Kaleidoscope Night is thrilled to present their next KaleidoFeature with the wonderful mezzo soprano Sharon Carty. Premiering Sunday 11th July at 8.30pm, “To Hell and Back” will take us on a journey. The extraordinary textual and musical repertoire spans centuries from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, works which were both birthed around the turn of the 16th century, to contemporary composers and authors David Lang, Rachael Lavelle and Cynthia Belmont.

Schubert’s maiden attempts to resist the unwanted advances of Death himself, Hamlet considers whether “to be or not to be”. Hagemann’s beautiful setting of Rabindranath Tagores’ “Do not go my love” explores the perspective of one who will be left behind, should their beloved be taken, or chose to leave. The central part of the programme concerns the underworld itself, and we once again hear the voice of Death personified, this time in Lang’s “Death speaks No.1”, as well as perspectives of the female mythical characters Demeter, Persephone and Euridice, as they lament their various situations. The musical triptych is completed with a sense of hope in overcoming the demons of Hades, and looking towards resurrection in Gluck’s “Addio, addio o miei sospiri” and Mahler’s “Urlicht”, bringing our listeners on a journey “to hell and back”. Kaleidescope's commissioned composer Racheal Lavelle will premiere her new work Demeter- Last day Of Summer for voice, string quartet and piano

Our special guests include: Aaron Monaghan, David Adams, Barry O’Halpin, The Kaleidoscope Night Quartet, Larissa O’Grady, Maria Ryan, Lisa Dowdall, Yseult Cooper Stockdale, Aoife Nic Athlaoich, Dulciana, Rachael Lavelle and Malachy Robinson.

This concert comes to you from the very beautiful Museum of Literature Ireland.