Gluck
Orfeo ed Euridice
Irish national opera principal funder
Christoph Willibald Gluck 1714-87
Orfeo ed Euridice 1762
a co–production with United Fall in partnership with Irish Baroque Orchestra
Azione teatrale in three acts Libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi. After the Greek myth of Orpheus First performances, Vienna, Burgtheater, 5 October 1762 (Italian version) Paris, Salle du Palais-Royal, 2 August 1774 (French version) First performance in Ireland, Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 3 January 1784 (in English, with additions by JC Bach, the first performance anywhere of the work in English translation).
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
Reduced orchestration of Orfeo ed Euridice provided by Pocket Publications, UK. Duration 85 minutes. There will be no interval.
PERFORMANCES 2019 Thur 7 & Fri 8 February Civic Theatre Tallaght Sun 10 February St. Peter’s Church of Ireland Drogheda Concert performance Tue 12 February Mermaid Arts Centre Bray Thur 14 February Theatre Royal Waterford Sat 16 February Visual Carlow Theatre Carlow Sun 17 February Castletown House Celbridge Concert performance Tue 19 February The Everyman Theatre Cork Thur 21 February Glór Ennis Sat 23 February Siamsa Tíre Tralee Wed 27 & Thur 28 February Pavilion Theatre Dún Laoghaire Sat 2 March National Opera House Wexford 03
puccini
madama butterfly Sunday 24 – Saturday 30 March
Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Thursday 4 & Friday 5 April
CORK OPERA HOUSE Starring Celine Byrne
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irishnationalopera.ie
Welcome Note
Fergus Sheil Artistic director
Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice is a work apart. It’s an opera in which Gluck moved away from stock operatic characters and formulas. He jettisoned the decorated repeats of the da-capo aria, which had been used by performers as a vehicle for virtuosic display. He was concerned with emotional purity. He wanted to create an opera with expressively-focussed arias, ravishing orchestral music, soulful choruses and evocative dance. Each element became an interdependent building block. Today we would call this a cross-artform hybrid work. In Gluck’s time it was referred to as a “Reform” opera. It’s a work that’s very close to my own heart. My love of opera was sparked by my discovery of how the potency of singing can be amplified by the theatrical elements that enfold it. The alchemy of opera continues to amaze me – how the whole experience of singing, movement, storytelling, costuming, lighting and orchestral sound can so magnificently exceed the sum of its parts. In Orfeo ed Euridice Gluck created a very special treat, and for our co-production we teamed up with United Fall, a company led by director and choreographer Emma Martin, whose work blurs the borders between conventional theatre and dance. Emma’s approach to Orfeo ed Euridice has delivered a production of unique taste. She has carefully and honestly balanced the elements of movement, music and virtuosity. With our team of stylish performers – led by Sharon Carty and Sarah Power in the title roles – Emma has created an experience that honours Gluck’s intentions by stretching the boundaries of opera production.
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a ily er m op e fa An l th l ra fo
MOZART
THE MAGIC FLUTE Friday 17 may National Opera House Wexford Sunday 19 may University Concert Hall limerick tuesday 21 – saturday 25 May Gaiety Theatre Dublin irishnationalopera.ie
The vivid colour and rhythmic spring of the Irish Baroque Orchestra under Peter Whelan matches the vigour of the staging. The orchestra creates the unique aural landscape on which all of the events unfold. For Irish National Opera it’s a source of great pride to have been able to present a production of such probing discipline and expressive reach so early in our own life-cycle. Our Orfeo ed Euridice opened at the 2018 Galway International Arts Festival just six months after we launched our new company. And now, just over six months later, we are delighted to be taking this critically-acclaimed show to venues throughout Ireland. INO’s Orfeo Ed Euridice is the embodiment of a number of our core values – how we seek a fresh approach to production, how we champion outstanding Irish artists in our creative teams, on stage, and in the pit, and how our creative partnership with United Fall, Irish Baroque Orchestra and others help us realise these ambitions. I hope you will enjoy the performance tonight and I look forward to seeing you again during the year as we continue on our adventurous operatic journey.
Fergus Sheil Artistic director
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The Power of Music
Diego Fasciati Executive Director
It is with great pleasure that we open our 2019 programme with a national tour. We are the national opera company of Ireland and at the core of our mission is the presentation of inspirational masterworks of the operatic canon. We do this not just in major venues and large population centres, but throughout the country. We connect with a wide range of communities and in turn connect them to live opera. We are particularly proud of the Orfeo ed Euridice we created in collaboration with United Fall and Irish Baroque Orchestra. The myth of Orpheus, the Greek musician and poet with the gift to charm even the gods of the underworld, has inspired countless works of art and a multitude of operas. Composers throughout the centuries – from Monteverdi, Haydn, Offenbach (whose satirical version of this story features the famous can-can dance) and Harrison Birtwistle – have frequently visited the subject. It is easy to understand why. At its core, the Orpheus legend extols the mysterious power of music. Here at INO we recently celebrated our first birthday and we are thankful to all the people who supported us over the last twelve months and more – our audiences, our artistic and cultural partners and all the individuals who joined our Founders Circle to help secure the future of Irish opera. And it goes without saying that INO simply would not exist without the backing and financial investment of the Arts Council. Behind the scenes, we have been busy building a small, dedicated, first-rate team to deliver our productions, our tours, the INO Studio, our outreach activities and special events. We’re not the only people to be singing our praises. You’ll be delighted to know that INO’s first year of activity has brought three nominations for this year’s Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards. In the Irish Times article about the nominations Peter Crawley writes, “The
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judges all point to an impressive first year for Irish National Opera, nominated for both The Tales of Hoffmann and Bluebeard’s Castle, crowning a buoyant year for the art form.” And in The Journal of Music’s review of Orfeo ed Euridice Toner Quinn wrote, “I would much rather a national opera company that experiments and challenges the audience rather than staying with a safe passage. In Galway, every night was a full house... In building new audiences for opera with its adventurous spirit, there is a sense that INO is achieving something special right now.” Far from sitting on our laurels, we are busy preparing our future seasons and in making plans to develop and grow the company. To this end, we have just unveiled our Friends & Patrons scheme. We hope that if you love opera you will join our family of opera lovers by becoming a Friend of Irish National Opera. This will help ensure that we thrive and continue to bring you exciting and passionate opera productions. It is also my hope that we will see many if not all of you again at our upcoming productions. The exceptional Irish soprano Celine Byrne will sing the title role in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in Dublin in March and on our first visit to the Cork Opera House in April. In May a stellar cast including Anna Devin, Jennifer Davis and Gavan Ring will grace the stage in Mozart’s The Magic Flute in Wexford, Limerick (a first visit for a concert performance at the University Concert Hall) and Dublin. Mozart’s great opera is another work in which the playing of a musical instrument produces magical effects. Come to the opera and let yourself be seduced by the power of music.
Diego Fasciati Executive Director
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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.
Emma Martin Director & Choreographer
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 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. I hope you enjoy this evening’s performance as much as we’ve enjoyed making it.
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“ …movement that’s likely to take your breath away…” Vogue on Martin’s work in Arlington
“ Exquisitely and superbly choreographed...Girl Song weaves an irresistible magic” The Arts Review
unitedfall.com 12
synopsis Act I 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 where he can try to 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.
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 paradise 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.
Act III 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, this time 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 he has lost twice over. 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.
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CAST Orfeo
Sharon Carty
Mezzo-soprano
Euridice
Sarah Power
Soprano
Amore
Emma Nash
Soprano
CHORUS
DANCERS
Emma Nash
Robyn Byrne
Dominica Williams
Stephanie Dufresne
Fearghal Curtis
Javier Ferrer
Matthew Mannion
Sophia Preidel
Creative Team
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Conductor
Peter Whelan
Director & Choreographer
Emma Martin
Set Designer
Sabine Dargent
Costume Designer
Catherine Fay
Lighting Designer
Stephen Dodd
Assistant Director
Emmanuel Obeya
Irish baroque orchestra
Production Team
Violin I Kinga Ujszászi
Production Manager Michael Lonergan
Costume Supervisor Frances White
Company Stage Manager Paula Tierney
Hair & Makeup Carole Dunne
Stage Manager Conleth Stanley
Surtitle Operator Maeve Sheil
Technical Manager Danny Hones
Set Construction Gavin Morgan
Violin II Anita Vedres Viola Marja Gaynor Cello Sarah McMahon Double Bass Edward Tapceanu
Chief Electrician Eoin McNinch Master Carpenter Peter Boyle
Flute Miriam Kaczor Oboe/Cor Anglais Robert de Bree Harp Siobhán Armstrong
Additional Thanks to Transport Trevor Price
Graphic Design Alphabet Soup
Promotional Video Gansee Films
Photography Patrick Redmond Ste Murray, Jeda de Brí
Programme edited by Michael Dervan
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being emm
Image: Orfeo ed Euridice July 2018. Sophia Preidel, Emma Nash, Fearghal Curtis
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THE FIRST OPERA YOU WENT TO?
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The first opera I went to, I went along with my parents to Madame Butterfly [she pauses and laughs] – I was going to say The Mikado. It was Madame Butterfly and I was probably about five or six. My dad had been given tickets. My parents weren’t particularly opera-going people. I was too young to remember the story. It was at the RDS made into a theatre, Simmonscourt, maybe. I do remember it feeling very exotic and very grand in terms of the audience. I remember a scene with the two main characters and it was very beautiful. I loved it. I just remember that picture. I don’t remember any of the music. There were a lot of people there with fans and opera glasses, and it was a whole dressing up do. Actually, I was given a fan by somebody. It was a silkscreen fan. I think I still have the frame somewhere in my parents’ house. The silk is long gone, but there’s still the little stick. Obviously I never imagined at that time that I would ever get involved with opera myself. It just wasn’t on my horizon.
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM YOUR FIRST APPEARANCE IN AN OPERA? I remember that I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing, even though it was on a big stage at the Stuttgart Opera House. We were the kids from the school [the John Cranko
emma martin Schule in Stuttgart] brought in as extra chorus and dancers. I’m so embarrassed, I don’t know what the opera was. It was a Russian opera. We had Russian costumes that were extremely tight, and I had to look at the girl ahead of me to know what I was doing. We only had very short rehearsals. I was amazed. Ballet would have a lot of people on stage. But the number of people on stage during this opera was really amazing. I remember thinking, they can’t even see me, anyway. It should be fine. We probably had to do it four or five times over the course of a month. It was exciting. It was a whole new cast of faces from the Stuttgart Opera that I’d never met before. We filled up the chorus, and we were dancing as well. Our character teacher – which is like your folklore dance teacher – taught us the sequence of steps that we were going to be doing, and then we were handed over to a person who deals with the children in the opera house. She was the connection between the ballet school and the opera house, she took us in for the stage rehearsals and general rehearsals. I also remember having to wait for what felt like hours between our first appearance and our second appearance, and getting really confused about which was which, and what to do the second time we were on.
WHAT WAS THE BEST OPERA-RELATED ADVICE YOU EVER GOT? When I was younger I was talking to some teacher about this ballet dancer who worked in the theatre, a performer I was totally engrossed by and who I looked up to. I remember the ballet teacher saying, the thing that makes her special is not her technique but the fact she commits every fibre of herself to every second of what she does. That has really stayed with me. Because if you commit to anything, and believe in what it is you’re working on or what it is you’re doing, you can’t go wrong for yourself. You won’t do your own work any lack of justice. If you don’t believe in something it’s very hard to carry it through. If you lose faith in a piece you’re interpreting, or a libretto, or a piece of music, even if it’s not the kind of thing you’d normally be attracted by... you need to find your way into it, believe in it as something that has lasted, something that has stood the test of time, and then you’ll be OK. Peter Whelan, the conductor for Orfeo ed Euridice, was very encouraging. Every day there were certain moments where I would ask, could we do this, and he was very much like, you have to do whatever you want, you have to take it by the horns. That was also good advice. Not to be afraid of it.
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WHAT IS THE MOST ANNOYING MISCONCEPTION ABOUT OPERA? Probably that everybody involved in an opera is of a certain kind of social group, that it’s a posh man’s game, or that there’s a certain type of person who works – even in the creation, even in the backstage – on opera. But, actually, the number of people it takes to make an opera, the singers I’ve met, even the stars, nobody is from that sort of privileged background. People come from all sorts of backgrounds. It’s a real mixture of people that comes together to make it. Even having been to an opera at a young age, it wasn’t because my family were opera-going people. They didn’t really know much about opera at all. The only reason they went was because it was a work do, and I was allowed to go along with them. I think for a lot of people who get into opera, it’s not that they were brought up on opera.
WHAT MOMENT DO YOU MOST LOOK FORWARD TO WHEN YOU GO TO A PERFORMANCE OF, OR WATCH A VIDEO OF ORFEO ED EURIDICE? To be honest, it has to be the moment where he meets her again, where they connect, Orfeo and Euridice. It’s when the Blessed Spirits bring Euridice to Orfeo. That’s the moment that
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gives me the shivers. Musically, I love it. It’s the moment we’re all waiting for, really.
WHAT’S THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT OF WORKING ON ORFEO ED EURIDICE? I think for me it was trying to stay truthful to what attracted me to the actual story in the first place – the myth. I know why Gluck added that extra part at the end. It was for a certain kind of audience that needed it at the time. I did battle for a while. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to do it justice, because I didn’t feel that was truthful. That was a battle – with myself, not with anybody else. Also, even though it wasn’t a big, heavy challenge, a lot of the work went into the months coming up to the actual rehearsals – how do we put this in an image, how does this translate in a visual sense? Once I go into the studio I have a clear master plan. But the months ahead of that are a journey. For Orfeo ed Euridice it was a journey with Sabine [Dargent], the designer. We met once a week for month and months, and talked about it, asked questions. It was never going to be radically set in a supermarket or anything like that. It was the two of us trying to converge on a path together. Which is hard to do. To bring two brains on to the one path. That’s why the time
helped. Something that really focused things was Peter Whelan wanting to do the Vienna version [from 1762 rather than the Paris version of 1774], which is a very pure version, and quite a defining one. It made a lot of decisions easier.
WHAT’S THE WEIRDEST THING YOU’VE HAD TO DO IN AN OPERA PRODUCTION? It was at the Wexford Festival one year. It was just myself and another dancer on that raked stage. We were two bayadères, temple dancers. One moment we were temple dancers trying not to slip down the rake. The next moment we were running off backstage, taking off our costumes and putting on the most broken up, ridiculous-looking cardboard cutouts of the deity Ganesh, who was an elephant, and a ship. All the audience could see was our silhouettes, but we were laughing the whole time during the shadow battle. I’m sure it all looked great from the front. But the cutouts were so battered and bent, and had this gaffer tape all over and tying it on to our bodies... it was so funny. There were these two tech guys who held the lights behind us. They just laughed the whole way through. And I remember one of them was smoking. You could smoke backstage. It was the early 2000s.
IF YOU WEREN’T A DANCER/ CHOREOGRAPHER/OPERA DIRECTOR, WHAT MIGHT YOU HAVE BECOME? Well, my earliest memory of having career drive in my life was, I wanted to become a jockey. I used to be an avid horse-rider, probably not very good, but I loved it. That was definitely one possibility, no, not a possibility, but it was a desire that I had. The other one – these were all under the age of ten – was a long-distance truck driver. It sounds really odd. There was something about driving, I loved the idea of driving when I was younger. I was really into the idea of being independent and mobile. There was something about being on your own, your house being in the cab of a lorry, and just driving. Driving for a very long time. I just loved the idea of that. Driving in your house! In CONVERSATION with Michael Dervan
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Gluck, Guadagni
Christoph Willibald Gluck, 1775 portrait by Joseph Siffred Duplessis
The Irish tenor Michael Kelly (17621826) is remembered for his friendship with Mozart, and for having sung in the first performance of the composer’s The Marriage of Figaro. Kelly’s Reminiscences, published in London in the year he died, include first-hand accounts of Mozart as an artist and as a friend. Kelly also worked with Gluck, and met with Gaetano Guadagni (172892), the castrato who created the role of Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice.
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Michael Kelly on working with Gluck There was a very excellent company of German singers at the Canatore Theatre; it was more spacious than the Imperial Court Theatre. The first female singer was Madame Lange, wife to the excellent comedian of that name, and sister to Madame Mozart. She was a wonderful favourite, and deservedly so; she had a greater extent of high notes than any other singer I ever heard. The songs which Mozart composed for her in L’Enlevement du Serail [Die Entführung aus dem Serail], show what a compass of voice she had; her execution was most brilliant. Stephen Storace told me it was far beyond that of Bastardini, who was engaged to sing at the Pantheon in London, and who, for each night of her performance, of two songs, received one hundred guineas, an enormous sum at that time; and (comparatively speaking) more than two hundred at the present day.* A number of foreign Princes, among whom were the Duc de Deux Ponts, the Elector of Bavaria, &c., with great retinues, came to visit the Emperor, * [ The footnote is Kelly’s own] Storace was then a boy, studying music under his father, who gave him a bravura song of Bastardini’s to copy. Storace was so astonished that fifty guineas should be paid for singing a song, that he counted the notes in it, and calculated the amount of each note at 4s. 10d [24 pence in decimal money]. He valued one of the divisions running up and down at £18 12s [£18.60 in decimal money]. It was a whimsical thing for a boy to do, but perfectly in character; his passion for calculation was beyond all belief, except to those who witnessed it.
and high rewards who, upon this occasion, signified his wish to have two grand serious operas, both the composition of Chevalier Gluck; – L’Iphigenia in Tauride, and L’Alceste, produced under the direction of the composer; and gave orders that no expense should be spared to give them every effect. Gluck was then living at Vienna, where he had retired, crowned with professional honours, and a splendid fortune, courted and caressed by all ranks, and in his seventy-fourth year. L’Iphigenia was the first opera to be produced, and Gluck was to make his choice of the performers in it. Madame Bernasconi was one of the first serious singers of the day, – to her was appropriated the part of Iphigenia. The celebrated tenor, Ademberger, performed the part of Orestes, finely. To me was allotted the character of Pylades, which created no small envy among those performers who thought themselves better entitled to the part than myself, and perhaps they were right; – however, I had it, and also the high gratification of being instructed in the part by the composer himself. One morning, after I had been singing with him, he said, ‘Follow me up stairs, Sir, and I will introduce you to one, whom, all my life, I have made my study, and endeavoured to imitate.’ I followed him into his bed-room, and, opposite to the head of the bed, saw a
full-length picture of Handel, in a rich frame. ‘There, Sir,’ said he, ‘is the portrait of the inspired master of our art; when I open my eyes in the morning, I look upon him with reverential awe, and acknowledge him as such, and the highest praise is due to your country for having distinguished and cherished his gigantic genius.’ L’Iphigenia was soon put into rehearsal, and a corps de ballet engaged for the incidental dances belonging to the piece. The ballet master was Monsieur De Camp, the uncle of that excellent actress, and accomplished and deserving woman, Mrs. Charles Kemble. Gluck superintended the rehearsals, with his powdered wig, and goldheaded cane; the orchestra and choruses were augmented, and all the parts were well filled. The second opera was Alceste, which was got up with magnificence and splendour, worthy an Imperial Court. For describing the strongest passions in music, and proving grand dramatic effect, in my opinion, no man ever equalled Gluck – he was a great painter of music; perhaps the expression is far fetched, and may not be allowable, but I speak from my own feelings, and the sensation his descriptive music always produced on me. For example, I never could hear, without tears, the dream of Orestes, in Iphigenia: when in sleep, he prays the gods to give a ray of peace to the
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parricide Orestes. What can be more expressive of deep and dark despair? – And the fine chorus of the demons who surround his couch, with the ghost of his mother, produced in me a feeling of horror, mixed with delight.
me it was dreadfully tiresome, for, like Mungo, in the Padlock, ‘What signify me hear, when me no understand.’ [Mungo was a black servant in a 1768 two-act operatic afterpiece with music by Charles Dibdin and words by Isaac Bickerstaffe]
Dr. Burney (no mean authority) said, Gluck was the Michael Angelo of living composers, and called him the simplifying musician. Salieri told me that a comic opera of Gluck’s being performed at the Elector Palatine’s theatre, at Schwetzingen, his Electoral Highness was struck with the music, and inquired who had composed it; on being informed that he was an honest German who loved old wine, his Highness immediately ordered him a tun of Hock [a tun was a large cask equal in imperial measure to four hogsheads; a hogshead contained 238.7 litres or 318 21st-century bottles of wine].
My companion prevailed on me to accompany him to Padua, where he had business to transact. It was very little out of our way, and I had a strong desire to see that learned city. When we arrived, we went to an inn, called the Stella d’Oro. Padua was interesting to me, as the birth-place of Tartini, and the two greatest singers of their time were living there retired, Pachierotti [the soprano castrato Gaspare Paccherotti (1740-1821)] and Guadagni. The latter was a Cavaliere. He had built a house, or rather a palace, in which he had a very neat theatre, and a company of puppets, which represented L’Orpheo e Euridice; himself singing the part of Orpheo behind the scenes. It was in this character, and in singing Gluck’s beautiful rondo in it, ‘Che farò senza Euridice’, that he distinguished himself in every theatre in Europe, and drew such immense houses in London.
Michael Kelly on meeting Guadagni After going through the purgatory of German roads and German postilions, we arrived in the Venetian States, and remained a day at Palma Nuova, to refresh ourselves, and view its celebrated fortifications, considered to be amongst the strongest in Europe. My companion, as a military man, was delighted while the sergeant who accompanied us, gave a long and perhaps learned dissertation on the art of engineering; to
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His puppet-show was his hobby-horse, and as he received no money, he had always crowded houses. He had a good fortune, with which he was very liberal, and was the handsomest man of his kind I ever saw.
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United Fall Led by choreographer and director Emma Martin, United Fall’s work is known for its ambitious, multidisciplinary work of a highly visual and atmospheric nature. In 2015 Emma formed United Fall (previously Emma Martin Dance), 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 moves freely between all of these forms in order to serve each work. United Fall’s previous productions include Girl Song (Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival 2018/ Dublin Theatre Festival 2017), Dancehall (2015), Tundra (2014), Dogs (2012). Her work has been commissioned by Dublin Dance Festival, Irish Arts Center and has been coproduced by Dublin Theatre Festival, Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival and Centre de Développement Chorégraphique, Toulouse. United Fall’s work is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland. United Fall is a resident company of VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art in Carlow.
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Irish Baroque Orchestra Irish Baroque Orchestra are one of Ireland’s most dynamic musical ensembles. The orchestra performs music from the 17th-19th centuries recreating musical experiences on period instruments, as they were intended to be heard. IBO performs its annual concert season in Dublin and tours throughout Ireland, as well as international appearances. Our season incorporates orchestral, instrumental, chamber, vocal, choral and operatic projects. In January 2018, acclaimed Irish harpsichordist and director, Peter Whelan commenced his tenure as Artistic Director. Peter’s primary area of research is the rediscovery of the Golden Age of Music in 18th-century Dublin. This will be a key focus of our artistic endeavours in the coming years, to complement our exploration of the great baroque masters. Irish Baroque Orchestra are a partner organisation of Irish National Opera and will explore the rich canon of baroque opera in their coming seasons. In July 2018, IBO performed in INO’s production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, directed by Emma Martin and conducted by Peter Whelan, at Galway International Arts Festival. Irish Baroque Orchestra has received great critical acclaim for its recordings. Our 2016 release Concerti Bizarri was hailed as ‘…virtuosic razzle-dazzle… deliciously alert, spirited, and free from affectation, its clarity is beautifully matched by the recording’ (BBC Music Magazine). Our forthcoming release, Welcome Home Mr Dubourg, will be released on Linn Records in April 2019. Irish Baroque Orchestra is funded the Arts Council of Ireland/ An Chomhairle Ealaíon, Dublin City Council and is a resident company of the National Concert Hall, Dublin. We are proud to be under the sole patronage of President of Ireland/Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D. Higgins.
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BIOGRAPHIES
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PETER WHELAN CONDUCTOR
EMMA MARTIN DIRECTOR & Choreographer
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 virtuoso bassoonist. He is artistic director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and founding artistic director of Ensemble Marsyas and has been dubbed “as exciting a live wire as Ireland has produced in the world of period performance” (The Irish Times). His work has also been praised for its ‘stylish verve’ (BBC Music Magazine), its ‘style and charisma’ (The Guardian), and its ‘buoyant style’ (Financial Times). He is in his second year as an Artistic Partner of Irish National Opera, for which, in addition to Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, will also conducts Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. Other 2019 highlights include his conducting debut with The English Concert and a residency at the Wigmore Hall with Ensemble Marsyas. 2019 will also see the release of his debut recording with the Irish Baroque Orchestra for Linn Records – Welcome Home, Mr Dubourg, exploring the life and music of Matthew Dubourg, “Master and Chief Composer of the Irish State Musick” at Dublin Castle in the eighteenth century. Recent conducting and directing engagements include Bach cantatas at the Concertgebouw, Brugge (2019), Handel’s Radamisto with English Touring Opera (2018), Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with Irish National Opera (2018), Portland Baroque Orchestra (2017), Edinburgh International Festival (2017), Kilkenny Arts Festival (2017), Bath Festival (2017) and Wigmore Hall (2016).
Emma Martin is a choreographer and director based in Co. Carlow. She is a native of Meath and graduated from the John Cranko Ballet School in Stuttgart. She is the founder and artistic director of the dance theatre company United Fall. 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 Hoffnungsträger (bearer of hope). From 2012-2017 she was Dance Artist in Residence at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art in Carlow and since 2011 had been an associate artist of Dance Ireland. Most recent theatre collaborations include Danse, Morob (The Emergency Room) and Arlington (Landmark Productions/Galway International Arts Festival). She made her Irish National Opera debut and her debut as an opera director with Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in July 2018.
SABINE DARGENT SET DESIGNER
CATHERINE FAY COSTUME 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 and 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 the 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 designed Näher... closer, nearer, sooner for Liz Roche Company in September, Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses for Opera Collective Ireland at Kilkenny Arts Festival in August and before that The Plough and the Stars (Lyric Hammersmith/Abbey Theatre, Irish Times Theatre Award nomination 2017). In 2017 she designed Girlsong (United Fall), 12 Minute Dances and Totems (Liz Roche Company), Britten’s Owen Wingrave (Opera Collective Ireland & Opera Bastille, Paris), and Handel’s Acis and Galatea (Opera Theatre Company), and The Importance of Nothing (Pan Pan Theatre Company). Her work with the Abbey Theatre includes Our Few and Evil Days (Irish Times Theatre Award nomination 2015), and Henry IV Part I (Irish Times/ ESB Theatre Award nomination 2007). For the Gate Theatre she has designed Romeo and Juliet (Irish Times Theatre Award nomination 2016) and Weill’s The Threepenny Opera. Other work includes Breaking Dad (Landmark Productions) (Irish Times Theatre Award nomination 2015) and DOGS (Emma Martin Dance, Winner Best Production and Best Design for ABSOLUT Fringe Festival 2012).
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STEPHEN DODD LIGHTING DESIGNER
EMMANUEL OBEYA ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Lighting designer Stephen Dodd trained at The Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College, and is based in Dublin. His recent lighting designs include Company (Company SJ, Dublin Theatre Festival 2018); I/Thou (Liz Roche Company, Cork Opera House 2018); Wrongheaded (Liz Roche Company, Dublin Dance Festival 2018); Girl Song and Dancehall (United Fall/Emma Martin, Dublin Theatre Festival 2017 and 2015); Hamnet (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 (Brokentalkers, Dublin Theatre Festival 2016).
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 multiaward 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
SARAH POWER SOPRANO
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, and the title role in Handel’s Ariodante. She made her Irish National Opera debut as Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice last July, and created the role of Amy in Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s FEDORA-Generali prize-winning opera The Second Violinist in 2017. 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. Recent and upcoming highlights include London and Amsterdam opera debuts in The Second Violinist, her Wexford Festival Opera debut as Lucy Talbot in William Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight. 2019 sees her touring Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Holland with the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht, as well concerts, with the Vogler Quartet at the Sligo Chamber Music Festival, her debut at the Kölner Philharmonie, and a concert of “Suitcase arias” for Music for Galway. Recordings include Gilbert & Cellier’s 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.
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 Handel’s Messiah with the Dunedin Consort in Edinburgh and Glasgow, 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. Recent and future engagements include Mary Longdon in Raymond Deane’s new Vagabones (Opera Collective Ireland), Howard Goodall’s Invictus: A Passion (Bray Choral Society), Haydn’s Creation (Concerts from Scratch, Athens) and performances with the Irish Baroque Orchestra in Dublin and Clonmel celebrating International Women’s Day.
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EMMA NASH SOPRANO
DOMINICA WILLIAMS MEZZO-SOPRANO
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 a winner of the PWC/Wexford Festival Opera Emerging Young Artist bursary in 2017 and the UCH Limerick Rising Star 2018 award. Last year she played herself in Backstage, a prequel to the Irish Times Theatre Award-nominated Front of House by Tom Lane at the Cork Opera House, returned to Wexford Festival Opera’s ShortWorks in October and sang the role of Yum-Yum in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado at Cork Opera House in September. In 2017 that 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. She also 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), Janthe in Marschner’s Der Vampyr (The Everyman/Cork Operatic Society) and Moppet in the Royal Philharmonic Society opera awarding-winning production of Britten’s Paul Bunyan with Welsh National Youth Opera.
Dominica is a mezzo-soprano from Dublin. In January 2018, she sang the mezzo role in Opera – it’s all about like... by Brian Irvine at the launch of Irish National Opera, and made her formal company debut with Irish National Opera as Second Bridesmaid in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro the following April. 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 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 for the Dutch premiere of Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s The Second Violinist, which has already enjoyed successful runs in Galway, Dublin, and London. As an oratorio and concert soloist she has sung with the Ulster Orchestra, East Cork Choral Society, Dún Laoghaire Choral Society, Dublin County Choir, University of Dublin Choral Society and AIB Choral Society.
FEARGHAL CURTIS TENOR
MATTHEW MANNION BARITONE
Fearghal is from Dublin and is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin. He made his Irish National Opera debut as Spalanzani in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann. Also in 2018 he created the role of Stephen Dedalus in Eric Sweeney’s Ulysses (Bloomsday Festival) and in 2017 sang 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 the awardwinning production of Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s The Second Violinist (Wide Open Opera/ Landmark Productions). Other opera highlights include Damon in 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 has also toured around Germany as lead classical tenor of The World of Musicals tour with GFD Promotions.
Matthew Mannion is a final 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, Morales in Bizet’s Carmen and Samuel in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance (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). He made his Irish National Opera debut in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in July 2018.
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ROBYN BYRNE DANCER
STEPHANIE DUFRESNE 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). She made her Irish National Opera debut in July 2018 in Orfeo ed Euridice – her first work with Emma Martin/United Fall and her first opera production.
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 nationally and internationally with choreographers and companies including Protein Dance, Icon Dance, Chrysalis Dance, United Fall/Emma Martin, Junk Ensemble, Dam Van Huynh, Marguerite Donlon, Liz Roche, John Scott and John Heginbotham. She is a graduate of the two-year, full-time programme at Bow Street, the academy for screen acting at Smithfield in Dublin. Since then she has combined acting and dance in a number of different productions, not least in her own choreographic work which has been supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Dance Ireland. In December 2017 she played the lead role of Karen in Selina Cartmell’s production of The Red Shoes for the Gate Theatre, Dublin. She made her Irish National Opera debut in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice last July.
SOPHIA PREIDEL DANCER
Javier Ferrer 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. She made her Irish National Opera debut in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice last July.
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. He made his Irish National Opera debut in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice last July.
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to Come in 2019 MArch Thursday 7 March Dennehy & Walsh The Second Violinist Muziekgebouw Aan ’t Ij Amsterdam Saturday 9 March Dennehy & Walsh The Second Violinist Muziekgebouw Aan ’t Ij Amsterdam Sunday 24 March Puccini Madama Butterfly Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin Tuesday 26 March Puccini Madama Butterfly Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin Thursday 28 March Puccini Madama Butterfly Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin Saturday 30 March Puccini Madama Butterfly Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin
April Thursday 4 April Puccini Madama Butterfly Cork Opera House Cork Friday 5 April Puccini Madama Butterfly Cork Opera House Cork
MAy Friday 17 May Mozart The Magic Flute National Opera House Wexford Sunday 19 May Mozart The Magic Flute University Concert Hall Limerick Tuesday 21 May Mozart The Magic Flute Gaiety Theatre Dublin Wednesday 22 May Mozart The Magic Flute Gaiety Theatre Dublin Thursday 23 May Mozart The Magic Flute Gaiety Theatre Dublin Friday 24 May Mozart The Magic Flute Gaiety Theatre Dublin Saturday 25 May Mozart The Magic Flute Gaiety Theatre Dublin
June Thursday 27 June Rigaki & Okorie This Hostel Life Christ Church Cathedral Dublin Saturday 29 June Rigaki & Okorie This Hostel Life Christ Church Cathedral Dublin
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IERE IRISH M PRE
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Griselda With The Irish Baroque Orchestra
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