Cool Blackwater Barber

Ah June- that magical  pre-exam time of sunshine and balmy evenings. Perfect for picnics  on the lawn and putting a tent up in the garden. So to Lismore Music Festival in the enchanting Blackwater Valley, Co Waterford for an evening of sparkling Rossini in the Castle Grounds.  Turning off the main road at Cahir, the drive  to Lismore through the Vee Valley in the Knockmealdown Mountains was magical with a clamour of purple rhodedendrons in full bloom lining the route .



With a relatively late start of 8.30 pm,  presumably to better facilitate the die-hard picnic brigade and to allow changing natural illumination, the festival  production of The  Barber of Seville commenced in the canopied disused stable yard in the grounds  of Lismore Castle.   The large cast was well chosen with petite Rosina, Pervin Chakar nicely matched by Almaviva played by Puerto Rican tenor Javier Abreu. Star of the show in the title role was  Limerick baritone,  Owen Gilhooly who commanded the stage in every respect from his hilarious arrival on baby blue vespa scooter even adding his own sympathetic guitar accompaniment  in the balcony serenade. Sandra Oman  almost stole some of scenes in her role of Berta, a  perky bar maid  and there was much slapstick jocularity particularly in the final scene before slimy Dr Bartolo (Damon Nestor Ploumis),  inevitably took a dive in the fountain at the finale. Other Irish singers included Gerard O Connor as Don Basilio and Mark Duff as Fiorillo. The device of having

Barber Gilhooly 

the recitatives in English with the arias sung in Italian worked very well and eliminated any hankering after surtitles. There was a very fine seven piece on stage instrumental ensemble led from the harpsichord by David Adams even if the outdoor acoustic was inevitably not too kind to strings.

I note that director Dieter Kaegi spent ten years at the Aix en Provence Festival helm and the experience had many elements in common with a visit to Theatre l'Archeveché , the existing structures of a historical building integrated into the open air set. Here the shabby stable doors  and courtyard fountain

Figaro's Vespa

perfectly evoked a provincial  town piazza. It differed  in one  respect however -the temperature.   Sadly it wasn't just the quality of the performances that sent shivers down our spines as Lismore Music Festival 2012  was not blessed with fine weather although the capacity Sunday night audience were spared the downpours that dampened  Saturday proceedings.

'Rossini' Cocktail du Jour 
at OBrien's Chop House

Maybe it was this aspect of the evening that reinforced my ambivalence about the al fresco opera experience. Opera in the Open in a Dublin Civic space appealed  to me because it made a daytime opera experience easily available and accessible to lots of people who wouldn't normally attend . With a surfeit of well appointed theatres  and  a defecit of events to fill them  in driving distance of Lismore, does it make sense to mount an expensive  production in an outdoor space heavily reliant on an aspect of the production you can't control,- the weather? While I  found this production to be thoroughly engaging and great fun with  fine ensemble singing and acting and some  remarkable individual performances , one couldn't say the evening was very comfortable. Opera began in the homes of the Florentine aristocracy but at Lismore, there was a sense that we could play in the garden but not in the house as no part of the tantalising  interior of the splendid  castle was open to us for any part of the evening apart from the entrance courtyard.

Nevertheless, the 2012 LMF production of The Barber of Seville was  one of  great flair and imagination and cast &crew fully deserved their standing ovation  from a full house at the close .Next year's production  is the Mozart's Magic Flute and the programme  is extended to include recitals at Salterbridge,  Cappoquin  and Tourin Houses.  I am looking forward to seeing LMF develop in this beautiful and under rated part of the country.
 

Stableyard Lismore

Courtyard  Aix en Provence

Songs for a Summer Evening

I  expected a treat when the Lions Club of Ennis presented a very enjoyable song recital at Danlann an Chlár last night and got it. Featuring established operatic soloists Helen Houlihan and Owen Gilhooly, it featured a range of genres with  songs from opera, musical theatre and Irish  parlour songs . They were sympathetically accompanied at the piano by Adare based pianist, Irina Denova . 

The operatic meat of the programme was contained in the first half with arias and duets by Lehar, Bizet and Puccini . The programme opened with two  Novello duets demonstrating a charming sense of teamwork and rapport from the outset between the two, both of them convincingly assuming the roles contained within the repertoire.  Owen's solo number  from Merry Widow was suitably  insouciant following Helen's bravura rendition of Oscar Strauss's 'My Hero' .  Helen  looked every inch the star in no less than two glamorous outfits and this soprano featured in my highlights of 2011 

The Ennis Cathedral Choir more usually tucked away in the gallery looked and sounded splendid  with conductor Michael Hennessy. The Jenkins, Pie Jesu featuring  youngster Andrea Sheehan and soprano Veronica Belis was particularly effective and very moving . Tenor, Tony Murray made a further foray onto the platform when the baritone theatrically feigned to forget the words of a Percy French number adding to the general  good humour. 

Houlihan & Gilhooly

Although both singers  proved adept at adapting their style to deliver simpler folk songs effectively, the real surprise of the evening was Gilhooly's control and lightness of touch.  I had heard this artist several times this season, most recently in splendid form in Brahms Requiem at UCH.  and in Haydn's Thereseinmesse  Although well known on the Irish and international opera scene, his voice proved to be a supple instrument in the lighter musical theatre repertoire and there was a sense that he relished the repertoire. The sentimental  music hall number, Macushla was a high point in the first half and I swear he had a tear in his eye in the big number from Les Mis, 'Bring Him Home'.  With a busy season of operatic engagements ahead, he will be heard singing  roles by Sibelius and Rimsky Korsakov  in Buxton and nearer to home at Lismore Opera as Figaro in the Barber of Seville. 

Winners of Clare's Got Talent, all girl song and dance team, 12 +1 were utterly charming and Karoline O Sullivan added an aria from Bohemian Girl fitting in with the general nostalgic tenor of the evening.

The evening was conceived by Helen I understand as a fundraiser for Clarecastle Day Centre and Canteen  and the artists had generously donated their considerable talents. There was a good attendance. I met Alison Bowyer, of impeccable operatic lineage herself who  tells me that there will be  a new show at the Knappogue Castle  with hot off the manuscript arrangements from Colman Pearce  and  daughter Stephanie, a CM past pupil was busy rehearsing for a performance of Oklahoma in Bejing! 

Congratulations to the Lions Club in association with Colaiste Muire  for organising the event. Outgoing District Governor, Terence Mangan was in attendance. In terms of  professional performances, the presentation  of superb singing in a comfortable venue was on a high level.  While it was comprehensive programme, some of the spoken introductions  would have benefited from being trimmed a bit.  The pair can be heard again on August 3rd as guests of Kilkee Civic Trust  . Well worth an excursion!

German Requiem in Castletroy auf Deutsche!

Selig sind, die da Leid tragen, denn sie sollen getrostet werden 

'Blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted' .

The liturgical ritual of farewell  has provided the spur for some of the most highly charged and emotional works in the canon and there was a rare opportunity to hear one of the apotheosis of the form by one of the masters of the German Romantic tradition  at University Concert Hall  on Saturday night when Limerick Choral Union dedicated  a performance of Brahm's German Requiem to  members of the choir who have passed away. Sung in the original German, this dramatic setting of the Lutheran text has logistical and practical challenges  being the longest of Brahms works clocking in at about an hour and opportunities to hear it are infrequent.  By coincidence, the work was also performed in the National Concert Hall by the NSO and the RTE Philharmonic Choir the previous evening. The broadcast included an overview of the form in an insightful interval talk by David Vivian Russell  Lyric Concert Friday 20th April

Russell refers to the emphasis in the German Requiem being more on consolation of the living rather than the fate of the dead  and what music of consolation is the fifth movement.  Notoriously difficult for the soloist, the lyric from John's Gospel  was beautifully and effortlessly delivered by soprano Carmel Conway.  Baritone Owen Gilhooly's third movement dialogue with the choir was vigorous yet  smooth ending in a magnificent song of hope and joy. 

Malcolm Green

Johannes Brahms

There was a good house for this  Easter concert with  many family , friends , former members and afficionados in the audience for the programme which included the Italianate Mass for St Cecelia featuring young tenor Eoin Hynes as a complement  to the more substantial German fare.  Among the audience were David Howes,  grandson  and son of  anchor members Harry and  Michael .  David, a Masters student at DIT had earlier in the day been awarded the Todd Cup for oratorio at Feile Liminí with a bass aria from Judas Maccabeus  as had his grandfather 40 years previously. The family were remembering specially  the late Muriel Howes, a  former LCU member who sang with the choir when they last performed the work in 2004.

Percussion at the  ready

Soprano Carmel Conway

Although no aspect of the classical music scene made it into a two page article in the Irish Times  covering Limerick's music scene recently, this was a huge musical  endeavour involving something in the region of 200 people in a  performance no less deserving of acknowledgement and recognition in the national press. As a musician, opportunities to play such great repertoire are so welcome and it was a  thrilling musical experience to savour from the middle of the 50 strong orchestra


Post performance interview with conductor Malcolm Green

listen to ‘Malcolm Green talks about the Limerick Choral Union production of Brahm's Requiem’ on Audioboo

Letter to the editor. Irish Times :Limerick's Music Scene
A Christmas Baroque Gala
A Handel for the President

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