Voices from WW1 to be set by Waterford Composer

I had a telephone chat with  composer Ben Hanlon about his new composition projects this evening. The award winning choral director whose opera, Bust featured `on these pages has a couple of interesting choral  pots on the boil both of a retrospective nature. 1916 is on his agenda and expect to see fragments of the proclamation turning up in his choral settings. Listening to the reading of  letters on a radio documentary on  WW1 gave him the idea of trying to capture some of those voices  and  moods in a choral context.

Hanlon's plan is to gather sixteen letters from WW1 sources. Kildare county archive has yielded some fodder. He would love some Waterford voices to add to the mix.. His own uncle perished at the front. Hanlon is of a generation that remembers the pleasure of sending and receiving a letter . He says  'Reading a letter would immediately conjure up the voice of the sender on the inner ear. The challenge is to capture the mood and the sound of those voices from the front'.

The work is the contemporarry composer's personal reflection on the historical  events  but with commissions from the leading choral groups Voci Nuovi and New Dublin Voices, he should have no trouble finding a choir eager to take on the performance  element. .



If you have a letter from a relative in your family archive, Ben Hanlon would love to have a copy.

Waterford Treasures requires your letters from the Great War, please bring them to the Medieval Museum on 30th Aug. pic.twitter.com/vv1nWr6HgP
— Waterford Treasures (@WFORD_Treasures) August 22, 2014

Off the Ball: Bust The Soccer Opera

Ŷ

.
'Playing in the green shirt

Scoring goals for Ireland

This is how it feels'

Mentioning that I had been out to see a new opera drew polite responses from family members who at the moment have  only Déise Hurling concerns uppermost in mind. But dropping the fact that the libretto for composer, Ben Hanlon's new work  was inspired by the real life story of footballer, Richard Sadlier and suddenly they were all ears and pleading for more details.

Waterford has a thriving choral scene that on occasion throws up some cutting edge experiences. Waterford man Bryan Flynn has given us the epic All Star Wars, the hurling musical. Could Bust be the world 's first  soccer  opera. I went along to a workshop preview of the work at De La Salle College Chapel on Friday

       Richard Sadlier

The librettist Alec Mc Alister was inspired by an article on the young footballer whose playing career came to a premature end when he broke his leg in a heavy tackle. Sadlier now turns up regularly as a pundit on radio programme Off the Ball and others. The plot  follows the trajectory of the main protagonist, Joey Power's career from excited young hopeful setting out from Dublin Airport through the high points- making the  team, playing for Ireland and the fateful day and finally the return home. Add in a dollop of a love story and there was plenty of emotional turbulence to sustain the hour long work. 

There are five main singing roles, Joey, his mam and dad, Robbie, a football manager and his daughter, Jenny. The young cast were superb. Most of them I gather are 3rd level music students.  Every syllable was audible and there was throughout  a terrific range of dynamics in the singing to effect dramatic expression. Joey's part played by Glenn Murphy was so high that it veered into counter tenor territory at times. Emma Power's clear soprano voice soared effortlessly above the chorus lines with no unruly vibrato.  Fergal Kelly as Dad was impressive.  Robbie was sung by Aaron Mooney and Ann O Brien sang the role of mother.  The chapel acoustic was excellent for singers and even the quietest pianissimo was clearly audible. The principals were supported by a chamber choir who managed some very challenging parts with aplomb. Composer,  Marion Ingoldsby, conducted with quiet authority. 

The musical style was modern  with some atonal sections that at times were heavy going, but then so is Phillip Glass and there was enough melodic interest to satisfy more conventional tastes. There was some lovely writing for the piano, expertly executed by Billy O Brien and generally I felt that  the composer did a excellent job in charting the mood whether ecstatic jubilation or abject despair. I was drawn in and cared about the characters and how often can you say that about an opera. It would fit very nicely into the short works programme at Wexford Opera Festival.

Bust will be performed for two nights at Garter Lane Theatre on 13 and 14 September as part of the Waterford Harvest Festival.

     Composer Ben Hanlon

Related articles

All Star Wars A Hurling Musical at Cork Opera House

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2011/05/all-star-wars.html

Come The Sails Launch of Tall Ships Waterford A View From The Plaza

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2011/06/tall-ships.html

140 years of Band Music in Waterford

On Friday 26th Novemnber I travelled to Waterford for the celebration concert of 140 years of the Barrack Street Brass and Reed Band now named the Barrack Street Concert Band . The concert took place in the Good Shepherd Convent, their first time at this venue and was very well attended despite the arctic conditions.   Guest artists were Donna Roche, Ray Collins, the fine De La Salle Boys Choir with their conductor, Ben Hanlon  and playwright , Jim Nolan . A fantastic achievement to have survived two world wars , a civil war  and the various economic upheavals  and Waterford people are rightly very proud of this stalwart group of musicians, conducted in recent  years by Mark Fitzgerald.  Coincidentally earlier in the day , I met Danny Ryan of the Tipperary Music Shop and Accordion Orchestra and he recalled the band meeting the annual expedition to the coast and serenading the day trippers into Waterford.