Orfeo ed Euridice by irishnationalopera

Irish National Opera in association with Galway International Arts Festival a co–production with United Fall in partnership with Irish Baroque Orchestra present

Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck Azione teatrale in three acts Libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi After the Greek myth of Orpheus

Sung in Italian with English Surtitles Reduced orchestration of Orfeo ed Euridice provided by Pocket Publications, UK.

23–29 July, 2018 Town Hall Theatre Galway International Arts Festival

IRISH TOUR FEBRUARY – MARCH 2019

Orfeo ed Euridice

First performance Vienna, Burgtheater, 5 October 1762 [in Italian]  First performance, Paris, Salle du Palais–Royal, 2 August 1774 [in French]  First performance in Ireland, Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 3 January 1784

Synopsis

Irish National Opera

Act I

Act III

Orfeo, a poet and musician who can enchant wild beasts and move trees and rocks through his music, is mourning the death of his wife Euridice, who died from a snake bite. It’s as much as Orfeo can manage to utter her name as a group of mourners lament her passing. He wants to be alone with his sorrow. Orfeo resolves to claim his departed wife back from the gods. Amor, the God of Love, appears and offers support, explaining that one of the Gods, Jove, has taken pity on Orfeo. He will be allowed into the underworld and if he can appease the “furies, monsters and cruel death” with the power of his singing. There he will meet Euridice and be permitted to bring her back to the upper world. The catch is that they must make this journey without Orfeo looking at her and without explaining the prohibition that has been imposed on him. Otherwise he will lose her again. His blood freezes at the thought of her impatience and his own anguish. But he accepts the challenge.

Orfeo leads Euridice as he grapples with explanations for questions he cannot fully answer without breaching his bargain. The more he hears the less he can resist, as she longs for “but one single look”. They both endure extended, incomprehensible torture until he finally yields. He looks at her and loses her again and forever. The horror of this drives him to despair and sparks the opera’s most celebrated aria, Che farò senza Euridice? [What shall I do without Euridice?], as he contemplates life without the wife has lost twice over.

Act II A forbidding netherworld closes in around Orfeo who plays his lyre whilst the Furies mill around him, frightening him and interrupting his music. A chorus of furies and spectres threaten and obstruct Orfeo as he begins his journey. The sound of his lyre, represented by the harp, and the calm of his voice contrast with the violence of the music which challenges him. The furies take pity on him and eventually allow him to pass. Orfeo finds himself in the Elysian Fields, a paradies where he believes everyone is in peace except himself, bereft of his beloved Euridice. The chorus announces her arrival and lead Orfeo to her. Without Orfeo ever looking back they finally connect with each other once again.

Gluck’s opera follows the operatic convention of the day by adding a happy ending where the lovers are reunited in life. Tonight’s production takes its inspiration from the original Greek myth which has a more powerful tragic conclusion. A final joyful celebration of the power of love is offered as a postscript.

Irish National Opera is Ireland’s newest opera company. It champions Irish creativity in its casting, its choice of creative teams and in its commitment to the presentation of new operas. It was formed in January 2018 through the merger of two award–winning companies, Opera Theatre Company and Wide Open Opera. Between them the two companies had taken their work to over 160 venues throughout Ireland and they also brought their productions to the UK [including the Edinburgh International Festival], France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, the Czech Republic and the USA. Their work ranged from large–scale operas to tours that could be accommodated in a village hall, and they covered the repertoire from Monteverdi to Wagner and on to the composers of today. The two companies joined forces in 2017 in response to an Arts Council initiative to fund home–produced full– scale opera productions. Their successful joint bid not only met the Arts Council’s criteria but also, for the first time, delivered a truly national company for Ireland. INO will service the needs of audiences in the country’s larger theatres in Dublin, Cork and Wexford and also take its touring productions the length and breadth of the land. The company’s first annual schedule ran to 39 performances of eight different productions in 13 different venues around Ireland as well as an appearance in London. Its long–term target is to visit over 20 Irish venues annually. INO’s committment to taking Irish work abroad will see its FEDORA–Generali Prize winning production of Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s The Second Violinist, a co–production with Landmark Productions that was premiered at last year’s Galway International Arts Festival, take to the stage at the Barbican Theatre in London in September. The Second Violinist will also feature in the Opera Forward Festival in Amsterdam in March 2019. INO’s productions have been broadcast on RTÉ lyric fm. Its production of The Second Violinist is webstreamed on www.operavision.net. And its street–art opera, Drive By Shooting by Brian Irvine and John McIlduff [a co– production with Dumbworld], is screening at Operadagen Festival in Rotterdam, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Dublin Fringe Festival in 2018. The INO Opera Studio, providing a platform for emerging opera artists in several disciplines, comes onstream in September. Further developments will include an outreach programme involving initiatives to reach and engage with new audiences.

INO Team Artistic Director | Fergus Sheil Executive Director | Diego Fasciati Head of Production | Gavin O’Sullivan Head of Corporate Communications & Development | Sarah Freeman Marketing Manager | Sorcha Carroll Office & Finance Manager | Cate Kelliher Digital Communications Manager | Sarah Halpin Artistic Administrator | Muireann Ní Dhubhghaill Board of Directors Gaby Smyth [Chair] Jennifer Caldwell Stella Litchfield Sara Moorhead Joseph Murphy Ann Nolan Yvonne Shields Michael Wall Company Reg No.: 601853 69 Dame Street | Dublin 2 | Ireland T: +353 [0]1 679 4962 E: info@irishnationalopera.ie irishnationalopera.ie

Galway International Arts Festival Galway International Arts Festival is a major cultural organization, which produces one of Europe’s leading international arts festivals; develops and produces new work that tours nationally and internationally; and presents a major discussion platform, First Thought Talks. The Festival takes place each July in Galway, Ireland with an annual attendance of 210,000. The Festival tours its own productions and exhibitions nationally and internationally, and with its co–producing partners has recently toured to London, New York, Edinburgh, Chicago, Adelaide, Sydney, Hong Kong and Washington. Recent work includes Woyzeck in Winter by Conall Morrison [a co– production with Landmark Productions] which premiered in Galway in July 2017 and played the Barbican, London and Dublin Theatre Festival; Arlington, [a co–production with Landmark Productions] which played Galway, Dublin and New York and Bathroom [GIAF production] both written and directed by Enda Walsh. Grief is a Thing with Feathers by Max Porter adapted and directed by Enda Walsh and starring Cillian Murphy, produced by Complicité and Wayward Productions in association with Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival, premiered in Galway in March 2018. Enda Walsh’s Office 33A and a new production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, an Irish National Opera, GIAF and United Fall co–production, both premiere at GIAF 2018. Other notable productions include Ballyturk [co–produced with Landmark Productions], starring Cillian Murphy, Stephen Rea and Mikel Murfi, which won Best Production at the Irish Theatre Awards 2014 and played Galway, Dublin and London; Misterman [co–produced with Landmark Productions] also by Enda Walsh starring Cillian Murphy played Galway, New York and London. The Festival’s productions of Enda Walsh’s Room 303, A Girl’s Bedroom and Kitchen under the collective title of Rooms toured to New York in 2017. Bathroom, the fourth in this series premiered at GIAF 2017. Arlington and a new production of Ballyturk starring Mikel Murfi, Tadgh Murphy and Olwen Fouéré, were the opening productions of the first season of the new directors of Ireland’s National Theatre, the Abbey, in Spring 2017. Ballyturk toured to St. Ann’s Warehouse in New York in January 2018. TheEmergencyRoom and Galway International Arts Festival’s production of riverrun, in association with Cusack Projects Ltd., by Olwen Fouéré, played Galway, London, Edinburgh, New York, Adelaide, Sydney and Washington. The same team produced Lessness by Samuel Beckett, also starring Olwen Fouéré, which premiered at the Barbican’s International Beckett Season, London in 2015. Chief Executive, John Crumlish | Artistic Director, Paul Fahy | Financial Controller, Gerry Cleary | Communications & Development Manager, Hilary Martyn | Festival Administrator, Elizabeth Duffy www.giaf.ie

United Fall United Fall is led by Irish dance– and theatre– maker Emma Martin, and the company is known for that is ambitious and multidisciplinary and also of a highly visual and atmospheric nature. Emma began creating shows in 2010, following a sabbatical as a ballet dancer during which she obtained a degree in Drama and Theatre Studies and Russian from Trinity College, Dublin. From 2010 to 2014 she made work as Emma Martin Dance.

In 2015 she formed United Fall, under which she continues to collaborate with artists from dance, music, theatre, photography and design on an artistic path that is not limited to dance, but which moves freely between all of these forms in order to serve the ideas and realisation thereof. United Fall is company in residence at Visual Centre for Contemporary Art, an associate artist of Dance Ireland and receives strategic funding from the Arts Council.

Artistic Director | Emma Martin Producer | Pádraig Heneghan For more information see www.unitedfall.com

Irish Baroque Orchestra Irish Baroque Orchestra is one of Ireland’s most dynamic and versatile ensembles. IBO draws on the artistry and vibrancy of each member to perform music from the 17th and 18th centuries to the highest standards. Our annual concert season embraces a wide variety of genres to bring the sublime beauty of baroque music into a contemporary context. IBO has received great critical acclaim for its tours and recordings. In 2010, Flights of Fantasy was heralded as one of The New Yorker magazine’s classical discs of the Year. In 2016, BBC Music Magazine reviewed Concerti Bizarri as ‘…virtuosic razzle–dazzle…deliciously alert, spirited, and free from affectation, its clarity is beautifully matched by the recording’. In 2018, acclaimed Irish director and harpsichordist, Peter Whelan, began his tenure as artistic director. Peter’s research into the golden age of 18th–century Irish music and musicians will be a key strand of IBO’s artistic mission in the coming years. Later this year, Irish Baroque Orchestra will record a disc of music by Matthew Dubourg for release on Linn Records in 2019.

Irish Baroque Orchestra Violin 1, Kinga Ujszaszi [leader]; Violin 2, Anita Vedres; Viola, Cian Ó Dúill; Cello, Aoife Nic Athlaoich; Double bass, Malachy Robinson; Flute, Miriam Kaczor; Oboe/Cor anglais, Leo Duarte, Harp, Maria Cleary For more information visit irishbaroqueorchestra.com

CEO | Cian Elliott Artistic director | Peter Whelan Orchestra manager | Vicky Schilling Patron | Michael D. Higgins, Uachtarán na hÉireann/President of Ireland 7

Director’s note Myths and dreams are from the same source. They come from within ourselves. Heaven, hell and all the Gods are there too. They manifest themselves in dreams and through the conflicting energies in our bodies. I absolutely love the story of Orpheus and Euridice. It is the story of humanity and of the things that keep us going: love and wonder. It’s about loss and the relentless march of time. Time is sorrow. We lose it moment by moment, and are bound because of our inability to go back or reverse it. The Orfeo of the opera, like Jesus or Moses, is a prophet who goes where people rarely dare to venture. He descends into the dark unknown, into himself. To me Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice is like an epic poem. It’s a sort of spiritual journey through the realms of the Gods, trailing a thin bright line into hell. Into the abyss. Into the sublime. Although Orfeo

Christoph Willibald Gluck | composer is able to talk with the gods, in this story he’s just a man alone, naked and vulnerable, on a journey to meet face to face with death and truth. Just like all of us. Euridice in death is complete — the state of death is a life of its own. She is already root and time and space, inhabiting a deeper state than Orfeo. She lies hidden in an excess of light and bliss where dualities are non–existent, where there is no separation between male or female, or between good or evil. Orfeo’s glance towards Euridice was inevitable, the last hurdle before his journey is complete. The veil between the known and unknown has become transparent, allowing a view of life from the side of death. Emma Martin Director and Choreographer

One of the greatest Greek myths is that of the musician Orpheus. He braved the terrors of the underworld to rescue his dead wife Euridice, and lost her again when he broke his bargain not to look at her until they were back on earth. Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice powerfully pares the story back to its essentials in one of the most influential operas of the 18th century.

Peter Whelan | conductor Dubliner Peter Whelan is among the most exciting and versatile exponents of historical performance of his generation, with a remarkable career as a conductor, keyboardist and solo bassoonist. In January he became artistic director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra with which he will tour to the US in 2019. He is also founding artistic director of Ensemble Marsyas with which he has performed at the Edinburgh International Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Bath Festival, Wigmore Hall, Lammermuir Festival, Göttingen Handel Festival, Tetbury Festival and Great Music in Irish Houses. The ensemble’s 2017 disc of Barsanti was named Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine and Recording of the Year by MusicWeb International, and reached second place in the Official UK Specialist

Emma Martin | director & choreographer Classical Chart. He has a particular passion for championing neglected music from the baroque era. Recent projects involved recreating and staging live performances of choral and symphonic music from eighteenth– century Dublin and Edinburgh. This led to his award–winning disc Edinburgh 1742 for Linn Records and his 2017 reconstruction of the Irish State Musick in its original venue, Dublin Castle. He is an artistic partner of Irish National Opera and conducted Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro for INO in April. In the autumn he will make his debut with English Touring Opera.

Emma Martin is choreographer and director based in Co. Carlow. She was born in Dublin and studied at the John Cranko Ballet School in Stuttgart. She is the founder and artistic director of the dance theatre company United Fall, which is company in residence at Visual Centre for Contemporary Art. Her previous productions include Girl Song [Dublin Theatre Festival 2017], Dancehall [Dublin Theatre Festival 2015], Tundra [Dublin Dance Festival 2014], Dogs [Dublin Fringe Festival 2012, which won the prize for Best Production and Best overall Design award], and Listowel Syndrome [Dublin Fringe Festival 2010]. Her work has been commissioned by Dublin Dance Festival, Irish Arts Center and has been co–produced by Dublin Theatre Festival, Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival and

Centre de Développement Chorégraphique, Toulouse. In 2014 she was named as Tanz Magazin’s Hoffnungstraeger [bearer of hope]. She was a Modul Dance artist in 2013–14, and in 2017 became a NXTSTP artist — both projects are culture programs of the European Union. Since 2011 she has been an associate artist of Dance Ireland. Her most recent theatre collaborations include Danse, Morob [TheEmergencyRoom] and Arlington [Landmark Productions/Galway International Arts Festival/ Abbey Theatre/St Ann’s Warehouse]. Orfeo ed Euridice is her debut as an opera director.

Sabine Dargent | set designer Sabine has won two Irish Times Best Set–Design Awards and been nominated for two others. She is a freelance set and costumes designer, working mostly in theatre, dance with a range of directors and companies. She works often with Mikel Murfi and her collaborators also include Michael Keegan–Dolan, Conall Morrison, Enda Walsh, Jim Culleton, Paul McEnaney and Selina Cartmell. Her work has featured in a number of long–running projects, including Swan Lake, Walworth Farce, Rian and Pride of Parnell. She loves theatre and dance, physical theatre, but has also designed for exhibitions, films, big events, such as GAA 2016 celebration in Croke Park, and street theatre, such the sections City Fusion and Brighter in Dublin’s St Patrick’s Festival Parade, where her remit covered the visual impact of costumes, floats, props and makeup for about 200 participants.

Catherine Fay | costume design Catherine will be designing The Return of Ulysses for Opera Collective Ireland at Kilkenny Arts Festival in August. Her more recent work is Girlsong [United Fall], 12 Minute Dances [Liz Roche Dance Company], Totems [Liz Roche Dance Company], Britten’s Owen Wingrave [Opera Collective Ireland & Opera Bastille, Paris], and Handel’s Acis and Galatea [Opera Theatre Company]. Her work with the Abbey Theatre includes The Plough and the Stars [Irish Times Theatre Award nomination 2017], Oedipus, Bastard Amber [a joint production with Liz Roche Dance Company], Our Few and Evil Days, [Irish Times Theatre Award nomination 2015], Aristocrats, Quietly, The Government Inspector, Macbeth, The Playboy of the Western World, Saved, Doubt, Doldrum Bay, Henry IV Part I [Irish Times/ESB Theatre Award nomination 2007], On Such As We and Chair [Operating Theatre]. Other work includes Neither Either, Body and Forgetting and Fast Portraits [Liz Roche Company]. Romeo and Juliet [Gate Theatre] [Irish Times Theatre Award nomination 2016], The Threepenny Opera [Gate Theatre]. Breaking Dad [Landmark Productions] [Irish Times Theatre Award nomination 2015], Tundra [Emma Martin Dance], Dogs [Emma Martin Dance] [Winner Best

Production and Best Design for ABSOLUT Fringe Festival 2012].

Stephen Dodd | lighting designer Lighting designer Stephen Dodd trained at The Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College, and is based in Dublin. His recent lighting designs include Wrongheaded [for Liz Roche Company, Dublin Dance Festival 2018]; Girl Song and Dancehall [for United Fall/Emma Martin, Dublin Theatre Festival 2017 and 2015]; Hamnet [for Dead Centre, The Peacock Theatre 2017]; Chekhov’s First Play [Dublin Theatre Festival 2015]; LIPPY [The Young Vic 2015]; and The Circus Animal’s Desertion [for Brokentalkers, Dublin Theatre Festival 2016].

Emmanuel Obeya | assistant director Mani Obeya is a Nigerian–born, British–raised dancer, singer/songwriter and choreographer. He trained at Arts Educational School, Ballet Rambert and Dance Theatre of Harlem before becoming a soloist at Theater der Stadt Heidelberg, Nationaltheater Mannheim and Unterwegs Theater Heidelberg. He spent four years working with Tanztheater Wien under the direction of Liz King with guest choreographers including Catherine Guerin, Nigel Charnock and Simon Frearson. He then became a soloist at the Volksoper Wien where he danced and co– choreographed until 2003. He later was a guest performer with The Forsythe Company. As a member of Michael Keegan–Dolan`s Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre he performed worldwide for over a decade before Michael disbanded the company and reformed it as Teac Damsa. He has been Michael’s assistant and rehearsal director for several years and is currently on a worldwide tour of the multi–award winning work Swan Lake/Loch nHeala. Since 2004 he has been the singer and songwriter with the Viennese electronic/rock band Sofa Surfers with whom he has won two Austrian Music Awards. He works internationally on youth programmes including projects with young people living in slum areas of Nairobi, Kenya, and creating work with asylum seekers recently arriving in Austria.

Sharon Carty | mezzo–soprano | Orfeo Mezzo–soprano Sharon Carty is an alumna of the RIAM, Dublin, University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, and the Oper Frankfurt Young Artists programme. Her opera repertoire includes Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Piacere in Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, the title role in Handel’s Ariodante, and Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. She recently created the role of Amy in the world premiere of Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s FEDORA–Generali prize–winning opera The Second Violinist. She is in demand on the concert platform across Europe. Her concert and extensive oratorio repertoire includes most of the major works by Mozart, Bach, Handel, Elgar, Mendelssohn and Duruflé, and she is also a dedicated recitalist. Upcoming highlights include London and Amsterdam opera debuts in The Second Violinist, her Wexford Festival Opera debut as Lucy Talbot in the European première of William Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight in October, and Vivaldi and Handel arias with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. Recordings include Gilbert & Cellier’s comic opera The Mountebanks with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and La traviata on DVD alongside Thomas Hampson and Marina Rebeka with the NDR Radiophilhamonie. A disc of Schubert songs is planned for 2019.

Sarah Power | soprano | Euridice Bray soprano Sarah Power is a former Scottish Opera Emerging Artist. She is a graduate of the DIT Conservatory, Dublin, and the Guildhall and National Opera Studio in London. Awards include second prize in the Kathleen Ferrier Competition at the Wigmore Hall, London, the €10,000 RDS Music Bursary and the London Bach Singers Prize. Recent performances include Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas for Scottish Opera, the title role in Gregory de la Haba and Terence Browne’s Hazel: Made in Belfast at Carnegie Hall, New York, Handel’s Messiah with the Irish Baroque Orchestra and Mary in Brian Irvine and Neil Martin’s Mary Gordon at the National Concert Hall, Dublin. Sarah has appeared with Welsh

National Opera, Wexford Festival Opera and Buxton Festival and made her debut for Scottish Opera in the title role of Handel’s Rodelinda. She has performed for world–renowned tenor Plácido Domingo and has also given recitals at venues including the National Concert Hall, Dublin, St Martin–in–the–Fields, London, and Haus der Musik, Vienna. Future engagements include Allan Dunn’s The Opera Factory and Puccini’s Edgar for Scottish Opera, recitals in Vienna and Carinthia as part of the Via Iulia Augusta concert series, and oratorio performances with The Really Big Chorus, Harrogate Choral Society and Leeds Philharmonic Chorus.

Emma Nash | soprano | Amore Cork soprano Emma Nash graduated with distinction from the MA in Opera Performance course at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she won numerous scholarships and prizes. She was last year’s winner of the PWC/Wexford Festival Opera Emerging Young Artist bursary and the UCH Limerick Rising Star 2018 award. She recently played herself in Backstage, a prequel to the Irish Times Theatre Award–nominated Front of House by Tom Lane at the Cork Opera House, and future work includes a return to Wexford Festival Opera’s ShortWorks in October and the role of Yum–Yum in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado at Cork Opera House in September. Last year she created the role of Polly in Andrew Synnott’s Dubliners, an Opera Theatre Company/Wexford Festival Opera co– production, and sang the role of Handmaiden in Cherubini’s Medea, also at Wexford. In May she made her debut with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra singing live on RTÉ lyric fm’s Classic Drive. Other notable roles include Valencienne in Lehár’s The Merry Widow [Cork Opera House], Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel [Wexford Festival Opera ShortWorks], Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto [Opera Theatre Company], Lucia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia [Opera Collective Ireland], and Janthe in Marschner’s Der Vampyr [The Everyman/Cork Operatic Society].

Irish National Opera in association with Galway International Arts Festival a co–production with United Fall in partnership with Irish Baroque Orchestra present

Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck CREATIVE TEAM Conductor Peter Whelan Director & Choreographer Emma Martin Set Designer Sabine Dargent Costume Designer Catherine Fay Lighting Designer Stephen Dodd Assistant Director Emmanuel Obeya

CAST Orfeo Sharon Carty Euridice Sarah Power Amore/Chorus Soprano Emma Nash CHORUS Chorus/Orfeo cover Dominica Williams Chorus Fearghal Curtis Matthew Mannion DANCERS Dancers Robyn Byrne Stephanie Dufresne Javier Ferrer Sophia Preidel PRODUCTION Production Manager Michael Lonergan Company Stage Manager Paula Tierney Stage Manager Conleth Stanley Master Carpenter Peter Boyle Chief Electrician Sebastian Pizarro Costume Supervisor Beatrise Leikuča Costume Assistant Francis White Hair & Make–up Carole Dunne Surtitle Operator Maeve Sheil Promotional Graphic Design Alphabet Soup Rehearsal Photographs Jeda de Brí Ste Murray Production Photographs Pat Redmond Rehearsal Video Gansee Films Set Construction Gavin Morgan Programme Graphic Design Hilda Reid

Dominica Williams | mezzo–soprano Dominica is a mezzo–soprano from Dublin. At the beginning of this year, she sang the mezzo role in Opera — it’s all about like… by Brian Irvine at the launch of Irish National Opera, and she was Second Bridesmaid in Irish National Opera’s production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. As a Young Artist with Northern Ireland Opera [2016/2017], she sang the role of Dorabella in an abridged touring production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. She previously covered the role of Second Secretary in John Adams’s Nixon in China for Wide Open Opera. She sang Second Maiden in Puccini’s Turandot with NI Opera. Dominica frequently sings in opera choruses, working with companies such as Opera Holland Park, Irish National Opera & Northern Ireland Opera. She has a passion for contemporary music, and she was thrilled to be asked to perform four new works for mezzo–soprano, flute, viola, and harpsichord with members of Kirkos Ensemble for the Irish Composers’ Collective in November 2016. She sang in a masterclass with baritone Simon Keenlyside as part of the New Music Dublin festival in the National Concert Hall in March 2017 and she is currently covering the role of Amy in Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s new opera The Second Violinist, which has already enjoyed successful runs in Galway and Dublin, and travels to the Barbican, London, this September. As an oratorio and concert soloist, Dominica has sung with the Ulster Orchestra, East Cork Choral Society, Dun Laoghaire Choral Society, Dublin County Choir, University of Dublin Choral Society and AIB Choral Society.

Fearghal Curtis | tenor Fearghal is from Dublin and is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin. Most recently he sang the role of Stephen Dedalus in Eric Sweeney’s Ulysses [Bloomsday Festival] and the role of Taoiseach in the first modern performance of Robert O’Dwyer’s Eithne [Opera Theatre Company]. He was a member of the chorus in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro [Irish National Opera], and in the award–winning production of Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s The Second Violinist [Wide Open Opera/Landmark Productions].

Other opera highlights include Handel’s Acis and Galatea [OTC], Box in Sullivan’s Cox and Box and the title role in Rameau’s Pygmalion [Opera in the Open], Prologue/Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Orpheus/Mercury in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld [DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama] and Apollo/Spirit/Pastore/ Ensemble in Monteverdi’s Orfeo [OTC, while he was an Associate Young Artist with the company]. He also recently toured around Germany as lead classical tenor of The World of Musicals tour with GFD Promotions.

Matthew Mannion | baritone Matthew Mannion is a third–year undergraduate in the Royal Irish Academy of Music where he studies with Owen Gilhooly and Dearbhla Collins. He recently created the role of Liam in Tom Lane’s BackStage [Cork Midsummer Festival] and sang the title role in the Irish premiere of Judith Weir’s Scipio’s Dream [Royal Irish Academy of Music]. Other roles include Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte [Flat Pack Music], Marchese in Verdi’s La traviata and Morales in Bizet’s Carmen [Lyric Opera], the Imperial Commissioner in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly [Lyric Opera/Bowdon Opera Festival], Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni [Opera Britain], Bartolo in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro [DIT], and Second Elder in Handel’s Susanna [DIT/ Yorke Trust]. As a soloist he has sung in Handel’s Messiah [Blackburn Music Society], Mozart’s Requiem [University of Dublin Choral Society, Wexford Festival Singers, Carlow Choral Society], Beethoven’s Mass in C [Carlow Choral Society], and Jesus in Bach’s St John Passion [Liverpool Baroque Orchestra]. As a member of the chorus Matthew has worked with Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, Opera Theatre Company, and Wide Open Opera.

Robyn Byrne | dancer Robyn is a contemporary dancer based in Ireland. She started her dance journey at the Shawbrook School of Dance in Co. Longford and then went to England to train at the Northern School Of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. She obtained her degree and in 2015 went on to complete a

postgraduate diploma with touring company Verve. During this time she worked with Theo Clinkard, Kerry Nichols and Luca Silvestrini of Protein Dance and toured their works throughout the UK and Europe. Since graduating she has worked closely with Jamaal Burkmar Dance [Extended Play] performing at Dance UK’s conference and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Award showcase. She has also worked with Plan B [Scotland] and has been involved in other collaborative projects such as Sounds From a Safe Harbour Festival [Cork] and Fidget Feet Aerial Dance [Limerick]. This is her first time working with Emma Martin/United Fall and her first opera production.

Stephanie Dufresne | dancer Stephanie Dufresne is a dancer, actress and singer from the West of Ireland currently based in Dublin. In 2012 she graduated from the Rotterdam Dance Academy in the Netherlands with a BA in Dance. Since then she has worked in Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK with choreographers and companies including Protein Dance, Icon Dance, Chrysalis Dance, Dam Van Huynh, Nuno Silva, Marguerite Donlon, Emma Martin and Liz Roche. She is a graduate of the two–year, full– time programme in Bow Street, the Academy for Screen Acting in Dublin. She has appeared in numerous music videos and films with directors including Brendan Canty, Shimmy Marcus and Jim Sheridan. Last Christmas she was the lead in Selina Cartmell’s version of The Red Shoes for the Gate Theatre, Dublin. Last month she was a movement director and performer for Peter Power’s show In Clouds for the Cork Midsummer Festival, and in August she will perform Emma Martin’s Girl Song at Noorderzon in Groningen. Her own choreographic work has been commissioned by the Clonmel Junction Festival, and performed as part of Galway Culture Night. Stephanie’s work is supported by Dance House and the Arts Council and she is a recipient of a 2018 artists’ bursary.

Javier Ferrer | dancer Javier began his physical training starting in martial arts through which he became interested

in how his body responds to movement in space. He began his professional career in Madrid, in the Mariemma Royal Professional Dance Conservatory, where he danced in the choreographic projects of the conservatory in parallel with his dance studies. Also in Madrid he joined the cast of companies such as 10y10 Danza, with the choreographer Mónica Runde, and Provisional Danza, under the direction of the choreographer Carmen Werner, with whom he carried out numerous projects over six years with national and international tours. He then trained as an interpreter, working for two years in the Canary Islands in the pedagogical and choreographic project of the company Tenerife Danza Lab, directed by Helena Berthelius. He taught dance workshops to various social groups and continued his career as a dancer with different projects with the companies Factoría L’explose in Bogotá, The White Horses in Berlin, with Faizal Zeghoudi in Paris, Anderplatz Dance Collective in Berlin, with the choreographer Sharmini Tharmaratnam in Madrid. He has choreographed numerous projects, always focusing on improvisation as a starting point and means of development. He is currently part of two dance collectives in the city of Berlin, where he works with a wide range of dancers, musicians and video artists.

Sophia Preidel | dancer Sophia was born in Germany where she competed as a gymnast before starting her dance training at the Iwanson School for Contemporary Dance in Munich at the age of 19. She moved to London after graduating in 2009. In the UK she has worked with companies such as Gwyn Emberton, Fleur Darkin Company, Vex Dance Theatre, Recoil Performance Group from Denmark, Pair Dance, and ACE dance and music [with choreographers José Agudo and Vincent Mantsoe]. She worked on a research period with choreographer Emma Martin [United Fall] in 2015. She assisted and danced for choreographers Amir Hosseinpour and Jonathan Lunn in several dance and opera productions [Royal Opera House, London, Welsh National Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Salzburg Festival and Vlaamse Opera]. At the moment she is working with the Geneva–based company Alias.

Thanks to all at Dance House, Laura McNaughton and the team at the O’Reilly Theatre, Fergal McGrath, Pete Ashton Town Hall Theatre Galway, Kieran Cooney CueOne Ireland, and the Incantata company, Norbert & Margaret Bannon, Mark & Nicola Beddy, Mary Brennan, Angie Brown, Jennifer Caldwell, Audrey Conlon, Gerardine Connolly, Jackie Connolly, Sarah Daniel, Maureen de Forge, Michael Duggan, Catherine & William Earley, Jim & Moira Flavin, Ian & Jean Flitcroft, Maire & Maurice Foley, Roy & Aisling Foster, 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, Landmark Productions, 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, Jean Moorhead, Sara Moorhead, Ann Nolan & Paul Burns, F.X. & Pat O’Brien, James & Sylvia O’Connor, John & Viola O’Connor, J R O’Donnell, Diarmuid O’Dwyer, Patricia O’Hara, Annmaree O’Keeffe & Chris Greene, Margaret Quigley, Patricia Reilly, Catherine Santoro, Dermot & Sue Scott, Fergus Sheil Sr., Yvonne Shields, Gaby Smyth, Matthew Patrick Smyth, Bruce Stanley, The Wagner Society of Ireland, Brian Walsh & Barry Doocey.

Irish National Opera

‘Exhilarating … a study in heartbreak’

Image © Patrick Redmond

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AIDA

Landmark Productions and Irish National Opera

The Second Violinist

24, 27, 29 NOVEMBER & 1 DECEMBER 2018 BORD GÁIS ENERGY THEATRE DUBLIN

6–8 Sep

Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s modern opera unfolds like an unnerving thriller.

TICKETS: €15/36/51/66/86 BORDGAISENERGYTHEATRE.IE 0818 719 377

IN ASSOCIATION WITH BORD GÁIS ENERGY THEATRE. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH RTÉ CONCERT ORCHESTRA.

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02/07/2018 12:12

Galway International Arts Festival

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THE IRISH TIMES

‘Amazing performance.’

by Enda Walsh

RTÈ

‘Beautiful and haunting.’ AMERICAN VOGUE ON ROOMS

GALWAY INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL and JEN COPPINGER

INCANTATA t o w n h a l l t h e at r e , g a lway

1 6–27 J U LY 20 1 8

B O O K N OW 0 9 1 5 6 6 57 7 | W W W.G I A F. I E

P H OTO : PAT R I C K R E D M O N D

i n associ ati on wi th P O E T RY I R E L A N D

O’DONOGHUE CENTRE NUI GALWAY 16–29 JULY 27

ORFEO ED EURIDICE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; IN REHEARSAL