Claudia Boyle with Aoife O’Sullivan on piano (Photo: Kip Carroll)

Irish National Opera’s New Opera Explorer Series

Series will focus on a different country each week and feature Claudia Boyle, Naomi Louisa O’Connell, Gyula Nagy, John Molloy, Sinéad Campbell Wallace, Brenton Ryan and more.

A new Friday Opera Explorer series from Irish National Opera will begin today (Friday 30 April) at 5pm.

Each week, the series will focus on a different country and singers such as Claudia Boyle, Naomi Louisa O’Connell, Gavan Ring and Gyula Nagy will perform a range of classic arias from Bellini to Beethoven and Berlioz to Richard Strauss.

The Explorer series will also feature interviews with Irish composers, including Gerald Barry, Jennifer Walshe, Finola Merivale, Amanda Feery and Emma O’Halloran, who have worked with INO or are currently engaged in upcoming INO projects.

The series begins this afternoon with a focus on Italy and works by Bellini and Donizetti.

The opportunity to create Friday Opera Explorer arose following INO’s concert performance of Puccini’s La bohème in March. ‘We wanted to deliver new opera experiences for our audiences,’ says artistic director Fergus Sheil, ‘But normal performances and concerts have remained out of bounds. So we stayed in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre to make recordings in the spacious ambience of the foyer and then moved to the completely different, intimately Georgian ambience of the Goethe-Institut on Dublin’s Merrion Square to film further videos. And lockdowns being what they are, we found ourselves adding another session right in the heart of opera in Ireland, the Irish National Opera offices.’

The series takes place over five weeks. See the full programme below. The Friday Opera Explorer will be available to view on INO’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.

For more, visit https://www.irishnationalopera.ie/

Friday Opera Explorer

Friday 30 April from 5pm
Italy
Arias from Bellini’s I puritani, La sonnambula and Norma, and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.
Sung by Claudia Boyle, Naomi Louisa O’Connell, Gyula Nagy, John Molloy.
Composer interview with Gerald Barry.

Friday 7 May from 5pm
Germany
Arias from Beethoven’s Fidelio, and Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Tannhäuser.
Sung by Sinéad Campbell Wallace, Brenton Ryan, Ben McAteer, Gyula Nagy, John Molloy.
Composer interview with Emma O’Halloran.

Friday 14 May from 5pm
France
Arias from Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust, Gounod’s Faust and Roméo et Juliette, and Massenet’s Cendrillon and Werther.
Sung by Sarah Shine, Gemma Ní Bhriain, Naomi Louisa O’Connell, Gavan Ring, John Molloy.
Composer interview with Finola Merivale.

Friday 21 May from 5pm
Russia
Arias from Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden, Borodin’s Prince Igor, and Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Eugene Onegin.
Sung by Claudia Boyle, Sarah Shine, Gavan Ring, Brenton Ryan, Ben McAteer, Gyula Nagy.
Composer interview with Jennifer Walshe.

Friday 21 May from 5pm
Germany
Arias from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra and Ariadne auf Naxos.
Sung by Sinéad Campbell Wallace, Sarah Shine, Naomi Louisa O’Connell, Gemma Ní Bhriain, Gavan Ring, Brenton Ryan.
Composer interview with Amanda Feery.