Paul Keogan studied Drama at
Trinity College Dublin and Glasgow
University. His opera and dance
credits include 20 Shots of Opera
(Irish National Opera Film);
Richard Strauss’s Elektra, Mozart’s
The Marriage of Figaro (Irish National Opera);
Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses (Opera Collective
Ireland); Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites (Grange
Park Opera); Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face (Teatro
Arriaga, Bilbao); Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires
(Cork Opera House); Klaas de Vries’s Wake (Nationale
Reisopera, Netherlands); Lost (Ballet Ireland); Sama
& Flight (Rambert, London); No Man’s Land (English
National Ballet); and Hansel and Gretel (Royal Ballet,
London). His theatre work includes: Duck Duck
Goose (Fishamble); The Snapper, Hamlet, The Red
Shoes, Molly Sweeney (Gate Theatre); Sadie, Shirley
Valentine, Double Cross, Here Comes The Night (Lyric
Theatre, Belfast); Happy Days, Blood in the Dirt,
The Walworth Farce (Landmark Productions); The
Great Hunger, Last Orders at the Dockside, Citysong,
On Raftery’s Hill (Abbey Theatre); Love, Love, Love
(Lyric Hammersmith);I Think We Are Alone (Frantic
Assembly, UK Tour); Lady Windermere’s Fan (Classic
Spring, London); A Streetcar Named Desire, Twelfth
Night and The Hudsucker Proxy (Liverpool Everyman
& Playhouse); Cyprus Avenue (Abbey Theatre/Royal
Court, London/Public Theater, New York); Harvest
(Royal Court); The Caretaker (Bristol Old Vic); Trad,
The Matchbox (Galway International Arts Festival); Far
Away, Sacrifice at Easter (Corcadorca, Cork); The Gaul
(Hull Truck Theatre); Blue/Orange, Tribes (Crucible,
Sheffield); Born Bad (Hampstead, London), and
Novecento (Trafalgar Studios, London).
Jessica Kennedy is an awardwinning
choreographer, movement
director and dance artist based in
Dublin. She is co-founder and Co-
Artistic Director of Junk Ensemble,
the internationally-acclaimed and
leading Irish dance-theatre company. Jessica trained
in the United States, Dublin and London, completing
a Bachelors Degree in Dance and English Literature
at Middlesex University London, and has performed
extensively with companies throughout Europe and
the UK. Jessica has choreographed and collaborated
on numerous opera, theatre, dance, visual and
performance art projects and has worked regularly
in Scotland as a movement director for productions
with Tron Theatre (Glasgow/Beijing). She has both
performed in and choreographed for multiple short
and feature films, and also works as an intimacy
coordinator for film. Jessica has lectured at various
universities in Ireland and is part of an all-female
experimental electronica group Everything Shook.
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, NI Opera,
Wide Open Opera, Opera Theatre Company, and
Lyric Opera Productions. Previous productions with
these companies include Richard Strauss’s Der
Rosenkavalier, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Bartók’s
Bluebeard’s Castle, Mozart’s The Magic Flute and
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), Verdi’s La traviata (ENO and Lyric Opera
Productions), Puccini’s La Bohème (Opera Theatre
Company, English National Opera and Lyric Opera
Productions), Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s
The Last Hotel (Landmark Productions/Wide Open
Opera), Verdi’s Rigoletto (Opera Theatre Company),
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 Opera Studio.
Medb was conductor of Trinity
Orchestra (Trinity College Dublin)
from September 2020 to August
2022 and made her concert debut
with the orchestra in April 2022.
She graduated from Trinity College
with a first-class honours degree in English and Music
in November 2022. She conducts the newly-formed
Darndale Community Choir and was also one of the
founders and co-artistic administrator of AMGE (the
Annual Music Graduate Exhibition), at which nine
original compositions by Irish music graduates were
premiered in November 2022. At this exhibition,
Medb premiered her own choral composition and
conducted it in concert. Medb has been a member
of the INO Studio since June 2022. During her time
with INO, she has worked as an assistant conductor
on many productions and was the children’s chorus
director on Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier,
Massenet’s Werther and Puccini’s La bohème. Medb
conducted the INO Orchestra at the Studio Gala in
the Pavilion Theatre in June 2023. She was recently
awarded the Orchestra Prize in the final of the
Orchestral Conducting competition in the Feis Ceoil
2024, during which she conducted the RTÉ Concert
Orchestra.
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33

BIOGRAPHIES
JOHN KING
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
AOIFE O’SULLIVAN
RÉPÉTITEUR
ADAM MCDONAGH
STUDIO RÉPÉTITEUR
ANNALISA MONTICELLI
LANGUAGE COACH
John King is a director and writer
based in Dublin. He is director of
Murmuration, with whom he has
made the headphone shows One
Moment Now (Dublin, Washington
D.C., Philadelphia), You’re Still
Here (Dublin Fringe commission, co-presented by
the Abbey Theatre at Dublin Castle), Will I See You
There (Dublin Fringe), and Summertime (Dublin
Fringe, Drogheda Arts Festival, Abbey Young Curators’
Festival). Murmuration is a resident company at the
Project Arts Centre, 2024–2027. His other directing
work includes Emergency, The Cyclone Kid (Bewley’s)
and The Overcoat (Omnibus Theatre, London). John’s
work as playwright includes side-walks, somewhere
in the Future Dark (Solas Nua) and ERIS (Bunker
Theatre, London, 2018; staged reading at the Irish
Rep, New York, 2023; published by Methuen). He
has worked as assistant director on Audrey or Sorrow,
The Quare Fellow (Abbey Theatre), Gounod’s Faust,
Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda (Irish National Opera)
Conversations After Sex (thisispopbaby – New York
and Irish tour), The Children, Queen of Basel, Kings
and If I Forget (Studio Theatre, Washington D.C.).
He was listed among the Irish Times’ 50 People to
Watch in 2021. John is currently a Resident Director
at the Abbey Theatre, a company member of Solas
Nua, and an Associate Artist of THISISPOPBABY. He
holds a MA in ‘Text and Performance’ from RADA and
Birkbeck, and a BA in English from the University of
Cambridge.
Aoife O’Sullivan was born in Dublin
and studied at the Dublin College
of Music with Frank Heneghan
and later at the RIAM with John
O’Conor. She graduated from Trinity
College Dublin with an Honours
degree in Music. In September 1999 she began her
studies as a Fulbright Scholar at the Curtis Institute of
Music and in 2001 joined the staff there for her final
two years. She was awarded the Geoffrey Parsons
Trust Award for accompaniment of singers in 2005.
She has worked on the music staff at Wexford Festival
Opera, on three Handel operas for Opera Theatre
Company (Orlando, Xerxes, and Alcina), and for
Opera Ireland on Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking
and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also
worked at the National Opera Studio in London and
was on the deputy coach list for the Jette Parker
Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House.
She has played for masterclasses including those
given by Malcolm Martineau, Ann Murray, Thomas
Allen, Thomas Hampson, and Anna Moffo. She
worked on Mozart’s Zaide at the Britten Pears Young
Artist Programme and on Britten’s Turn of the Screw
for the Cheltenham Festival with Paul Kildea. She
has appeared at the Wigmore Hall in concerts with
Ann Murray (chamber versions of Mahler and Berg),
Gweneth Ann Jeffers, Wendy Dawn Thompson, and
Sinéad Campbell Wallace. She is now based in Dublin
where she works as a répétiteur and vocal coach at
TU Dublin Conservatoire and also regularly for INO.
Dublin-born Adam McDonagh
is an award-winning pianist, a
Samling Artist, and a graduate of
DIT Conservatory of Music and
Drama (BMus) and Cambridge
University (MPhil). This year, Adam is
undertaking the Master of Music (MMus) in Répétiteur
programme at TU Dublin Conservatoire, with the
support of the inaugural INO Répétiteur Scholarship.
As a member of the INO Studio 2023/24, he has been
involved in the productions of Gounod’s Faust, Puccini’s
La bohème and Richard Strauss’s Salome, and has
accompanied the masterclasses of Dame Ann Murray,
Tara Erraught and Elīna Garanča. Adam has performed
in many festivals and venues throughout Ireland, the UK
and Europe, and his performances have been broadcast
on RTÉ lyric fm. He is a multiple prizewinner at Feis
Ceoil as a piano soloist, accompanist, and countertenor.
Recently, he won First Prize in the Feis Ceoil Orchestral
Conducting competition, where he had the opportunity
to conduct the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in the final. His
awards include the Michael McNamara Gold Medal, the
Anne Leahy Award (DIT Conservatory), and the Robert
Gardiner Memorial Scholarship (Cambridge University).
Adam’s past répétiteur and assistant répétiteur
experience include Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (Glasthule
Opera), Handel’s Susanna (DIT Conservatory), Donizetti’s
L’elisir d’amore (Lismore Opera Festival), Puccini’s Suor
Angelica (Empyrean Ensemble) and Britten’s Owen
Wingrave (Opera Collective Ireland). Other highlights
include reaching the final of the 10e International
Concours de chant-piano Nadia et Lili Boulanger,
performing in the Oxford International Song Festival as a
bursary-awarded Mastercourse participant, and acting
as accompanist in the masterclasses of Patricia Bardon,
Dame Emma Kirkby, Ailish Tynan and Maxim Vengerov.
Annalisa Monticelli is a highly
sought-after musician, having
performed internationally as
a soloist with ensembles and
orchestras. She has studied solo
and collaborative piano, voice,
conducting, chamber music, composition and music
education in Italy, Argentina, and the USA. She
moved to Ireland to work as a collaborative pianist
for the Royal Irish Academy of Music, where she
later became Italian and Vocal Coach. in 2015 she
became Lecturer-Répétiteur at Dundalk Institute
of Technology, where she currently serves as
Programme Director. Annalisa has been working
as an opera coach for almost 20 years and has
worked for opera productions in Europe and North
America, both as répétiteur and diction coach. She
developed a personal approach to diction based
on musical interpretation and language prosody
without overlooking the technical implications of
singing. Since her arrival to Ireland, she has appeared
in all major Irish venues and has released several
CDs. In recent years she performed and taught
masterclasses/workshops in Spain, Italy, Portugal,
England, Scotland, Switzerland, Poland, France,
Malaysia, and the USA. Annalisa is Pianist, Musical
Director and co-arranger for the Chamber Ensemble
Amarcord, currently performing ’The Morricone
Experience’ – a successful production touring across
Ireland in 2024–2025.
34
35

BIOGRAPHIES
MARIO CHANG
TENOR
ALFREDO GERMONT
ANTHONY CLARK EVANS
BARITONE DUBLIN 22, 24 MAY
GIORGIO GERMONT
BRENDAN COLLINS
BARITONE
BARONE DOUPHOL
GRAEME DANBY
BASS
DOTTORE GRENVIL
Named “a born bel canto tenor” by
the New York Times, Guatemalan
tenor Mario Chang’s 2023–24
season sees his return to the
Metropolitan Opera to sing Arcadio
in Mary Zimmerman’s new
production of Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas,
conducted by music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Mr Chang also returns to Palm Beach Opera for his
US debut as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca and
makes his debut with Irish National Opera as Alfredo
in Verdi’s La traviata. Additional appearances include
appearances as Ruggero Lastouc in Puccini’s La
Rondine with Washington Concert Opera. Concert
work includes Verdi’s Requiem with the Tucson
Symphony Orchestra. Operatic highlights include
multiple performances at the Metropolitan Opera
including as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir
d’amore, the Italian Tenor in Richard Strauss’s Der
Rosenkavalier opposite Renée Fleming, Arturo in
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Rodolfo in Puccini’s
La bohème conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and
Ismaele in Verdi’s Nabucco at Los Angeles Opera,
Rodolfo in La bohème and Edgardo in Lucia di
Lammermoor at Santa Fe Opera, and Alfredo in La
traviata with Washington National Opera, Atlanta
Opera, Oper Frankfurt, and North Carolina Opera.
Mr Chang made his house and role debuts as the
title role in Massenet’s Werther with Opéra Orchestre
National Montpellier, his house debut at Norwegian
National Opera as the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and
at Arizona Opera as Rodolfo in La bohème.
Lauded for his “stentorian Verdi style”
by the Chicago Tribune, baritone
Anthony Clark Evans is quickly
gaining recognition as one of the
most promising Verdi baritones of
his generation. The 2023–24 season
includes his debut with the Dresdener Philharmonie as
Riccardo in Bellini’s I puritani opposite Lisette Oropesa
and Lawrence Brownlee, conducted by Riccardo Frizza,
and recorded for release on the Pentatone label. Mr
Evans also makes his house debut with Austin Opera as
Tonio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, and his debut with Irish
National Opera to sing Germont in Verdi’s La traviata.
Mr Evans returns to Opera Philadelphia to sing Sharpless
in Ted Huffman’s production of Puccini’s Madama
Butterfly, and will also cover Sharpless at the Metropolitan
Opera. Concert engagements include Alfio in Mascagni’s
Cavalleria Rusticana with the Saint Louis Symphony
Orchestra conducted by James Gaffigan, and his debut
as the baritone soloist in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana
with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducted by
Krzystof Urbański. Career highlights include the title role
of Verdi’s Rigoletto with Opera Philadelphia, his operatic
European debut as Giorgio Germont in La traviata with
Opéra National de Bordeaux, his San Francisco Opera
debut as Lescaut in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut conducted
by music director Nicola Luisotti, and Sharpless in the
Jun Kaneko production of Madama Butterfly, Zurga in the
Lee Blakeley production of Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles
with Santa Fe Opera, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni
with Tulsa Opera, Tonio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci
with Opera San Jose, his San Diego Opera debut as
Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, his debut in the title role in
Rigoletto with Kentucky Opera, and his debuts with Opera
Theatre of Saint Louis, Dallas Opera, and Querido Arte
in Guatemala as Marcello in Puccini’s La bohème.
Brendan Collins has performed
across Ireland, the UK, Europe,
the Middle East, China, and North
America. Opera engagements
include Irish National Opera,
Glyndebourne Festival Opera,
Scottish Opera, English Touring Opera, Opera Theatre
Company, NI Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, Anna
Livia Opera Festival, Opera Collective Ireland, Cork
Operatic Society and Iford Opera. His repertoire of
nearly 70 roles includes the title role in Puccini’s Gianni
Schicchi, Count Almaviva (Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro),
Marcello (Puccini’s La Boheme), Escamillo (Bizet’s
Carmen), Giorgio Germont (Verdi’s La traviata), Tonio
(Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci), Alfio (Mascagni’s Cavalleria
rusticana), Don Alfonso (Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte),
Paolo Albiani (Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra) and Scarpia
(Puccini’s Tosca). Highlights include performances
at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall under Sir
Andrew Davis, the Brooklyn Academy of Music under
Sir Mark Elder, Kennedy Center Washington DC,
Opéra de Lausanne, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg,
Stefansdom Vienna, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels
and Hong Kong Cultural Centre.
Graeme is one of Britain’s leading
character basses. For the Royal Opera
House, he has sung Puccini’s La fanciulla
del West, Lorin Maazel’s 1984, Thomas
Adès’s The Tempest and Puccini’s Tosca.
He has sung in over 1,000 appearances
with English National Opera including Mozart’s The Marriage
of Figaro, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Britten’s The Rape
of Lucretia, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Verdi’s Falstaff, Gilbert
& Sullivan’s The Mikado, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and
Handel’s Semele. Further UK engagements include Rossini’s
Il barbiere di Siviglia, Opera North/Garsington Festival; Antonio
for Glyndebourne Festival; Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco and Alzira
Buxton Festival; Britten’s Albert Herring and Puccini’s La
Fanciulla del West Opera North, Rossini’s La Cenerentola, and
Puccini’s Tosca, Scottish Opera. International engagements
include: Purcell’s The Fairy Queen Teatro Liceu; Handel’s
Semele, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Britten’s Peter
Grimes, De Vlaamse Opera; Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Opéra
de Rouen; Berg’s Wozzeck and Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito,
Salzburger Landestheater; Param Vir’s Ion, Opera National
du Rhin, Strasbourg; Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
and Alexander Raskatov’s A Dog’s Heart, Teatro alla Scala,
Milan; Maazel’s 1984, Palau Reina Sofia, Valencia; Britten’s
Peter Grimes, Teatro Sao Carlos, Lisbon; Rossini’s Il barbiere
di Siviglia Israeli Opera, and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia,
Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Thomas
Adès’s Powder her Face, Nouvel Opera de Fribourg. For
Irish National Opera, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Rossini’s
Il barbiere di Siviglia; and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. Recent
engagements include: Adès’s Powder her Face in Ljubjiana;
Rossini’s Guillaume Tell Nouvel Opera de Fribourg, and
Weinberg’s Die Passagierin Teatro Real, Madrid. Recordings
include: Berg’s Lulu, Verdi’s A Masked Ball, Mozart’s The
Magic Flute and Strauss’s Salome, Chandos Opera; and
Thomas Adès’s The Tempest for EMI.
36 37

BIOGRAPHIES
BEN ESCORCIO
TENOR
GIUSEPPE
MÁIRE FLAVIN
SOPRANO DUBLIN 22, 24 MAY
VIOLETTA VALÉRY
PATRICK HYLAND
TENOR
GASTONE DE LETORIÈRES
MADELINE JUDGE
MEZZO-SOPRANO
ANNINA
Ben Escorcio is a young tenor based
in Dublin. Since graduating with
a distinction from the Royal Irish
Academy of Music in Dublin, he has
performed both domestically and
abroad in a range of roles. A regular
performer with Irish National Opera and NI Opera,
Ben has worked closely with both companies since
2018, appearing in large scale operas, regional tours,
and studio productions. As a member of Irish National
Opera’s newly established company chorus, Ben has
been a mainstay of the company’s productions over
the past twelve months, and his INO role debut came
last season as the First Waiter in Richard Strauss’s
Der Rosenkavalier. His other roles include Belfiore in
Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, The Grandfather in Judith
Weir’s Scipio’s Dream, Monostatos in Mozart’s Die
Zauberflöte, Ruggero in Puccini’s La rondine and Trout
in Victor Herbert’s The Enchantress. An avid lover of
oratorio and mass singing, he has also sung the solo
roles in Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation and
Mozart’s Requiem.
Dublin-born soprano Máire Flavin
graduated with joint honours
in Psychology and Music from
Queen’s University, Belfast, before
continuing her vocal studies at
Royal Irish Academy of Music,
the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and
the National Opera Studio, London. Her operatic
engagements have included Contessa in Mozart’s
Le nozze di Figaro (Salzburger Landestheater, Irish
National Opera, Opera North); Bianca in the world
premiere of Andrew Synnott’s La Cucina (Wexford
Festival Opera); Mathilde in Rossini’s Guillaume
Tell, Chrysothemis in Richard Strauss’s Elektra
(Irish National Opera); Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don
Giovanni and Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème (Opera
Theatre Company); Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata,
Anna Sørensen in Silent Night by Kevin Puts, Fiordiligi
in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, the title role in Handel’s
Alcina, and Hanna Glawari in Lehár’s The Merry
Widow (Opera North); as well as roles with Lyric
Opera Productions; Welsh National Opera; Scottish
Opera; NI Opera, Théâtre des Champs Elysées;
Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing; and Buxton International
Festival. She has also featured as soloist with the
National Symphony Orchestra; Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra; RTÉ Concert Orchestra; the Orchestra of
Welsh National Opera; and Deutsche Philharmonie,
with conductors including Nathalie Stutzmann, Lothar
Koenig, Jac van Steen, Alan Buribayev, John Wilson,
Rumon Gamba, Jonathan Cohen, Mark Wigglesworth,
and Christoph Poppen.
Award winning Irish tenor Patrick
Hyland is a regular on the concert
and operatic stage. Having studied
in the Royal Irish Academy of Music
under Dr Veronica Dunne he has
received widespread critical acclaim
from leading global opera magazines Opera News,
Opera Today and Opera. He has performed lunchtime
concerts with both the National Symphony Orchestra
and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. He was awarded the
Dermot Troy Prize for the best Irish singer at the 2016
Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition.
He was a member of the Glyndebourne Opera Festival
Company Chorus (2012 & 2013). Operatic roles
include Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore,
Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Erik Oxenstjerna
in Foroni’s Cristina, Regina Di Svezia, Rombiodal in
Offenbach’s L’île de Tulipatan, Rodolphe in Rossini’s
Guillaume Tell, Silvio/Pasquin in Bizet’s Le Docteur
Miracle, El Remendado in Bizet’s Carmen and
Jaquino in Beethoven’s Fidelio.
Madeline Judge is a mezzo-soprano
originally from Waukee, Iowa, USA.
Now based in Dublin, Ireland, she
recently completed her Doctor in
Music Performance degree from
the Royal Irish Academy of Music
and Trinity College Dublin. Currently, she is in her
second year as a member of the INO Studio and
Company Chorus. Previously, Madeline has been
engaged by Irish National Opera as understudy for the
lead role Angelina in Rossini’s La Cenerentola which
starred Tara Erraught in 2019, and was featured as
a soloist with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in its Young
Artist showcase. Most recently, she portrayed the role
of Noble Orphan 2 in INO’s production of Richard
Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and covered the roles
of Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther, Dorabella in
Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Siebel in Gounod’s Faust.
38
39

BIOGRAPHIES
AEBH KELLY
MEZZO-SOPRANO
FLORA BERVOIX
MATTHEW MANNION
BASS
FLORA’S SERVANT
BEN MCATEER
BARITONE
MARCHESE D’OBIGNY
BRETT POLEGATO
BARITONE
GIORGIO GERMONT
Mezzo-soprano Aebh Kelly
was born in Dublin, where she
graduated with first class honours
from the Royal Irish Academy of
Music under Virginia Kerr and
Dearbhla Collins. In 2019, whilst
still an undergraduate, Aebh qualified to compete in
the final round of the Neue Stimmen International
Singing Competition. Aebh joined INO Studio in 2020,
becoming their youngest ever studio artist. Here
she featured in a variety of productions including
20 Shots of Opera and Amanda Feery’s A Thing I
Cannot Name. In 2021, Aebh moved to Florence as a
Mascarade Emerging Artist, where she has performed
numerous roles including extracts from Rossini’s Il
barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola at Teatro La
Fenice in Venice, Popova in Walton’s The Bear at the
Lerici Music Festival, and also made her German
debut as Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at
Theater und Orchester Heidelberg. It was also during
her studies in Italy that Aebh was awarded second
prize at the Veronica Dunne International Singing
Competition as well as the Dublin Song Series Prize
and the Dermot Troy Prize. Aebh made her debut with
the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton
of Jonathan Bloxham at the National Concert Hall as
part of the summer lunchtime concert series 2022.
This summer Aebh will attend the world-renowned
Georg Solti Accademia and also make her debut as
Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Kammeroper
Festival, Berlin, in collaboration with Opera Collective
Ireland. From September 2024 Aebh will be based
in Hamburg as a member of the International Opera
Studio at Staatsoper Hamburg.
Matthew Mannion is a recent MMus
graduate of the Royal Irish Academy
of Music. Most recently he made his
Swiss operatic debut performing the
role of Hunter (Rossini’s Guillaume
Tell) with Nouvel Opéra Fribourg,
and performed as a soloist with the Goethe Choir,
Wexford Festival Singers and Guinness Choir across
Ireland. He also performed in the Serchio delle Muse
Festival with Bruno Caproni, and was a Voice Fellow of
Opernfest Prague. Matthew sang the roles of Hunter
(Guillaume Tell) and Fourth Waiter (Richard Strauss’s
Der Rosenkavalier) with Irish National Opera in their
2022–23 season. Matthew’s other roles include Giove
in Francesco Cavalli’s La Calisto, Guglielmo (Mozart’s
Così fan tutte), Masetto (Mozart’s Don Giovanni),
Melisso (Handel’s Alcina) Uberto (Pergolesi’s La
serva padrona) and Imperial Commissioner (Puccini’s
Madama Butterfly). Matthew has also created the
roles of Owen in The Stalls and Liam in Backstage,
both operas composed by Tom Lane and performed in
Cork Opera House. Matthew will also be performing as
the Bass soloist in C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat under the
baton of Duncan Brickenden in June 2024.
Northern Irish baritone Ben
McAteer’s current highlights
include Pangloss in Bernstein’s
Candide with Marin Alsop in a
new production by Lydia Steier at
Theater an der Wien, and with the
Hamburger Symphoniker and Martin Yates. He made
his Wexford Festival Opera debut in 2022 as Baskir in
David’s Lalla Roukh, and will return to Wexford later
this year. Previously, for Irish National Opera, Ben has
played Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Officer
Two and Blazes in Maxwell-Davies’s The Lighthouse,
Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Father
in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and Schaunard
in their concert performance of Puccini’s La bohème.
Other operatic highlights include Falke and Eisenstein
in Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, and Frank-Fritz in
Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt with the National Symphony
Orchestra. A natural performer of the works of Gilbert
& Sullivan, he recently appeared as Mountararat in
Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe at English National Opera,
and at Scottish Opera as The Grand Inquisitor in The
Gondoliers and King Paramount in Utopia Limited.
Recent concert work includes Haydn’s Creation with
the Ulster Orchestra and Brahms’s German Requiem
with the National Symphony Orchestra. Ben joins the
Royal Scottish National Orchestra for performances
of Orff’s Carmina Burana in Glasgow and Edinburgh
this autumn. Ben has recorded the role of Jesus in
Arthur Sullivan’s oratorio The Light of the World and
Rupert Vernon in his operetta Haddon Hall, both with
the BBC Concert Orchestra. In 2023 he featured
on a new disc of orchestral music by Peter Warlock,
Maltworms & Milkmaids.
One of today’s most sought-after
lyric baritones on the international
stage, Canadian-Italian Brett
Polegato has earned the highest
praise from audiences and critics
for his artistic sensibility: “his is
a serious and seductive voice” says the Globe and
Mail, while the New York Times has praised him for
his “burnished, well-focused voice”, which he uses
with “considerable intelligence and nuance”. His
career has encompassed over fifty operatic roles
at the world’s most prestigious venues including La
Scala Milan, Opéra National de Paris, Glyndebourne
Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand
Opera, Teatro Real, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and
Carnegie Hall. Recent role highlights include Capulet
in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette (MusikTheater an der
Wien), the title role in Mason Bates’s The (R)Evolution
of Steve Jobs (Calgary Opera), Scarpia in Puccini’s
Tosca (Grange Park) and Sharpless in Puccini’s
Madama Butterfly (Bregenz Festival). Equally at ease
on the concert platform, he has appeared with almost
every major orchestra in the USA and Canada and
several in Europe.
40
41

BIOGRAPHIES
DAVID SCOTT
BASS
COMMISSIONER
AMANDA WOODBURY
SOPRANO
VIOLETTA VALÉRY
YONGZHAO YU
TENOR DUBLIN 22, 24 MAY
ALFREDO GERMONT
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA
CHORUS
David Scott completed his
BMus and MMus at TU Dublin
Conservatoire, where he sang the
roles of Jupiter in Offenbach’s
Orpheus and the Underworld,
Second Priest in Mozart’s The
Magic Flute and Joseph Beuys in Andrew Synnott’s
Breakdown. Other roles include Don Inigo Gomez in
Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole (Opera in the Open) and
Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and he created
the role of Leopold Bloom in Eric Sweeney’s Ulysses.
He is a member of Irish National Opera’s company
chorus and sang the role of Doganiere in Puccini’s La
bohème and Lerchenau’s Second Servant in Richard
Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. He also covered the
roles Chou En Lai in John Adams’ Nixon in China and
Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (Wide Open
Opera). In oratorio, he has sung bass solos in Handel’s
Messiah and Israel in Egypt, and Britten’s Rejoice
in the Lamb (Dublin Bach Singers), and baritone
solos of Orff’s Carmina Burana, Fauré’s Requiem and
Durufle’s Requiem (Jubilate Choir).
A native of Crestwood, Kentucky,
soprano Amanda Woodbury
has been praised by the San
Francisco Chronicle as having a
voice that is “bright, beautifully
colored, and full of strength and
passion.” Ms Woodbury’s career highlights include
her return to Los Angeles Opera for her role debut
in the title role of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor,
multiple appearances at the Metropolitan Opera
including Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro,
a role debut as Juliette in a new Bartlett Sher
production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Leïla in
Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs des perles, Woglinde in Robert
Lepage’s productions of Wagner’s Das Rheingold
and Götterdämmerung, and Tebaldo in Verdi’s Don
Carlo. Additional highlights include her debut with
the Glyndebourne Festival as Countess in the Michael
Grandage production of Le nozze di Figaro, and
Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, Musetta in Puccini’s La
bohème, and Papagena in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte
with LA Opera. Ms Woodbury has also been regularly
seen on the stage of LA Opera with roles including
Micaëla in Carmen, Musetta in La bohème, and
Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. Additional operatic
highlights include the role of Violetta in La traviata
with both the Glimmerglass Festival and San Antonio
Opera, Pia in Donizetti’s Pia de’ Tolomei with the
Spoleto festival, the title role in Bellini’s La straniera
with Washington Concert Opera, her role debut as
Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust with Tulsa Opera, and
Konstanze in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail
with Des Moines Metro Opera, Madison Opera, Opera
Omaha, and Dayton Opera.
Yongzhao Yu won the Audience
Choice Award and the Ana María
Martínez Encouragement Award
in Houston Grand Opera’s 2015
Eleanor McCollum Competition
Concert of Arias, and he continues to
make important debuts throughout the United States.
In the 2023–24 season, he will perform in Puccini’s
Madama Butterfly at Houston Grand Opera, return
to New Orleans Opera to perform in Donizetti’s Lucia
di Lammermoor, and continue his relationship with
the Metropolitan Opera, covering Rodolfo in Puccini’s
La bohème. In the 2022–23 season, he made his
Metropolitan Opera debut as Flavio in Norma, and
also joined the Met for their productions of La bohème
and La traviata. He also joined the Berkshire Opera
Festival in La bohème. Additionally, he recently made
his Seattle Opera debut in Verdi’s Rigoletto and made
his Houston Symphony debut in Beethoven’s Choral
Fantasy. In the 2018–19 season, Yu joined The
Metropolitan Opera to cover Alfredo (La traviata) in the
new production by Michael Mayer. In the 2016–17
season he made his Houston Grand Opera stage debut
in the world premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s
It’s a Wonderful Life. He has performed in Bellini’s Norma
for Houston Grand Opera and with the National Center for
the Performing Arts Beijing, Naulz in Lei Lei’s Visitors on
the Icy Mountain with the Shanghai Grand Theater, and
Alfredo (La traviata) in the concert hall of the Shanghai
Oriental Art Center. He has performed in concert in the
Grand Theatre of the Suzhou Culture and Arts Center and
in an Eternal Verdi concert in Shanghai in honour of the
bicentenary of Verdi’s birth. Other awards include first
prize in Opera Concorso. Further performances include
Alfredo in La traviata with Sacramento Philharmonic,
the Aspen Opera Center, and Houston Grand Opera.
The Irish National Opera Chorus is a flexible ensemble
of professional singers that has ranged in number
from four, in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, to 60, in Verdi’s
Aida. The chorus is a valuable training ground for many
emerging singers and has been heard in venues large
and small throughout Ireland as well as internationally.
The membership is mostly drawn from singers based
in Ireland. There is currently a core of 16 singers who
perform in all the company’s large-scale productions.
In 2022 the chorus appeared in Rossini’s William Tell,
one of the most chorally demanding operas, and in
2023 many of the members also featured in solo roles
in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and in Puccini’s
La bohème. Members were also heard in solo roles
in a touring production of Offenbach’s The Tales of
Hoffmann. The chorus has collaborated with TU Dublin
Conservatoire and the Royal Irish Academy of Music,
with senior students offered positions in the chorus,
usually in tandem with specially devised professional
development programmes for emerging singers.
42
43

RTE_STA_A4_120Gen.pdf 1 28/07/2020 14:52
REMEMBERING HENRY COX
It is with sadness that we share the news of the passing of Henry Cox, one of
our cherished INO Members. Many of you may remember Henry from various
INO events or will have seen him sitting in the front row of the auditorium,
directly behind the conductor, wearing his signature beaming smile.
Henry was not only known for his humour, kindness and generosity, but also
for his enthusiastic support of our young artists in the Studio programme.
After moving to Ireland with his husband Michael to retire, they reached
out and quickly became vital parts of our community. Henry’s passion and
advocacy for our work was inspiring and his absence will be deeply felt.
Photo: L-R Michael Kunkel,
Fergus Sheil, Henry Cox.
RTÉ supports more than
120 arts events nationwide
every year.
02
03

FERGUS SHEIL AND
INO STUDIO CONDUCTOR,
MEDB BRERETON-HURLEY
CONDUCT THE IRISH NATIONAL
OPERA ORCHESTRA.
IRISH NATIONAL
OPERA STUDIO
DEIRDRE HIGGINS SOPRANO
MEGAN O’NEILL SOPRANO
MADELINE JUDGE MEZZO-SOPRANO
WILLIAM PEARSON TENOR
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
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
47

Verdi
WIN 2 FREE TICKETS
Fill in an INO audience survey and
be in with a chance to win two tickets
to the opening night of Rigoletto in
Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.
1–7
DECEMBER
2024
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
49

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.
50
47 51

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.
Following her success with Rupture, part
of INO’s 20 Shots of Operas, composer
Éna Brennan (INO Studio member
from 2021-2023), was approached by
Bregenzer Festspiele to collaborate on a
new work with librettist David Pountney
and visual artist Hugo Canoilas, titled
Hold Your Breath which will premiere this
Summer at Bregenz festival. Brennan
created a companion piece with INO,
an intense 15 minute immersive
experience, Breathwork, the intimate
and condensed work is also drawn from
Pountney’s libretto, and premiered at
Dublin Theatre Festival in 2023.
Image: Cast in INO’s production of Brennan’s
Breathwork. Photo: Pat Redmond.
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53

INO TEAM
Pauline Ashwood
Head of Planning
James Bingham
Studio & Outreach Producer
Janaina Caldeira
Bookkeeper
Sorcha Carroll
Communications Manager
Aoife Daly
Development Manager
Diego Fasciati
Executive Director
Lea Försterling
Digital Communications
Executive
Ciarán Gallagher
Marketing Executive
Sarah Halpin
Digital Producer
Cate Kelliher
Business & Finance Manager
Audrey Keogan
Development Executive
Anne Kyle
Stage Manager
Patricia Malpas
Studio & Outreach Executive
Gavin O’Sullivan
Head of Production
Muireann Sheahan
Orchestra & Chorus Manager
Fergus Sheil
Artistic Director
David Smith
Accountant part time
Paula Tierney
Company Stage Manager
RJ Walters-Dorchak
Artistic Administrator
Board of Directors
Jennifer Caldwell Chair
Tara Erraught
Gerard Howlin
Dennis Jennings
Suzanne Nance
Ann Nolan
Davina Saint
Bruce Stanley
Jonathan Friend
Artistic Advisor
Elaine Kelly
Resident Conductor
Irish National Opera
69 Dame Street
Dublin 2 | Ireland
T: 01–679 4962
E: info@irishnationalopera.ie
irishnationalopera.ie
@irishnationalopera
@irishnatopera
@irishnationalopera
Company Reg No.: 601853
Registered Charity: 22403
(RCN) 20204547
54

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