Tonos on Tour

https://soundcloud.com/amonweeney-uitar/tonos-etienne-moulinie-non-ha-sottil-cie


Tonos are a very fine duo specialising in early music comprising soprano Roisin O Grady and baroque guitarist Eamonn Sweeney. They have just launched a new CD and are on a nationwide tour. I heard  them yesterday at Castalia Hall Co Kilkenny in  a recital of great charm and grace. I commend them to you.

Remaining Tour dates are here

7 October 2015 – 8pm, Kaleidoscope Night, Bello Bar, Dublin €14. www.kaleidoscopenight.com
11 October 2015 – 1pm, East Cork Early Music Festival, Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Tickets available from: Pro Musica 20 Oliver Plunkett St, Cork. www.eastcorkearlymusic.ie
21 October 2015 – 8pm, Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Wicklow. www.mermaidartscentre.ie

Telphone , Thief, Maid and Mistress: Opera at Castalia 2015:

Cast The Old Miad and the Thief : Frances Marshall Photography

Frances Marshall Photography

Rory Musgrave and Laura Gilsenan : Frances Marshall Photography

In a nice nod  to  local passions,  Ben (Rory Musgrave) wielding a hurl  and in  full Kilkenny kit arrives on stage at Castalia Hall,  bearing a gift, a pink sliother. ( Irish readers will know of course that Kilkenny natives spend at least some part of their adolescence with one arm permanently attached to this wooden sporting accoutrement). His amour {Laura Gilsenan) looks pleased if a little bemused and he is all set to pop the question but somethig thwarts his plans.  The plot of Gian Carlo Menotti's charming  one act domestic drama, The Telephone rings a bell with a  21st century audiece as distracted with a multitude of connecting devices as Laura  is with her elegant 1950's model.  And so begins a highly entertaining evening  at  Opera at Castalia 2015, a weekend festival dedicated to  one act opera under director Alan O Conchubhair.  The staging is simple but effective   The standard of singing is high end quality  with a mix of established professional singers and students at an advanced stage in their studies.  This year, there was no litany 
of woe and all three works were  bright and breezy works in a comic vein.

The second Menotti work was the meatiest work of the evening. Directed by Owen Gilhooly of Mid West Opera, The Old Maid and the Thief is said to be the first peice commissioned for radio performnce. Dara McMahon and Muireann Mulroney are the old maid and busybody Ms PInkerton. Highlights are "What curse for a woman, is a timid man (Steal me, sweet thief)," an extended aria where Laetitia (Maria McHugh) sings of her affection for Bob. Baritone, Tim Shaffrey shines in "When The Air Sings of Summer ' when Bob contemplates hitting the road.

McGrann Noonan France Marshall Photography

If Menotti's work springs from the opera buffa tradition, La Serva Padrona was one of the original Gerry Noonan's exasperated Pandolfo had us laughing out loud. Maria McGrann's was a powerful minxy maid. Tenor Andrew Gavin made the most of his cameo as a hip swivelling Elvis impersonator.
templates. Notorious for sparking the guerre des bouffons, a 18th century controversy on the merits of Italian comic opera versus French grand opera, Liz Ryan's contemporary production made this Baroque gem sparkle set between the two Menotti's .

listen to ‘Baritone Rory Musgrave on his next opera project KAF 15’ on audioBoom

While the spotlight is on the singers, one of the most impressive aspects of performance is the support given by all three pianists who bear the onerous task of single handedly providing the musical scafford to elevate their singing colleagues. The trio who made light work of some tricky parts were; harpsichord major, Adam Collins for The Telephone and Niall Kinsella served in The Maid as Mistress. Michael Young was a powerhouse in Menotti's Old Maid and the Thief.

Given the skill level and calibre of the event, |I find it extraordinary that this event appears to survive merely on good will of the participants and receives no funding.  It is still relatively young endeavour. It began in 2012  an initiative of the late Brendan Mills and Alan O Conchubhair. I hope it will become established as an annual event. The talented team under director Alan O Conchubhair provide terrific entertainment and a valuable platform for Irish singers and musicians. Next year, a work by composer Fiona Linnane is scheduled to receive a premier. Opera at Castalia ticks lots of boxes and is worthy of support.

The venue. Castalia Hall is part of the Camphill Community campus  near Callan in the heart of County Kilkenny. It is an unusual ceilinged octagonal space with an adjacent outdoor amphitheatre .

Bravo tutti!

Niall Kinsella

Afam Collins 

Michael Young

One Act Operas at Castalia

There is a lot to be said for one act operas. If you don't like them, they won't trouble you for very long. I note that Kilkenny Arts Festival has programmed two works this year. I enjoyed an evening devoted to one act works in Kilkenny last year. My report is here . This year's programme looks attractive, a Menotti sandwich with a Pergolesi filling and there are super young singers lined up and some big names scheduled for the Sunday Recital. Here is founder Alan O Conchubhair's programme note I note that baritone turned tenor Owen Gilhooly is director for one of the works Note the early start time of 7pm



'Opera at Castalia, Ireland's one-act opera festival takes place in July each year in the beautiful surroundings of Castalia Hall and Amphitheatre at the Camphill Community, Ballytobin, Callan, Co. Kilkenny. In its four year history this little festival has produced operas by Mascagni, Menotti, Sullivan, Walton, Rameau and Holst. Last year along with Riders to the Sea by Vaughan Williams, they presented two European premieres, In the Shadow of the Glen by Nancy van de Vate and The Bay of Fundy by Fiona Linnane. The last year has been a sad one for the Opera at Castalia family following the death of beloved co - founder, Brendan Mills.

Brendan's husband, Alan O'Conchubhair has said that Brendan's philosophy was that the show must go on and so on July 11th Opera atCastalia 2015 will present The Telephone and The Old Maid and the Thief both by Gian Carlo Menotti. Sandwiched between these two classics of 20th century opera will be an English language version of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona. The cast includes Maria McGrann, Gerry Noonan, Andrew Gavin, Laura Gilsenan, Rory Musgrave, Dara McMahon, Maria Hughes, Muireann Mulrooney and Tim Shaffrey.
The Sunday Recital the following day at 1pm will feature young tenor, Andrew Gavin singing Dies Natalis and a preview of a scene from Composer in Residence, Fiona Linnane's new opera, The Breakfast Table, which will receive its World premiere at Opera at Castalia 2016. The recital will conclude with a musical tribute to Brendan Mills with contributions from Imelda Drumm, Laura Gilsenan, Virginia Kerr, Sandra Oman and Cara O'Sullivan.
The 11th and 12th July promises to be a wonderful weekend of music in rural Kilkenny. Why not come along and listen to some 'little operas with big heart'.

Composer Fiona Linnane

Synge Songs at Castalia

Tim Shaffrey, Laura Gilsenan, Callan Coughlan, Andrew Gavin. at Castalia 

A google search of 'Irish plays turned into opera' was the starting point for this year's  programme of Opera at Castalia, Alan O Conchubhair explained to the audience at the concert hall located deep in the heart of rural Kilkenny. More specifically, the theme was Synge in Opera form,  the playwright at the vanguard of the  Gaelic Revival. The experience proved to be a convivial evening of chamber opera and chat as for a third successive year short contemporary and 20th century  work was presented by O Conchubhair and Brendan Mills at the Camphill Campus at Ballytobin. The operas were presented in a semi staged format with the furniture of a cottage dwelling and the obligatory sacred heart picture on the dresser.

Two settings of plays by JM Synge were separated by a short humourous piece by Fiona Linnane.  Both Fiona Linnane and Nancy van de Vate,  were in the house to hear their 'black dots turned into sounds' for an audience that included several luminaries of the Irish new music scene'.  Both ladies spoke a little about the genesis of their pieces.  The cast were predominantly young artists in training in various third level colleges with some star stalwarts. 

Sandra Oman as Katy in Linnane's The Bay of Fundy

The most substantial piece was Mid West Opera's production of Riders to the Sea by Ralph Vaughan Williams. I so  rarely  hear a contralto voice and Sarah Ellen Murphy,  was terrific in conveying overwhelming sorrow and grief as Maurya who loses everything to the cruel sea.  I was impressed with newcomer baritone Sean Boylan and soprano Rebecca Rodgers had a notable dramatic instinct for getting her lines across as Kathleen. Michael Young at piano gave the most sympathetic accompaniment of the evening particularly lovely in the final choral 'keening' element of the play as young Bartley is waked.

Concert Hall and amphitheatre at Castalia, Ballytobin

Composer Nancy van de Vate

The other Synge play, In the Shadow of the Glen was in a style of extended recitative for  a vocal quartet with occasional  spoken lines. Perhaps it was this element that  reinforced my ambivalence about the play working  as an opera libretto. The insubstantial plot  needed more nuance  than the opera format could deliver. The most dramatic dramatic singing came from tenor Andrew Gavin as Daniel Burke.   This is just the second time the opera has been performed and it added much to the occasion  to have the composer in attendence who clearly was delighted with hearing the work for only a second  time after a gap of decades. Originally from New Jersey , Nancy van de Vate is  domiciled and much lauded after a long and successful career, in Vienna. The composer had some some  sensible and succinctly expressed things to say about the chamber opera genre, most memorable of which  her rhetorical question 'you don't need 500 ladies in ball gowns to make an opera, right?' Of course right.

Contralto Sarah Ellen Murphy

In between, Sandra Oman demonstrated yet again what a fine comic performer she is  in an extended  aria in Fiona Linnanes' piece, The Bay of Fundy a sort of Bridget Jones diary style sung monologue.

Composers Eric Sweeney wih Fiona Linnane

My impression was that the intention was to stage the operas outdoors in the super amphitheatre space. However, with the threat of rain, the action was moved indoors to the hall, an unusual high ceilinged octagonal space. The generous intervals allowed plenty of time to chat to the other patrons. We met composer Eric Sweeney who was fully recovered after the exertions of

Sean Boylan Baritone

bringing his new opera to stage. Writer Michael Fewer told me about  his exciting new travel writing project which takes him far from Waterford's, cliff and shore to Portugal. Keith Pascoe of the Van Brugh String Quartet told me about his favourite continental music festival  and Gerry Murphy  just back from guiding  music lovers around the Schumann trail filled me in on his exciting new composition projects. More on these pages in due course. Sean Boylan, legendary football manager and his wife Tina were in the house to support their eldest Sean Óg and also making the trip from Dunboyne, Co.Meath were Rebecca Rodgers' parents all very proud and justly so. Bravo tutti!

House notes. Finding this venue is tricky. Getting lost going or coming was a common topic cropping up in conversation. Signposting is not good. Be aware that there are two Camphill Campuses. You want the Ballytobin one- not the nearby Kyle one. Can I suggest concert organisers post a volunteer at the car park to guide patrons to the right building. The way is not obvious and not clearly marked. We spent ten minutes trying to find the concert hall.