Powder Her Face by irishnationalopera

Irish National Opera

Thomas AdÃ¨s

Powder Her Face A co-production with NORTHERN IRELAND Opera

Thomas Adès

POWDER HER FACE A co-production with NORTHERN IRELAND Opera

Music by Thomas Adès Libretto by Philip Hensher Sung in English with English surtitles Performed by arrangement with Faber Music Ltd, London. Powder Her Face was first performed 1 July 1995 in the Almeida Theatre, London. Duration 130 minutes including one 20 minute interval after Scene 5. The performance on Wednesday 7 March will be recorded by RTÉ lyric fm for future radio broadcast.

touring 2018 Saturday 24 February National Opera House Wexford Tuesday 27 February Watergate Theatre Kilkenny Thursday 1 March Solstice Arts Centre Navan Saturday 3 March Hawk’s Well Theatre Sligo Tuesday 6 & Wednesday 7 March O’Reilly Theatre Dublin Friday 9 March Siamsa Tíre Tralee

Curtain Up Irish National Opera’s production of Powder Her Face is the start of a new journey. It’s the first production of our new company and it lifts the curtain on a new era for opera in Ireland. I’m thrilled to be doing this with one of the most successful and controversial of contemporary operas. Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face demonstrates the enduring vitality of opera and also its capacity to tell stories that entertain and stimulate us as much today as the great masterpieces have been doing for over four hundred years. I was in my twenties before I moved on from listening to opera via recordings and into the spine-tingling, multi-sensory tsunami that makes live opera such an overwhelming and indescribable experience. I soon became aware that I was a member of a lucky minority, a kind of secret society of people who had also been exposed to the beguiling world that I had fallen in love with. As I travelled more and worked abroad I came to see how much more normal and accessible a part of life opera is in most other European countries. Opera was available. It was accessible. It was affordable. It was popular. It mattered. It’s a dream come true for me to have launched a national opera company in Ireland and to be setting about expanding the pool of people involved in opera, whether as audience members, performers or creators. The Arts Council has given us the resources to begin building a company that will perform around Ireland, in venues large and small, and also take our work to audiences abroad.

We will be offering major opportunities to internationallyacclaimed Irish artists. We will foster the next generation of talent. And we will grow Ireland’s audiences for opera through broadcasts and webstreaming as well as through our live performances. We have seven productions in 2018 that I would love to see you at. They range from ever-popular works like Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Verdi’s Aida, to collaborations with Galway International Arts Festival (Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice) and Dublin Theatre Festival (Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle), and our touring productions of Powder Her Face and Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann. Our awardwinning production of Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s The Second Violinist is travelling to the Barbican Centre in London as part of GB18, Culture Ireland’s 2018 focus on Irish arts in Britain. I’d like to extend my thanks to everyone who has made all this possible – venues, festivals, orchestras, our broadcast partner RTÉ lyric fm, our INO staff and board of directors, and especially to you, our supporters and audience. And of course we would have nothing to show without our dedicated artists who consistently go beyond what’s expected to bring you the very best productions. Fergus Sheil Artistic director

Opera Everywhere I grew up in a small village in the Swiss Alps. This certainly has its rustic charms. But my only exposure to live opera depended on intrepid outfits touring productions to the top of mountains. So I have first-hand experience of the vital role of opera productions on tour. I will never forget the first opera I ever saw, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, a teenage experience that eventually led to a lifelong passion for and enjoyment of opera. It is therefore particularly gratifying that we in Irish National Opera are beginning our new operatic journey with a tour. One of the ambitions of Irish National Opera is to tour to every part of Ireland. This goal is not an add-on to our large-scale productions in Dublin nor an afterthought to tick certain boxes. Touring is at the core of our remit. Opera is not just for everyone. It’s for everyone everywhere. There is a genuinely impressive network of theatres and art centres of all shapes and sizes in Ireland. Our job is to align the scale of our touring productions to the technical specifications of individual venues, for example when it comes to the size of the orchestra. But we relish the challenges of devising productions – like tonight’s presentation of Powder Her Face – that can deliver outstanding operatic experiences wherever you go to them. Our vision is to increase the number of performances we tour over the next few years. The realisation of this vision depends on increased support from audiences,

from our partner venues and most of all our core funder the Arts Council. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Arts Council to date and we thank them, not only for their financial support but also for their inspirational vision in calling a national opera company into being. It is our hope that you, our audiences, will continue to attend and enjoy our productions and that you will convince others to experience this most sublime of art forms. The programme for our first year is ambitious, varied and exciting. In crafting it we have paid particular attention to Irish artists who are currently entrancing audiences on the international stage. In April you will have the unique opportunity to see mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, who last year made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and performed in not one but two productions over a period of four months. For us she will perform the role of the spirited Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart. And in November the great Irish soprano Orla Boylan will take on the title role of Aida for the first time, in what will be a spectacular production. These full-scale productions are just two compelling reasons to travel to Dublin. But there will be more, and more again to draw you to other venues around the country. I look forward to seeing you at the opera â&#x20AC;&#x201C; anywhere and everywhere. Diego Fasciati Executive Director

CAST

Production Team

Duchess Mary Plazas

Production Manager Patrick McLaughlin

Adrian Dwyer

Hotel Manager | Duke | Laundryman Stephen Richardson Other Guest | Judge

Stage Manager Paula Tierney Deputy Stage Manager Conleth Stanley Costume Supervisor Ilona Karas Wardrobe Supervisor Clodagh Deegan

Creative Team Conductor

Timothy Redmond

Director & Designer

Antony McDonald

Revival Director

Danielle Urbas

Lighting Designer

Fabiana Piccioli

Associate Lighting Designer

Sander Loonen

Movement Director

Lucy Burge

Répétiteur

John Shea

ThankS Walter Sutcliffe, Cliona Donnelly and all at NI Opera. Oliver Mears. Bruce MacRae, Sam Wigglesworth and Stephanie Woodworth at Faber Music Ltd. Tara Persaud and Sue Johns at Warner Music International. Kevin Hanafin at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama. Dance House. Niall Morris.

Wigs & Make-up Carole Dunne Technical Manager Nic Rée Master Carpenter Pete Boyle Production Electrician Eoin McNinch Surtitle Operator Chris Kelly Graphic Design Alphabet Soup programme editor Michael Dervan Production Photographs Pat Redmond Video Promo Gansee Films 09

Irish National Opera

Mozart

The Marriage of Figaro With the Irish Chamber Orchestra

13 April 2018 National Opera House Wexford 17, 18, 20 & 21 April 2018 Gaiety Theatre DUBLIN Tickets from €15 – €85 booking fees may apply

irishnationalopera.ie

synopsis Scene 1 1990 The Duchess surprises a Maid and an Electrician in the act of ridiculing her in her suite on the top floor of a leading hotel in London’s West End. Owing to their negligence, Her Grace’s coat is soiled. As she changes, all three express unanimous admiration for Her Grace’s clothes and scent, and varying opinions about Her Grace’s circumstances. An entrance ensues.

Scene 2 1934 The Duke is expected at a large country house. Former “Debutante of the Year” Mrs Freeling awaits him eagerly as her divorce is discussed by a Confidante and a Lounge Lizard. His Grace’s recent affairs are a topic. A song is given and His Grace arrives.

Scene 3 1936 Fashionable interest in Mrs Freeling’s wedding to His Grace is in no way affected by her status as a famous divorcee, a magnificent reception is thrown. Behind the scenes, a thoughtful Waitress prepares elaborate dishes.

Scene 4 1953 On one of her frequent visits to the capital, Her Grace relaxes in her room in one of London’s foremost hotels. She telephones for Room Service and gives the Waiter the friendly welcome which has earned her such popularity among the staff.

Scene 5 1953 Meanwhile, His Grace entertains a friend at home after returning from a party. Her Grace is discussed and information revealed.

Scene 6 1955 As the historic divorce trial nears its close and the Judge’s concluding remarks are awaited, Rubberneckers discuss the sensational aspect by which they have been attracted. A judgement is given and Her Grace reacts.

Scene 7 1970 Her Grace grants an interview at her lovely home. She offers insights from her experience of health, beauty, entertaining, millinery and English society.

Scene 8 1990 Her Grace receives two visits from the Manager of the prestigious London hotel which has been her home for over a decade. They finalise details of her forthcoming departure, and in the interim, she reflects. She vacates the suite, which is then made ready for the next occupant. Synopsis from Faber Music Ltd

Thomas Adès in the 1990s. Photo: W. Schrickel

Sex, powder & Polaroids In 2008 the writer Philip Hensher, librettist of Powder Her Face, wrote these reflections on the work he created with Thomas Adès and his experiences in the world of opera. Relevant updates ten years on include the fact that the writing of Powder Her Face is now 23 years in the past, Henscher is married to the human rights lawyer Zaved Mahmood, and his literary output has been substantial. His latest novel, The Friendly Ones, is published on 8 March. Over 30 productions of Powder Her Face are close to yielding nearly 300 performances of the work and Thomas Adès has written two further operas, The Tempest (2007) and The Exterminating Angel (2016). From time to time, some well-meaning person who is introducing me at a literary festival or bookshop reading will start running through my so-called accomplishments, and it often ends, hideously, like this: “Novelist, journalist ... and librettist.” It seems terribly unfair,

since there was only one opera libretto, and no one has ever asked me to write one since. It’s like the story of the old Italian peasant. “I cook dinner for my wife, once a year on her birthday. Do they call me Luigi the chef? I put up a shelf in the bathroom, 20 years ago. Do they call me Luigi the carpenter? But if you have sex with one solitary sheep ...” The opera I wrote that one libretto for, however, won’t go away. Although Powder Her Face gives me the impression of having been written a long time ago, it’s actually only 13 years old. What has come between then and now – apart from four novels, three jobs and two boyfriends – are rather a lot of productions. It must have had two dozen separate productions in different parts of the world and, I believe, more than 100 performances. I wouldn’t know, since I only ever find out about an Israeli, South American or Australian production when the six-monthly royalty statement arrives. I don’t know about them; and evidently, in many cases, they don’t know about me. In the calculations of most opera houses, the librettist comes a long way beneath the wardrobe manager’s aunt. Still, I believe that almost continuously since 1995, one soprano or another has been preparing to represent the lurid excesses of a British duchess on stage – to the bewildered response of some very unlikely audiences.

London’s Almeida Theatre has, since 1992, commissioned a couple of operas each year for its summer season. The brief is strict: small cast, small orchestra, no particular demands on staging. Two years after the programme started, they contacted composer Thomas Adès and asked him to write an opera. It showed a certain amount of foresight. Adès had made a splash in the tiny waters of contemporary music and was clearly a name to watch. The Almeida, on this occasion, joined with the Cheltenham festival under the perceptive command of Michael Berkeley in commissioning an opera from him, subject undetermined.

in the calculations of most opera houses, the librettist comes a long way beneath the wardrobe manager’s aunt

At this point, I came into the story. I’d known Tom for some years. We had spent long evenings going over Berg’s Lulu and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, which we were both obsessed with. In London, I saw a good deal of him socially, in a fairly riotous way. Once we went on holiday to Tuscany, with a couple of other musicians. I remember him breakfasting on a whole jar of Nutella. When the commission came, I’d just published my first novel, a work of running

jokes and high aesthetic obsessions, largely about Lulu, and full of people making dramatic entrances, interspersed with interminable recipes. Tom must have thought I would do pretty well as a librettist. Apart from anything else, it had to be written very quickly, and I was, to put it bluntly, nearest. The Argyll divorce case was my idea as a subject, and we saw that it would make quite an opera. A 1960s sex-and-Polaroids scandal centring around an allegedly sex-crazed duchess seemed perfect for Cheltenham.

Some of the silliest jokes got into the final product; others got left out, too libellous, obscene or private in meaning

For me, Powder Her Face ended up as a mixture of a grim memento mori, with Death making a personal appearance at the end, and a series of jokes, half literary, half musical. Some of the silliest jokes got into the final product; others got left out, too libellous, obscene or private in meaning – though it ended up being an opera full of quotes, some obscure to me even now. The Almeida didn’t disguise their complete bewilderment at what we were proposing, but I can remember only one short meeting at which the director of opera said he had no

idea what I meant when I said I wanted it to seem like scenes from the life of a medieval saint, only with shopping expeditions instead of miracles. Anyway, it didn’t matter whether they understood or not, because they left us alone to do whatever we wanted. After all, none of the Almeida’s commissioned operas had – or, as far as I know, still have – ever been reperformed. If it didn’t work, it could just go on our CVs and be forgotten about. What gave it a life beyond the first run was the fellatio scene. The notorious photographs of the Duchess of Argyll “performing” (I loved the word) fellatio on a stranger was at the centre of her divorce case. From day one, I had told Tom that the opera had to contain “a blow-job aria – you know, it begins with words and ends with humming”. When he had recovered, he agreed, though a little nervously. It was greeted with outrage at first. I can still remember the incredible frisson at the first night, when the splendidly game Jill Gomez coughed and spluttered her way through the unforgivable last bars of the aria. Soon, at performances, I took to amusing myself by watching the faces of the audience rather than the stage. Actually, that aria was a perfectly serious idea. I had been reading, I think, Wayne Koestenbaum’s books on opera, all very

The image of a woman being brutally silenced through sex was, I thought, a powerful one

keen on the idea that opera is both a way of giving women a voice and a sexual statement, but only as a means of ultimately silencing them. The image of a woman being brutally silenced through sex was, I thought, a powerful one, and the Duchess, in the opera, is specified as being silenced twice: first by sex and then by death. That second silencing, with a microphone being dragged round a gong and fishing reels being wound in the orchestra, turned out to be the easier one for music critics to admire. After that, there was some noise about a new opera Tom and I could write together for English National Opera. They wanted to put an adviser in place to tell me “what would work on stage”, so that was obviously a nonstarter. Then there was talk of Glyndebourne, Covent Garden – but, in truth, I’d written one opera, and wanted to get back to novels.

me any tickets at all to see my own work; and when – under threat of me withdrawing permission to perform it – they finally found some, I had to pay for them. I don’t know quite why this opera seems to have worked; sometimes its success seems too large a price to pay for dealing with the opera administrators of this world. I always said to Tom, when we were working on the opera, that I wouldn’t collaborate on another until I was very old and austere, and then it wouldn’t be about sex and perfume and furs, like the last one. It would probably be a long spiritual conversation between St Simeon Stylites and a nun in the desert. Powder Her Face, for what my view is worth, was a nice moment when the aesthetic and sense of fun of composer and librettist happened to coincide. And I dare say it isn’t as hideously embarrassing for its audience nowadays as it generally is for me. ©The Guardian 2008 theguardian.com

Since then, Powder Her Face has gone around the world, and it’s coming back, next month, to Covent Garden. Everyone involved has long since forgotten that anyone in particular wrote the words, the inevitable fate of librettists. Covent Garden initially refused

Irish National Opera GLUCK

coming up in

2018

irishnationalopera.ie

Dennehy & WALSH

Orfeo ed Euridice 23, 25, 26, 28 & 29 july

OFFENBACH

The Second Violinist

TALES OF HOFFMANN

6 – 8 september

14 september – 6 October

Bartók

BLUEBEARD’s CASTLE

AIDA

12 – 14 October

24, 27, 29 november & 1 december

VERDI

Thomas Adès Photo: Brian Voce

Thomas Adès Thomas Adès was born in London in 1971, studied piano at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and read music at King’s College, Cambridge. He is a prodigious composer, conductor and pianist, and has been described by the New York Times as one of today’s “most accomplished overall musicians”. Powder Her Face, his first opera, has been performed worldwide. His second, The Tempest, commissioned by London’s Royal Opera House, was premiered under the baton of the composer to great critical acclaim in 2004. It has also been performed at the Metropolitan Opera New York, and Deutsche Grammophon’s DVD recording made there won a Grammy Award. His third opera, after Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel, premiered at the Salzburg Festival in July 2016. His many musical advocates include Simon Rattle who performed Asyla (1997) at his final concert with the CBSO and his first as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic, and Tevot with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2007. In 2011 the orchestral work Polaris was premiered by the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas in Miami and has since been choreographed by Crystal Pite. Adès’s Totentanz for mezzo-soprano, baritone and large orchestra was premiered at the 2013 Proms by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Adès’s music has been performed in Ireland since the late 1990s. He conducted the Britten Sinfonia as part of the National Concert Hall’s International Concert Series in 2012 and was the programme consultant for the 2017 New Music Dublin festival in which he conducted the RTÉ NSO in the Irish premiere of Totentanz and the RTÉCO in the Irish concert premiere of Gerald Barry’s opera Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. He has won numerous awards, including the 2015 Léonie Sonning Music Prize and the prestigious Grawemeyer Award (2000), of which he is the youngest ever recipient. He was Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival from 1999 to 2008 and coaches piano and chamber music annually at the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove.

an encounter with I’d been in an opera the year before, straight out of college, a Jonathan Dove opera called Siren Song. It was about a sailor, a true story that he’d found on a small piece of newspaper and took it from there. I was playing the sailor. Tom was 21 or 22 at the time and knew he was going to be writing for the same venue the next year. He came to see Siren Song and then he asked me to do the tenor roles in his opera. Which was his first. The tenor has four roles in it, and keeps switching back and forth. In fact apart from the Duchess everybody switches around.

This opera got a lot of attention when it was premiered, because of the notorious scene where the Duchess gives fellatio to the bellboy or to the waiter who brings her sandwiches. It’s very explicitly done. And he wanted it to be explicitly done. He wanted it to be grotesque. She sings with her mouth full, and then coughs at the end. That was a very smart move. There were a lot of objections to it in the press. The more conservative press were outraged, “that a member of the aristocracy should be treated so” [said in a posh British accent].

The music kind of came in stages then. It came scene by scene as it was finished, eight scenes. I was working with Valdine Anderson, a Canadian soprano, and Jill Gomez as the Duchess. She was fabulous. She really came into her own, and we probably all did, when it came to recording it. Because the pressure wasn’t the same. You could do it again. It’s a very rhythmically complicated piece. Jill would say, “I wasn’t happy. Let me do that bit again. I can do that better.” She was quite anxious about it in the performances.

What happened then was that you couldn’t get a ticket for it. There were queues around the block. It was really smart. He is very smart, and so is Philip Hensher for devising that scene. Jill always wanted to practise that scene. She was, like, “Come on. Shall we practise now?” She was great fun. She would say things like, “I’ve been practising at home!”

It was done in a beautiful little theatre in London, the Almeida. I got quite close to Tom. I happened to live just above the theatre, coincidentally, and he always dropped in. He loved watching the Antiques Roadshow, just kind of unwinding. He was, and still is, super brilliant. But it was all happening very quickly for him. 18

Tom didn’t conduct the original performances. I don’t know why he didn’t do the performances. Because he’s good at everything. He’s a phenomenal pianist, too. I met him recently. He’s changed a lot. I think it’s quite hard being him. There was a time when he wouldn’t talk to the press. The press just built him up. And so did his publisher, who wanted to make him the next Mozart or Britten. It happened so quickly. He was getting commissions from Simon Rattle when he was like 24. And he was able to deliver

brilliance this extremely brilliant, complex music. I think opera is his number one love. I think he just adores the drama. It’s a really sweet piece, actually. I think the recording really captured it. There’s something really simple and lovely about it. It was nominated for a Grammy and it’s such a pity it didn’t win. Because I could have bored everybody by constantly talking about the Grammy. I think a recording of Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress won that year. I went to see this Antony McDonald production in Belfast, not having seen the opera in years. I went with my husband, and he’s from Thailand. I thought, “What is he going to make of this?” We watched the first half and in the interval I was talking to Ollie Mears of NI Opera and he asked my husband “What do you think?” He said, “It’s wonderful. I love all the singing, the dancing, the acting.” And I realised he’s from Thailand, so it doesn’t make any difference if it’s La bohème or Powder Her Face. It’s all the same to him. He just took it as it was, as this very charming, elegant piece. It is rather elegant.

Irish tenor Niall Morris reminisces about singing in the first production and recording of Powder Her Face.

still have been alive. So it became just this temporary maid, for the day. It was a great subject, but there were little concerns of, “Will there be trouble?” It was tricky enough to sing. It’s tricky rhythmically, and the pitches are hard as well. It jumps around a lot. The tenor role is a very light role, so singing it, I think the key was to keep it very light and conversational. The costume changes are very quick. So it was bang and you’re back on into a new scene. You run off and there’s 40 seconds and you’re back on in a different character. Tom was very lively, enthusiastic, positive. There was nothing scary about him at all. He just wanted it to be great, and everyone to be great. Jill was quite nervous, which surprised me, because she was a great star. She was really unsure. That unsureness was very sweet, because it gave her vulnerability. You have to want to go on this journey. Because it is her journey. You have to like her. Otherwise you don’t care. You can’t give an evening of your life to some unpleasant woman. As told to Michael Dervan

Not everyone likes it. Some people think it’s a bit tawdry and a bit unfair on her. There’s a line in one scene where the Duchess says, “Why aren’t you the usual girl?” and the maid says “I’m just filling in, madam, Just for the afternoon.” They put that in so there would be no legal action. The regular maid might

Apart from his opera career, Niall Morris was a member of the original Celtic Tenors, and has in recent years created a number of shows, among them Casta Diva, the Live and Loves of Maria Callas (which has run on 15 nights at the National Concert Hall since 2011), The Puccini Scandal, and Nessun Dorma, The Life and Music of Luciano Pavarotti.

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BIOGRAPHIES Timothy Redmond conductor

Antony McDonald director & designer

A love of contemporary music has taken Timothy Redmond to orchestras and opera houses around the world. Since working closely with the composer Thomas Adès on the premiere of The Tempest at the Royal Opera in London, he has conducted productions of Powder Her Face for English National Opera, the Royal Opera and St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, where he conducted the work’s Russian premiere. He recently gave the Hungarian premiere of Adès’s Totentanz, the Irish premiere of his Living Toys and assisted the composer for the New York premiere of The Tempest at the Metropolitan Opera. He has conducted productions for Opera North (Mozart’s Don Giovanni), English National Opera (the world premiere of Will Todd’s Damned and Divine), English Touring Opera (Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Donizetti’s La Fille du régiment), Almeida Opera (the world premiere of Raymond Yiu’s The Original Chinese Conjuror) and the Royal Opera’s Linbury Studio Theatre (the European premiere of Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin). He gave the world premiere of Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket for Opera Theatre of St Louis, and for Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells he has conducted the UK premieres of Šimon Vose ek’s Biedermann and the Arsonists and Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus. He has conducted double-bills of Henze and Martin for the Guildhall School and has appeared at numerous festivals including Aldeburgh, Bregenz, Buxton, Los Angeles, Tenerife and Wexford.

Antony is a Royal Designer for Industry. He is a member of the British Team of Designers who won the Golden Triga at the 2003 Prague Quadrennale for Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at the Bregenz Festival, and in 1991 for the 1989 Royal Shakesepeare Company Hamlet which starred Mark Rylance. He was also the winner of the Set Designer Award at the International Opera Awards 2013. His opera direction and design includes Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hyogo Performing Arts Centre, Japan), Dvo ák’s Rusalka (Scottish Opera), Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (Opéra national du Rhin), Wagner’s Lohengrin (Welsh National Opera/Polish National Opera/Greek National Opera), Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest (Wide Open Opera/NI Opera), Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges (Bolshoi Opera), Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Massenet’s Manon, and Tippett’s King Priam (Nationale Reisopera, Netherlands), Jerry Bock’s Fiddler on the Roof, Bernstein’s Wonderful Town, Dvo ák’s Rusalka and Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades (Grange Park Opera), Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda (Opera North), Tippett’s The Knot Garden, Verdi’s Aida and Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila (Scottish Opera). His design work includes Verdi’s Macbeth (Theater St Gallen), Mozart’s La finta giardiniera (Glyndebourne Festival), Ein Reigen (Vienna State Ballet), Janá ek’s The Makropolus Case (Oper Frankfurt), Britten’s Billy Budd (Oper Frankfurt/Nationale Opera, Netherlands/Gothenburg Opera), Prokofiev’s The Gambler (Royal Opera, London) and Alice, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker (Scottish Ballet).

Fabiana Piccioli LIGHTING DESIGNER Fabiana Piccioli was born in Rome, where she trained as a dancer and also graduated in philosophy. In 2005 she joined the Akram Khan Company as technical director and lighting designer, and toured the company’s work worldwide until 2013, when she started her freelance career. Since then she has collaborated with international artists and institutions, including Romeo Castellucci, Katie Mitchell, Guy Cassiers, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, English National Ballet, and the Ballets of Montecarlo and Teatro alla Scala, among others. She maintains a busy career designing for dance, theatre and opera and was twice winner of the Knight of Illumination award for Dance (2013, 2017).

Sander Loonen Associate Lighting Designer After a four-year apprenticeship at the Rotterdamse Schouwburg in the 1990s, Sander has developed as a true all-round technician and designer. He is equally versed in lighting, sound, video and staging and he fills the gap between artistic ambitions and technical feasibility. He works with international creative teams on all aspects of live performance and installations, and has developed the ability to steer a production so that it becomes a fulfilling project. He has designed and managed lighting, video, sound and staging for a great variety of artists – Aakash Odedra, Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, English National Ballet, LA Dance Project, Boy Blue, Sarah Moeremans, Anish Kapoor, Emio Greco | PC, Aditi Mangaldas, Gregory Maqoma, Duckie, Meg Stuart/

Damaged Goods, Serpentine Gallery, Productiehuis Rotterdam, Théâtre de la Ville Paris, National Architectural Institute Netherlands, National Ballet of Flanders and many, many others.

Lucy Burge CHOREOGRAPHER Lucy was a principal dancer with Ballet Rambert between 1970 and 1985, and during this time she performed as a guest artist with Rudolf Nureyev. During her career she has danced for all major British opera companies. Her work as a choreographer includes Verdi’s Aida (Theater Magdeburg), Anya Reiss’s Oliver Twist (Regent’s Open Air Theatre). For director Richard Jones she has worked on Verdi’s La fanciulla del West (Santa Fe Opera/ENO), Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnburg (ENO), Britten’s Billy Budd (Oper Frankfurt/Gothenburg Opera/De Nationale Opera, Netherlands), Janá ek’s The Makropulos Case (Oper Frankfurt), Handel’s Ariodante (Canadian Opera Company/Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, De Nationale Opera, Netherlands), Offfenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann (ENO/Bavarian State Opera), Wagner’s Lohengrin (Bavarian State Opera), Britten’s Gloriana (Royal Opera, London/Hamburg State Opera), and Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole with Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (Royal Opera, London). For director Antony McDonald she has worked on Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hyogo Performing Arts Centre, Japan), Dvo ák’s Rusalka (Scottish Opera) as well as Massenet’s Manon and Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (Nationale Reisopera, Netherlands), Bock’s Fiddler on the Roof, Dvo ák’s Rusalka and Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades (all Grange Park Opera); Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest (Wide Open Opera/NI Opera), Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (Bolshoi Opera). And for Daniel

Kramer on Bizet’s Carmen (Opera North/De Vlaamse Opera); for Sam Brown Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady (Staatstheater Karlsruhe), Donizetti’s La favorite (Oper Graz); for Katharina Thoma Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos (Glyndebourne Festival); and for Adele Thomas Aeschylus’s Oresteia (Globe Theatre).

John Shea Répétiteur John Shea was born in Kingstonupon-Thames and studied at the Royal College of Music (Junior Department), Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music. In 2001 he completed an MMus at London University. His operatic experience includes fifteen years at the Wexford Festival, nine seasons with Castleward Opera in Strangford, Co. Down, and a number of productions for the Dublin Grand Opera Society. He has also been a guest répétiteur at the Royal Opera, English National Opera and Scottish Opera, and has worked regularly over the last decade for English Touring Opera, including the Olivier Award-winning Spring 2014 season. Engagements abroad have taken him to France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Canada. He has played for two previous national premiere productions of Powder Her Face, in Italy (2010) and Poland (2015). He also works for the BBC, reading the news on the World Service and presenting Through the Night on Radio 3.

Danielle Urbas REVIVAL DIRECTOR Danielle Urbas trained as an actor at the Drama Centre London. Her acting credits include productions for stage, TV and film. In 2012 she made her directorial debut with Emily Howard’s Zatopek!, a short opera as part of the New Music Festival 20x12 (Epstein Theatre, Liverpool, and South Bank Centre, London). Her most recent production was of Beverley Andrews’s Awa’s Journey in collaboration with Union Dance company in the Arcola Theatre in London last year. She assisted Antony McDonald on his production of Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face for NI Opera. She previously assisted McDonald on Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest (Wide Open Opera/NI Opera), Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde (Opéra national du Rhin) and Bock’s Fiddler on the Roof with Bryn Terfel (Grange Park Opera). She also assisted Oliver Mears on productions with a number of companies – Martin ’s The Three Wishes (Tête à Tête, The Future of Opera Festival), Martin ’s The Knife’s Tears (Ensemble Opera Diversa, Brno, DISK Theatre, Prague), all with Second Movement; Menotti’s The Medium, Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld (also Scottish Opera), Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (which she also revived for Novaya Opera in Moscow), Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, Verdi’s Macbeth, Strauss’s Salome, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni, all with NI Opera. Her other assisting credits include director/choreographer for Ashley Page on Puccini’s La bohème (Nevill Holt Opera), Daniel Slater on Messager’s Fortunio (Grange Park Opera), Adele Thomas on Mozart’s Così fan tutte (NI Opera), assistant movement director on La bohème at the Royal Opera, London, and revival movement director, for the same production at Teatro Real, Madrid.

Mary Plazas SOPRANO

Daire Halpin SOPRANO

Mary Plazas studied at the RNCM as a Peter Moores Foundation Scholar and the National Opera Studio, where she won the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship in 1991. She is a former Company Principal for ENO, where her roles have included Cio-Cio San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Nedda in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème, Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, Leila in Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Nanetta in Verdi’s Falstaff, and Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. Other appearances include Italian Soprano in Strauss’s Capriccio (Royal Opera, London), Mimì (Opera North, Bregenz Festival, West Australian Opera), Anne Trulove in Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress (Bavarian State Opera, Israeli Opera), Donna Elvira (Glyndebourne on Tour), Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Salud in Falla’s La vida breve, and Juanita in Weill’s Der Kühhandel (Opera North), Elisabetta in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, the title roles in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia and Maria di Rohan (Buxton Festival), and Mrs Coyle in Britten’s Owen Wingrave (Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam). She created two roles in operas by Jonathan Dove, Tina in Flight (Glyndebourne) and Blue Fairy in Pinocchio (Opera North), sang Karin in the world premiere of Gerald Barry’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (RTÉ NSO), performed the title role in Peter Ëotvös’s Lady Sarashina (Opéra de Lyon/Opéra Comique), and Duchess in Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face (Aldeburgh, London Symphony Orchestra, NI Opera and Channel 4, also released on DVD).

Dublin soprano Daire Halpin trained at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Trinity College Dublin and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Her operatic engagements include world premieres – Julia in Torsten Rasch’s The Duchess of Malfi (English National Opera), Hilde in Craig Armstrong’s The Lady from the Sea (Scottish Opera), and Hulda in Raymond Deane’s The Alma Fetish (Wide Open Opera). Other roles include Apollo in Gluck’s Il Parnaso confuso, Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Diana in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, Lucy Lockitt in Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Pamina and Papagena in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, the title role in his Theodora and Tigrane in his Radamisto, Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème, Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Gabrielle in Offenbach’s La Vie parisienne. Concert engagements include solo appearances with the European Union Youth Orchestra (London and Reykjavik), and numerous appearances with the RTÉ orchestras. In 2015 she premiered Nico Muhly’s Byzantium, a National Concert Hall commission for Yeats 2015. Her recordings include RTÉ lyric fm’s No. 1 bestselling Joyce Songs, BBC Radio 4’s adaptation of Joyce’s Ulysses; and Lucy Lockitt for the European Opera Centre/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

Adrian Dwyer TENOR

Stephen Richardson BASS

British/Australian tenor Adrian Dwyer made his professional debut in Los Angeles as Rodolfo in Baz Luhrmann’s La bohème, and has since worked extensively with English National Opera, De Nationale Opera, Netherlands, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Opéra de Toulon, Cape Town Opera, Opera Queensland, State Opera of South Australia, Opera North, Birmingham Opera Company, NI Opera and at the Edinburgh International Festival. He regularly collaborates with innovative directors such as Richard Jones, Christopher Alden, Calixto Bieito, Deborah Warner, David Pountney, Carrie Cracknell, David Alden, John Fulljames, Oliver Mears, Graham Vick, Olivia Fuchs, Antony McDonald, Annilese Miskimmon, and Olivier Benezech. His large and diverse repertoire encompasses Max in Weber’s Der Freischütz, Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Narraboth in Strauss’s Salome, Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Huon in Weber’s Oberon, Andres in Berg’s Wozzeck, Andrei in Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, Vaudemont in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, alongside modern roles such as Jonathan Dove’s Swanhunter and Electrician/Lounge Lizard/ Waiter/Rubbernecker/Delivery Boy in Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face. In opera and concert he has worked with eminent conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Richard Armstrong, Richard Bonynge, Jane Glover, Marc Soustrot, David Parry, Ulf Schirmer, Stephen Lord, Elgar Howarth, Oleg Caetani, Mark Wigglesworth, Edward Gardner, Tomas Hanus, Rafael Payare, Paul Daniel, Vasily Petrenko, David Stern, Nicholas Braithwaite, Martin André, David Hill and Richard Farnes.

British bass Stephen Richardson studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. He is noted for his creation of roles in many contemporary works, including Thomas Adès’s The Tempest (Royal Opera, London); Tan Dun’s Orchestral Theatre II: Re‚ and Tea (Suntory Hall‚ Tokyo); Gerald Barry’s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit‚ The Importance of Being Earnest and The Intelligence Park; John Tavener’s Eis Thanaton‚ Resurrection‚ The Apocalypse and Fall and Resurrection. Recent and future engagements include Baron Ochs in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier (Bolshoi Opera and Opera North)‚ King of Hearts in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland (Los Angeles Philharmonic); Dansker in Britten’s Billy Budd (La Scala, Milan, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Opera North); Dikoy in Janá ek’s Katya Kabanova and Simone in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (Opera North), Timur in Puccini’s Turandot (National Opera House of Portugal), Ferrando in Verdi’s Il trovatore (Den Jyske Opera, Denmark); Hotel Manager/Duke/Laundryman/ Other Guest and Judge in Thomas Adès’s Powder her Face (De Vlaamse Opera), Daland in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (NI Opera), Lady Bracknell in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest (Wide Open Opera/NI Opera); Frank in Johann Strauss Jr’s Die Fledermaus (Korea National Opera); Rocco in Beethoven’s Fidelio (Garsington, BBC and Philharmonie de Paris) and Osmin in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Morosus in Strauss’s Die schweigsame Frau, Waldner in Strauss’s Arabella, Father Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, and Bartolo in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (all Garsington).

Irish National Opera

performance diary 2018 FEBRUARY Saturday 24 Thomas Adès Powder Her Face Wexford Tuesday 27 Thomas Adès Powder Her Face Kilkenny

MARCH Thursday 1 Thomas Adès Powder Her Face Navan Saturday 3 Thomas Adès Powder Her Face Sligo Tuesday 6 Thomas Adès Powder Her Face Dublin Wednesday 7 Thomas Adès Powder Her Face Dublin Friday 9 Thomas Adès Powder Her Face Tralee

APRIL Friday 13 Mozart The Marriage of Figaro Wexford Tuesday 17 Mozart The Marriage of Figaro Dublin Wednesday 18 Mozart The Marriage of Figaro Dublin Friday 20 Mozart The Marriage of Figaro Dublin Saturday 21 Mozart The Marriage of Figaro Dublin

JULY Monday 23 Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice Galway Wednesday 25 Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice Galway Thursday 26 Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice Galway Saturday 28 Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice Galway Sunday 29 Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice Galway

SEPTEMBER Thursday 6 Donnacha Dennehy & Enda Walsh The Second Violinist London Friday 7 Donnacha Dennehy & Enda Walsh The Second Violinist London Saturday 8 Donnacha Dennehy & Enda Walsh The Second Violinist London Friday 14 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Dublin Saturday 15 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Dublin Tuesday 18 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Dún Laoghaire Thursday 20 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Navan Saturday 22 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Limerick Tuesday 25 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Cork Thursday 27 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Tralee Saturday 29 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Kilkenny

OCTOBER Tuesday 2 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Galway Thursday 4 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Letterkenny Saturday 6 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Sligo Friday 12 Bartók Bluebeard’s Castle Dublin Saturday 13 Bartók Bluebeard’s Castle Dublin Sunday 14 Bartók Bluebeard’s Castle Dublin

NOVEMBER Saturday 24 Verdi Aida Dublin Tuesday 27 Verdi Aida Dublin Thursday 29 Verdi Aida Dublin

DECEMBER Saturday 1 Verdi Aida Dublin

To book tickets and to find out more see irishnationalopera.ie 27

Irish national opera orchestra Clarinet 1 | Bass clarinet Soprano saxophone | Bass saxophone Conor Sheil Clarinet 2 | Bass clarinet Alto saxophone Brendan Doyle Clarinet 3 | Bass clarinet Contra bass clarinet Swanee Macdara Ó Seireadáin

Violin 1 Bogdan Sofei Violin 2 Ingrid Nicola Viola Andreea Biancu Cello Adrian Mantu Double Bass Maeve Sheil

Horn Cuan Ó Seireadáin Trumpet Niall O’Sullivan Trombone Paul Frost Percussion Alex Petcu Accordion Dermot Dunne Harp Dianne Marshall Piano Richard McGrath

2017 2018

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

FEEL THE PASSION. LIVE THE MUSIC.

SCHUBERT ‘Unfinished’ Symphony RAVEL La Valse and the sensational Pink Martini solo artist

STORM LARGE singing KURT WEILL’S

The Seven Deadly Sins Carlos Kalmar conductor

FRIDAY 27 APRIL • 7.30pm

FIND OUT MORE!

Booking: 01 417 0000 / www.nch.ie

www.rte.ie/nso

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Founders Circle Founders Circle Members as of 23/02/18

Mary Brennan

Patricia O’Hara

Jennifer Caldwell

Patricia Reilly

Timothy King & Mary Canning

Margaret Quigley

Audrey Conlon

Catherine Santoro

Maureen de Forge

Dermot & Sue Scott

Michael Duggan

Gaby Smyth

Catherine & William Earley

Bruce Stanley

Jim & Moira Flavin Maurice & Maire Foley Gemma Hussey Landmark Productions Stella Litchfield Phyllis MacNamara Tony & Joan Manning R. John McBratney Petria McDonnell Jean Moorhead Sara Moorhead F.X. & Pat O’Brien Dr. J R O’Donnell

Join Irish National Opera’s Founders Circle Be Part of Irish Opera History!

We’re ambitious, bold and new. In our first year, we will present seven operas, five of them new productions, and tour to thirteen venues in Ireland as well as to London’s Barbican Centre. We will collaborate with Irish artists and opera stars who have held global audiences spellbound. We will appear in major festivals, including the Galway International Arts Festival and Dublin Theatre Festival. This is a renaissance of opera in Ireland and you can be part of our success story. Join the Founders Circle by making a once-off contribution of €1,000 and your name will forever be associated with the founding of Irish National Opera. We will acknowledge members of our Founders Circle in perpetuity. If you wish, you may also choose to make a Founders Circle contribution in someone else’s name(s) and, if you prefer, you can make a contribution anonymously. This is your chance to play a part in the history of Irish opera.

Call us on (01) 679 4962 see www.irishnationalopera.ie or email diego@irishnationalopera.ie for further information.

Irish National Opera

INO team Artistic Director Fergus Sheil Executive Director Diego Fasciati Head of Production Gavin Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Sullivan Marketing Manager Sorcha Carroll Office & Finance Manager Cate Kelliher Artistic Co-ordinator Muireann NĂ Dhubhghaill Marketing Interns Sonya Hayden Nina Suter

Board of Directors Gaby Smyth (Chair) Jennifer Caldwell Stella Litchfield Sara Moorhead Joseph Murphy Ann Nolan Yvonne Shields Michael Wall

Company Reg No.: 601853

Further executive and board recruitment will take place throughout 2018.

69 Dame Street | Dublin 2 | Ireland T: +353 (0)1 679 4962 E: info@irishnationalopera.ie irishnationalopera.ie

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