Andrew Synnott’s ‘Dubliners’ in Samuel Beckett Theatre This Week

A scene from Andrew Synnott and Arthur Riordan’s ‘Dubliners’

Andrew Synnott’s ‘Dubliners’ in Samuel Beckett Theatre This Week

Short operas based on Joyce's short stories to run in Dublin on 9–11 November.

Following its premiere at Wexford Festival Opera – the first opera by a living Irish composer ever to be performed at the festival – Dubliners by Andrew Synnott and librettist Arthur Riordan will play at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin, on 9–11 November.

Featuring two short operas based on ‘Counterparts’ and ‘The Boarding House’ from the 1914 James Joyce collection of stories, Dubliners is scored for piano, string quartet and a cast of six singers. Directed by Synnott from the keyboard, the double-bill was described by Cathy Desmond in the Examiner as ‘rare and wonderful and my highlight of the 2017 [Wexford Opera] festival’

Arthur Riordan recently collaborated with Bill Whelan on The Train which had a successful run at the Abbey Theatre earlier this year.  

Counterparts follows the growing frustration of  lumbering alcoholic copyist Farrington (Cormac O’Lawlor) over the course of one afternoon and evening. The Boarding House tells the story of proprietor Mrs Mooney (Anna Jeffers), her daughter Polly (Emma Nash), and the latter’s relationship with the successful clerk Bob Doran (Andrew Gavin). David Howes plays Mrs Mooney’s son Jack in The Boarding House and Peter O’Donohue plays Higgins in Counterparts.

Both operas, each lasting a half-hour each, are directed by Annabelle Comyn.

For further details and tickets, visit http://www.opera.ie/whats-on/dubliners 

This news item is supported by Opera Theatre Company.

 

Published on 2 November 2017

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