Cork Midsummer Meanders

I spent a day  at the Cork Midsummer Festival recently . My review focusing on the concert performance of La Traviata at Cork Opera House appeared in the Irish Examiner  I had a lovely day and enjoyed the mix and spread of events, from early to late, most of them free.

I didn't have room to refer to spoken word events . I caught two of the stages of Kevin Barry's Crosstown Drifts, a series of readings by various writers including Barry himself.  The newly restored Elizabeth Fort just off Barrack Street was impressive and made a great setting for one of the stages. Writers don't always make good readers but Barry is one of the best readers I've heard. I also enjoyed Conal Creedon's yarn which included a reference to a review Barry had penned of Joe Mac and the Dixies at the Silver Springs which appeared in the Examiner.

Review Live Music Events Cork Midsummer Festival 2016






Writers reading on medieval ramparts, a bridge merged with a drum kit, and Verdi pared down to the essentials were among the highlights on the final Saturday as Cork Midsummer celebrated a 20 year milestone with a festival true to the original ‘Sense of Cork’ spirit.

After a run of boundary pushing productions at the Everyman, Cork Operatic Society was down but not out returning to the Opera House with a concert performance of La Traviata.

There was a sense of anticipation and pride in the local legacy in the air in the foyer of the capacity house. Without the distractions of staging, the evening relied heavily on the strength of the work and the quality of three main voices.

To judge by the alacrity with which the audience rose to their feet at the close, this production was a triumph.
Leading a strong cast and chorus, Cork mezzo soprano Majella Cullagh wrung every ounce of pathos from her role as a worldly-wise courtesan, Violetta. The brightness of her first act coloratura softened in Act 2 to give some of the most tender moments in her duets with English baritone, Julian Tovey as Germont Senior.
Korean tenor Jung Soo Yun’s also heard in Faust last year was an ardent, clear voiced Alfredo.
Among the supporting roles, Emma Nash and Brendan Collins impressed in their cameo roles. Under director John O’Brien and leader Alan Smale, the 23 piece orchestra played with precision and style. Macdara Ó Searadáin’s haunting clarinet lines and string pianissimos in the instrumental preludes were enthralling.

OTHER BITS

Earlier and for a much younger audience, there was a soothing simplicity in a charming theatre show, Blátha Bána with an ethereal soundtrack by Fiona Kelleher at Graffiti Theatre Co’s HQ in Blackpool.

The natural percussion of flowing water and the metal bars of a city bridge were incorporated into Alex Petcu’s drum kit in one of three site specific pieces by Tom Lane. Children in the audience lining the Mardyke Bridge jumped in the air with the drummer enhancing the good vibrations under our feet.

A memorable and marvellous day!

Emma Nash Gears Up for Gilda

Emma and Suzanne 

Rising star on the Irish Opera scene, Emma Nash has been  very busy in the last year. I enjoyed her performances in the IYO production of the Rape of Lucretia and in the Der Vampyr at the Everyman, Cork She plays lead role of the ill-fated Gilda in OTC's Rigoletto currently in rehearsal.  My preview appears in today's Irish Examiner. You can read that here http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/putting-a-fresh-twist-on-rigoletto-329065.html 

 I include below some additional  insights into Emma's path to the opera stage that emerged in the interview 

Watch out for her at Wexford, later this year. I hear she is to appear as lead in one of the short works, Hansel and Gretel

Where did you grow up.? Can you tell me a little about your early music training- your first music lessons. 

I grew up in Douglas in Cork and I don't come from a particularly musical family. I remember attending theory lessons from a young age at The Cork School of Music and singing in the junior choir there. It was my mum who first introduced me to theatre and performing, enrolling me in CADA Performing Arts when I was very young. I was bitten by the bug, appearing in Pantomimes and various shows over the years. When I was 17 I was encouraged by my music teacher Alison Johnston in Scoil Mhuire to audition for the Irish Youth Choir. I spent a summer singing with other talented young singers and I was inspired to begin training my voice more seriously. 

 I only began getting my voice trained quite late. I think I always wanted to sing but I didn't know opera would be the path I took. I initially intended to study drama and theatre studies at UCC but when I was offered a joint honours option with music the singing training took over completely. Opera was a way to combine my two great passions; singing and acting to the highest level. 

What was your first experience of opera. 

 My dad actually introduced me to opera. He has a great love for the classics; Tosca, La Traviata, La Bohème etc. I have a very vivid memory of him taking me to see Madam Butterfly at The Cork Opera House and I was enthralled. Prior to this I believed opera singers were simply born with those incredible voices but as soon as I found out that it was possible to train your voice to sing like that I was on a mission! 

 Is Gilda your first  Verdi role?  Looking at your biography, you seem to have sung  lots of contemporary  opera. ! Yes that is true although my first professional engagement after the opera course at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama was a romantic opera; Der Vampyr by Marschner with The Everyman and The Cork Operatic Society. Then in December I sang with Wide Open Opera in their new commission The Oldest Woman in Limerick by Brian Irvine and John McllDuff. Before that I sang the role of Lucia in Irish Youth Opera’s inaugural production of The Rape of Lucretia  conducted by Stephen Barlow and directed by Michael Barker Caven. I'm looking forward to returning to some of the theatres; The Limetree Theatre in Limerick, An Táin Arts Centre in Dundalk, The O’ Reilly Theatre in Dublin and Wexford Opera House on the Rigoletto tour. Gilda is my first full Verdi role although I've done some Verdi scenes and arias before. Gilda is one of those bucket list roles and I'm really looking forward to singing it with Opera Theatre Company alongside this exciting cast.  

Irish Examiner Review The Rape of Lucretia  http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/artsvibe/opera-review-the-rape-of-lucretia-at-the-wexford-opera-house-285567.html

Cultural Events to Banish Post Festive Blues 2015

Grand Opera House 

 Mid Winter is a time when I retreat to the sofa and wrestle for domination of the remote control. But this will pass and  I enjoyed putting together this round up of cultural events to tempt culture vultures off the couch. My selection  appeared in the print edition of the Irish Examiner  on Friday 2nd January.
Arts Events Selection for month's ahead.

 Here are some further  suggestions.


Opera in Belfast .
I visited Belfast for the first time in decades back in the September  and was impressed with the scale and elegance of the city centre and the many venues. With a journey time of less than 2 hours by bus to Dublin, it is closer than I imagined.   I have a yen to see some opera in the Grand Opera House with it's splendid red brick Victorian facade.

 In February, Northern Ireland Opera present  Richard Strauss’ potent late Romantic setting of Oscar Wilde’s play based on the biblical femme fatale, Salomé.

Belfast-born Giselle Allen sings the title role of the bloodthirsty Princess .  Nicholas Chalmers conducts the Ulster Orchestra in this new production directed by Oliver Mears. There is more opera at the venue when English touring company Opera North  brings two rather more genteel   productions , to this historic venue

Opera at the Grand Opera House www.goh.co.uk

Salomé   Strauss 6-8 Feb

Marriage of Figaro Mozart  Mar 19^th and 21^th

La Travaiata Verdi Mar 18 and 20^th 

Special Consensus at Sixmilebridge

Superpowers in Galway

Festival of Youth Orchestras NCH Feb 7th

RTE Philharmonic Choir celebrate 30 years 

Lines of Vision: Words and Pictures at the National Gallery

To celebrate 150 years of the National Gallery, 56 Irish writers have been invited to select  a picture from the house  collection and to contribute a literary response  to the work to a new book edited by Janet McClean, Lines of Vision: Irish Writers on Art. You can view all the paintings selected in a special exhibition running at the gallery until April. Many of them are familiar. Included is the Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ selected by John Banville. There are several of Jack B Yeats paintings and that misfortunate Monet now rehung is looking none the worse for wear Copies of the book are on hand so you can read the response and view the painting. Admission is free.

You can read Peter Murray's extensive piece in the Irish Examiner  on the project here http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/books/portraits-of-great-paintings-irish-authors-take-inspiration-from-the-greats-293505.html

You can hear several of the authors interviewed by Sean Rocks on an RTE Arena special recorded in the gallery. Listen back here 

Beethoven Irish Songbook Revisited in Kilkenny

Back in 2012, I heard some of Beethoven's Irish songs at a Music for Galway recital.  My report is here. I was intrigued to think of Beethoven wrestling with Irish airs in the midst of a  Europe at the height of the Napoleonic wars.  Another opportunity to hear the songs presented itself at the Kilkenny Arts Festival and I reported on the event for the Irish Examiner. The article  appeared  on 16th August. As it did not appear in the online  edition,  I present it here.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8tZsiLja6jUTUFpMkgyTlM1R1k/view?usp=sharing

Beethoven’s Irish Songbook Revisited  *****    published in The Irish Examiner 16th August 

The confluence of elegance of 19^th century  art, music and architecture made a performance titled The Irish Songbook  in the Long Gallery, Kilkenny Castle a feast for both the eye and the ear. Presented as part of the Beethoven Quest strand of Kilkenny Arts Festival, the performers featured four contrasting voices with the Fidelio Trio.

Although Thomas Moore is generally accepted to have been the major player in bringing Irish songs to a worldwide audience, Beethoven also had a part in improving our cultural image in Napoleonic Europe when he accepted a commission to arrange a collection of airs from Scottish publisher, George Thomson. Reports state it was the poet Robbie Burns, who pointed out that many of the melodies were in fact Irish and persuaded Thomson they would be more 'saleable' marketed as such and  duly, a selection of airs with accompaniments for piano trio  was published.  Although Beethoven requested the words so he could 'effect the correct expression'  he didn’t have them and this may have contributed to the songs’ dubious reputation. The late Tomás O Súilleabháin embarked on substituting the original texts with more suitable alternatives. It was these texts we heard in Kilkenny in a selection of  17 of a total of  72 revised settings.

Mezzo soprano, Alison Browner opened proceedings on a savvy humorous note, When I was a Maid, before adapting her rich creamy tones to draw out the melancholy in Moore’s, How Dear to Me the Hour. She was followed by Eamonn Mulhall whose light and airy tenor was just right for the sentimental lines of Burns, O Stay Sweet Warbling Woodlark. Soprano Aoife O Sullivan’s rendition of Burns, The Catrine Wood was all winsome  charm. There was a quiet murmur of approval for baritone David Howes’ first solo contribution, a setting of Byron’s love poem, The Kiss, Dear Maid . There were duos, trios and to finish, all four took to the platform for a jaunty, Quick We Have But a Second. The Fidelio Trio put a degree of light and shade into Beethoven’s  Ghost Trio. The performance was marred only in that they were out of sight to most in the long space and would have benefitted from a platform.

In the words of Thomson, these songs were rather like the paintings and tapestries lining the Long Gallery, ‘exquisitely coloured and highly finished pictures’.   Superb!

 Eugene Downes was eloquent and clear in his opening introduction. Margaret O Sullivan and Mary Scarlett were present to hear the results of  their fathers lifetime project of presenting the songs with  alternative texts.   A major DIT project  resulted in the release of a 4 CD set of the 72 songs and a special performers edition will be  published shortly. The songs were the subject of radio documentary with broadcaster Liz Nolan and you can listen back here .

While I enjoyed the songs on both occasions, I can't say I was that struck by the superior quality of the revised settings. I was amused at Moore's lines of 'When through the piazzetta' which rhymed with Ninetta. but to be fair that was not representative. I must also admit to a twinge of misgiving.  If Moore with held the lyrics in his lifetime  much to the chagrin of Thomson  to preserve them for his own project, is it  quite fair to appropriate them after his death?  What is really terrific,  both in this volume from DIT and in Una Hunt's 6CD  collection of Moore's Melodies, are sound recordings  of many of the young emerging  Irish voices.  Most of them would not be recorded at this point in their careers were in not for these two substantial endeavours.