15 February 7.15pm & 17 February 2pm

“There’s a real buzz and sense of purpose about what this company is doing” ~ The Guardian

Grand Opera House, belfastwww.niopera.com

Welcome to The Grand Opera House for this new production of The Flying Dutchman.

This is, by some way, NI Opera’s biggest production to date. Our very first opera (Menotti’s The Medium, coincidentally staged two years ago this month) utilised just five singers and a chamber band, and to go from this to a grand opera demanding 50 singers and a full symphony orchestra in such a short space of time indicates impressive progress. Similarly, our performances of Noye’s Fludde at the Beijing Music Festival in October, and our recent Irish Times Theatre Award nominations for The Turn of the Screw, demonstrate that our focus on bringing high quality, innovative opera to the widest possible audience continues to bear fruit.

It feels appropriate for us to be staging our first Wagner opera in the bicentenary of the composer’s birth, but this production marks more than just a historical anniversary. Unsurprisingly, given the cost and complexities involved in performing Wagner, this will be the first fully staged Dutchman to be seen in Northern Ireland for generations. More unexpectedly, perhaps, this is the first ever new production of a Wagner opera by a Northern Irish company.

Northern Ireland features heavily in this production. The opera begins and ends with ships and the sea, and it does not take too much imagination to link this back to Belfast’s industrial heritage and the recent Titanic commemorations. The production stars three of Northern Ireland’s finest opera singers in Bruno Caproni, Giselle Allen and Doreen Curran, as well as the wonderful Ulster Orchestra. Three of our current young artists, as well as three from last year’s programme, are involved in the production, and the chorus is drawn from talented singers all over the country. And of course we are delighted to be back at the Grand Opera House – one of Northern Ireland’s most treasured Victorian architectural jewels.

I would like to thank the Peter Moores Foundation for generously supporting this production, and as ever, we are indebted to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for its continuing support and guidance. I would particularly like to thank Rosa Solinas, outgoing Head of Music at the Arts Council, who is in the process of taking up her new position as Chief Executive of the Ulster Orchestra. Rosa has been a strong advocate of opera in Northern Ireland for many years, and a great friend of NI Opera. We wish her every success in her exciting new role.

Our second full season closes next month with a Northern Ireland tour of Walton’s The Bear, and we hope to see you again in Newtownabbey, Omagh, Enniskillen, Belfast or Coleraine.

Thank you for your support, and I hope you enjoy the show.

Roy BailieChairman

D I r e C T O r ’ S N O T e S

Wagner’s fourth opera was premiered in Dresden in June 1843. With stage sets cannibalised from other productions in the theatre’s repertoire, it found only limited success, its audiences nonplussed by the opera’s Nordic bleakness and dissimilarity to the same composer’s lavish grand opera Rienzi premiered in the same theatre only a year earlier. A transitional work between his earlier, more conventional operas and his later music dramas, Wagner continued to tinker with Dutchman for the rest of his life, never quite achieving the final version he sought. Nevertheless, The Flying Dutchman has become one of his most popular operas, its compact directness giving the lie to Wagner’s reputation – persistent amongst non-admirers – for tedious long-windedness.

A large part of the reason for the opera’s directness lies in the very personal circumstances of its composition. Certainly, the essence of the story – the eternal wanderer, a strong-willed martyr doomed to a lonely existence on the turbulent seas of life – appealed to Wagner’s image of himself (as well as being a staple for Romantic art in general). Feeling his way towards a new aesthetic, and dismissing in ever more combative terms what he regarded as the debased work of his contemporaries (as well as the corruption of society in general), Wagner was in any case a difficult man. Perpetually falling out with managements and endlessly accumulating debts, restlessly seeking a country in Europe that was worthy of him, Wagner nursed a keen sense of injustice matched by a sense of being not only victimised, but Other. In 1839, harried by creditors in Riga where he was principal conductor of the opera house, Wagner (plus wife and dog) escaped through the Baltic Sea in a melodramatic episode culminating in a forced night landing on the Norwegian coast. This landing provided fruitful sonic and atmospheric material for the first scene of his already germinating opera, and Wagner (in characteristically self-mythologising mood) later laboriously altered the libretto’s original Scottish setting to a Norwegian one, thus identifying even more with his nameless wanderer.

The other essential component of Wagnerian music drama, that of the woman unconditionally committed to love until and beyond death, also finds early expression here. ‘She’ would subsequently feature in all his subsequent works - and in Cosima Wagner, Wagner would find her manifested in the flesh. The religious language

is appropriate. Despite its composer’s professed irreligion, The Flying Dutchman is filled with references to angels and salvation. Perhaps this is to be expected in what is, after all, a remote and conservative community on the fringes of northern Europe. Senta’s commitment to the Dutchman, in this context, seems less pathological – more understandable, and potentially more heroic. It certainly was to Wagner, who stressed that Senta’s ‘naivety’ was a positive trait; doubtless, Senta was his fantasy as much as it is the Dutchman’s. But she is also no mere cipher or mental case, to be confined to the kitchen or to the asylum. Senta embodies other values important to Wagner, important to the Wagner who only six years after the opera’s premiere would man the barricades in revolt against capitalism and the established order. The Dutchman is a criminal who has alienated himself from the world – and hence, mankind – by challenging it, by engaging in a fruitless and ferocious battle with life as it is. By energetically choosing him and offering him a ‘home’ in herself, Senta also makes an abdication from the world, but it is constructive and joyous. It is a positive choice to reject a conventional, patriarchal, conservative society - locked in surface relationships and acquisitive greed - in favour of love.

Nevertheless, the opera’s tragedy lies in the certainty that both the Dutchman and Senta are trapped in their pasts as much as the other. Senta and Wagner offer a possibility for redemption that the Dutchman – the nameless Everyman – and mankind have the opportunity to seize. For the characters, the outcome may even actually be spiritually redemptive or transfiguring; Wagner’s subsequent modifications to the opera worked hard at emphasising this. But in human terms, neither Senta or the Dutchman have been able to escape the worlds from which they come, the decisions they have taken, and the people they are. Perhaps Wagner, for all his personal preoccupations and subsequent mysticism, recognised this predicament to be the reality of the human lot. It’s fortunate, at least, that while it is this tension that leads to the opera’s fatal outcome, it also generated its imperishable music and lasting place in the art of the world.

Oliver mearsFebruary 2013

Sean RaffertyPatron, NI Opera

When I was asked by NI Opera last year to be Patron of the company, I was delighted to accept for two reasons. First, I believe that Northern Ireland needs and deserves a first class opera

company that can bring innovative productions of the highest quality to people throughout the country. Although only two years old, NI Opera is doing that already.

Equally important is recruiting and nurturing the most promising local talent. We have a long and rich tradition in Ireland of producing wonderful opera singers, musicians, directors, designers and conductors, but without enough support and encouragement the current generation of young professionals may not be able to fulfill their undoubted potential.

Bold initiatives such as NI Opera’s Young Artists’ Programme and its annual Festival of Voice in Glenarm give young people with exceptional talent the chance to develop and become genuinely world-class.

This performance of The Flying Dutchman is a good example. Of the current class of NI Opera Young Artists, Eugene Monteith is Assistant Conductor for the production, and Laura Sheerin and Aaron O’Hare are singing in the chorus. Also in the chorus is Dawn Burns, the winner of the 2012

Festival of Voice vocal competition, along with singers from last year’s Young Artists’ Programme, Páidí Ó Dubháin, Mary McCabe and Gemma Prince.

Away from the opera house, NI Opera’s development programmes provide them with mentoring and coaching from some of the most respected names in the opera world, both here and in London, and give them invaluable experience through sharing the stage with established singers in recitals.

NI Opera has been fortunate enough to receive generous funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to bring its development programmes to life, but we need more help to give more young people even greater opportunities. The present economic climate makes funding all the more difficult to come by, and so it is even more important to have your support and help.

Please think of sponsoring our young artists. For a relatively modest financial commitment you can make a real difference.

If you enjoy the performances of our young artists in The Flying Dutchman and would like to know more about opportunities to sponsor them, please call Clíona Donnelly, NI Opera’s General Manager on 028 9027 7734, or alternatively send an email to info@niopera.com.

Thank you for supporting NI Opera and its young artists. Enjoy the show!

NI Opera Young Artists 2012/13: Aaron O'Hare, Laura Sheerin, Laura Murphy and Eugene Monteith

richard Wagner1813-1883

Born in the same year as Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner stands as one of the most important and

controversial figures in the history of opera. Wagner’s turbulent career and colourful private life was marked almost from the start by radical ideas and actions. Wagner rejected what he saw as the commercial, crowd-pleasing form of modern opera exemplified by the works of Rossini and Meyerbeer, and aimed instead to take opera to an entirely different level, fusing music with literary and philosophical ideas in an unprecedented way to create a hitherto unimaginable art form. Wagner intended his music to transcend all that had gone before it, raising the status of his art to the realms of the spiritual, and offering a form of redemption and catharsis to the entire human race.

The ambitious claims he made for opera were underpinned by a radical reappraisal of the form. Wagner had great respect for Beethoven, admiring in particular his nine symphonies, and Wagner’s quasi-symphonic treatment of opera, expressed in his insistence on the musical unity and integrity of an entire work, became an important feature of his music. By combining his genius for arranging vast tracts of continuously flowing music, with his desire for uniting the dramatic and emotional expression found in composers and writers such as Beethoven and Shakespeare, Wagner was able to develop his concept of gesamtkunstwerk, or ‘total art’, creating music dramas that transcended the previously accepted forms of opera.

Elements of this gesamtkunstwerk can be seen in The Flying Dutchman – widely considered to be Wagner’s first mature work – but they reach their fullest expression in Der Ring des Nibelungen and the operas that followed – Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersingers von Nürnberg and Parsifal. Similarly, Wagner’s celebrated treatment of leitmotifs – short, constantly reoccurring musical phrases associated with a particular person, place or idea – can be glimpsed in Dutchman, but only becomes a systematically applied device to propel the emotional drama forward in Der Ring.

As Wagner’s operas grew in maturity, so did the expression of his belief in the inherent unity of the arts. His radical plans for the construction of the Bayreuth Festival Theatre, which opened with the first ever cycles of Der Ring in August 1876, take this belief to its natural conclusion, developing a physical space designed specifically to allow his operas to be performed as he intended them, and for them to be open to all, regardless of social class.

Wagner completed his final opera, Parsifal in January 1882, and died of a heart attack in Venice the following year. He was buried in the garden of his villa in Bayreuth.

Karl Marx famously said, “Wherever one goes, one is plagued with the question: what do you think of Richard Wagner?” Whether one accepts WH Auden’s assertion that Wagner was “perhaps the greatest genius that ever lived”, or concurs with Nietzsche’s view that “He contaminates everything he touches – he has made music sick”, there is no denying the composer’s legacy for music, society and the arts.

Footnote to NI Opera’s 2013 production of The Flying Dutchman

It seems that Wagner was never fully satisfied with The Flying Dutchman, as he revised the score on numerous occasions between its Dresden première in 1843 and his death in 1883. One aspect of the opera that has been a near constant source of debate is whether Wagner intended it to be performed with continuous momentum, without intervals. In his own lifetime it was most commonly seen with two breaks, but Wagner’s widow, Cosima, insisted that he had not wanted any. Our hybrid version places an interval after Act 1, which allows the audience a break without interrupting the natural dramatic flow of Acts 2 and 3.

THE FLY ING DuTCHMANAn Opera in three Acts by Richard Wagner, with a translation by David Pountney

Act 1

A storm forces the sea captain Daland to find refuge on a barren stretch of the Norwegian coast, only a few miles from the ship’s home port. Cursing the wind that prevents him from reaching home and seeing his daughter, Senta, he retires to sleep, leaving his Steersman on watch. Exhausted, the Steersman falls asleep. The storm revives and a mysterious ship appears. Its captain, the Flying Dutchman, steps ashore, despairing of his fate. He once swore he would sail around the Cape of Good Hope if it took him till eternity - and the devil took him at his word. However, he has one hope, promised by an angel: once every seven years he may leave his ship in search of a woman who will redeem him from his deathless wandering if she gives him faithful, absolute love; failing this, he is condemned to roam the seas until the Day of Judgment, which the Dutchman yearns for as the only end to his pain.

Daland returns and wakes his Steersman. He sees the mysterious stranger, who, on learning that Daland has a daughter, asks for her hand in marriage in return for the unimaginable riches on board his vessel. Barely believing his luck, and tempted by the gold, Daland agrees. The wind changes course, dawn breaks, and both ships set sail for Daland’s home.

Act 2

In Daland’s town, Senta, Mary, and other local women are singing and working. Senta is transfixed by a picture of the legendary Dutchman. The other girls tease Senta about her suitor, the hunter Erik, but she remains in a trance. Staring at a portrait of the Flying Dutchman, she sings a ballad about the wandering captain. With burning

intensity she prays that she may be the one to save him. Erik enters, telling of the imminent arrival of Daland and his ship. After the others have left to prepare for the arrival of the men, Erik asks Senta to plead his cause with Daland, despairing of her love. Noticing her preoccupation with the Dutchman’s picture, he relates a dream in which he saw her embrace the Dutchman and sail away in his ship. With delight, Senta exclaims that this is her own dream as well, and Erik rushes away. A moment later, the Dutchman himself stands before the girl. Senta and the Dutchman gaze at each other in rapt silence while Daland talks about wealth and marriage. Daland leaves, and the Dutchman tells Senta of his fate, warning her of the terrible sacrifice she must make if she promises to be faithful to him until death. Senta is undeterred, and vows her love. Daland arrives to bless the union.

Act 3

Later that evening, Daland’s crew are drinking and celebrating their arrival home. As the women arrive with more food and drink, they invite the crew of The Flying Dutchman to join them, joking that they must be either dead or guarding their golden hoard. The women, increasingly alarmed, leave the Norwegians. The Dutchman’s ship explodes into life, and its crew sings that because of Satan’s curse they will be at sea for ever. The Norwegian crew disperses in fear.

Senta arrives, followed by Erik, who is horrified that she has agreed to marry the stranger despite her previous professions of love for him. The Dutchman overhears the conversation and is overwhelmed with despair, believing that Senta is unfaithful and his only hope of redemption is lost. As Erik calls for help, the Dutchman summons his men, and reveals his true identity to Daland and the assembled Norwegians. As he sets sail once again, Senta destroys herself - fulfilling her promise to be true to the Dutchman until death.

There will be an interval after Act 1

S y N O p S I S

creAtive teAm

DirectorOliver Mears

ConductorNicholas Chalmers

Set and Costume DesignerSimon Holdsworth

movement DirectorAnna Morrissey

Costume DesignerLaura Stanfield

Lighting DesignerKevin Treacy

Video DesignerDuncan McLean

assistant ConductorEugene Monteith

assistant DirectorDanielle urbas

répétiteursIan RyanMiles Lallemant

Production teAm

production managerPatrick McLaughlin

Company Stage managerKate Watkins

Stage managerDiarmuid O’Quigley

props mistressPatsy Hughes

master CarpenterNic Rée

Technical managerStephen Anderson

assistant Costume SupervisorMelanie CarmichaelCostume assistantRosie MooreCostume breakdown artistsMarie BreenSophie WallaceCostume makerMargaret PescottCostume InternClare Taggart

Wigs and make-up SupervisorCarole Dunneassistant Wigs and make-upDana KalderWigs and make-up InternCarrie McDonald

Set ConstructionScenedockScenic artistsChris HunterPat CullenSculpterAndy MacIntyreScenic photographerNeil Harrison

Acknowledgements

Arts Council of Northern IrelandPeter Moores FoundationThe Leche TrustBrendan McCriskenEimear CrealeyRachel ArmstrongMegan GillespieAndrew Hill and the staff of the Grand Opera HouseRichard McBrideulster OrchestraBelfast Philharmonic ChoirSarah Speers at Stag HeadLyric TheatreBelvoir PlayersOscar + OscarJim CarsonQueen’s university, BelfastSew ‘n’ KnitBelfast Central MissionBelfast Buildings TrustPhilip GossFashion students and Patricia Dickson at Belfast MET

T H E F L Y I N G D u T C H M A N

DutchmanBruno Caproni

SentaGiselle Allen

DalandStephen Richardson

suPernumerArY Actors

Rhiann JeffreyMegan Magill

erikPaul McNamara

SteersmanAdrian Dwyer

maryDoreen Curran

Chorus masterNicholas Chalmers

SOpraNOS Andrea Delaney Alice Hamilton Susan Graham Caroline Jones Shonagh Lyons Mary McCabe Ciara McCartan ThompsonHelen O’Hare Elaine Pelan Gemma Prince Laura Sheerin Rachel ThompsonVictoria Warwick aLTOS Sarah Alcorn Shamariah Bennett Dawn Burns Harriet Jenkins Sinead Lalor Laura McFall Diane MorrisonLynda-Jane Nelson

TeNOrS Michael Bell Conor Breen Alex Connolly David LynnShane McCormick Brian McNamee Yuri Sabatini Gabriel Seawright Marc Tilley baSSeS Tor Alexander Salwan Cartwright-Shamoon Christopher Cull Páidí Ó Dubháin Robert Garland Matt Jeffrey Donal McCrisken Gareth McFarland Nathan Morrison Lorcan O’Byrne Aaron O’Hare Chris O’Reilly Noel Thompson John Ward

cAst

cHorus

First violinsIoana Petcu-ColanBeverley Scott*Thomas Jackson+ Jonathan Griffin•Claire ThatcherGillian Leeming•Alys JacksonPhilip Davies•Alexandra Lawrence• Ottoline Maas•

Second violinsMichael Alexander**•Nicholas Rippon*Danny McCann-WilliamsClare Hadwen Mireia FerrerHelen Wakelam•Kevin HarrellKaren Sexton

ViolasAshley Mason**•Stephen Begley+•Jonathan SimmancePhilip Walton•Richard HadwenRichard Guthrie•

Cellos John Leeming**•Sarah Shephard+ Liubov ulybyshevaKathryn Lowry•Sian Hetherington

bassesGareth Hopkins*•Michele Strong+• Helen Glynn

FlutesColin Fleming**•Elizabeth Bennett*•Kieran Moynihan

piccoloElizabeth Bennett*•

OboesChristopher Blake**•Colin Stark*•

ClarinetsPaul Schumann*Andrew Roberts

bassoonsJulian Partridge*Tom Hardy

HornsPaul Klein**Martin Wall*Jesse Durkan*Jacqueline McCarthyDaniel Beer

TrumpetsPaul Young**Patrick McCarthy*

TrombonesMartin Wilson**•Neil Gallie

bass TromboneRichard Ashmore*

TubaStephen Irvine*

TimpaniNick Brown

percussionSam Staunton**

Off-stage piccolosColin IrvineAndrew DouglasStephen Rankin

Off-stage HornsDerek Parkins*•Louise EdwardsCharlie Doherty

Principal Conductor JoAnn Falletta

Associate Conductor Christopher Bell

Associate Composer Ian Wilson

Artist Laureate Sir James Galway

Leader Tamás Kocsis

Associate Leader Ioana Petcu-Colan

** Section Leader · * Principal · + Sub-principal · Guest players’ names in italics

T H E F L Y I N G D u T C H M A N I N R E H E A R S A L

Giselle Allen as Senta, and Bruno Caproni as the Dutchman

Giselle Allen as Senta, and Paul McNamara as Erik

Stephen Richardson as Daland

Giselle allen, SentaGiselle was born in Belfast, and studied at the Belfast School of Music, Cardiff university, The Guildhall School of Music and The Royal Academy of Music

Opera School, where she is also an Associate.

Roles include: Tatyana (Eugene Onegin / Canadian Opera Company, Opera North), Jenufa (Glyndebourne, Opera North), Musetta (La Monnaie / ENO, Opera North), Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes / Komische Oper Berlin, Opera North), Marie (Wozzeck / COC Toronto), Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw / Glyndebourne Festival Opera).

For Opera North: Rusalka, Katya Kabanova, Jenufa, Marenka (Bartered Bride), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), The Fox (Cunning Little Vixen), Miss Jessel, and Ellen Orford.

Other roles include Vitellia (Clemenza / Malaga), Iris and Countess (Figaro) for Opera Holland Park, Salome (Herodiade / Anna Livia Festival, Dublin), Geraldine (A Hand of Bridge / Barbican), Gerhilde (Die Walkure / ENO), Svatava (Fibich Sarka / Wexford), Wellgunde (Das Rheingold) and Gutrune (Gotterdammerung) for the Covent Garden Festival, both Donna Eleonora (Salieri) and Jenny (The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) for the International Edinburgh Festival, Tosca for NI Opera, Marta (The Passenger / ENO), and Mimi (La Boheme / WNO).

Future plans include Sieglinde at the RFH with Sir Andrew Davies, and Ellen Orford for both the Aldeburgh Festival and Opera North.

bruno Caproni, DutchmanBorn in Bangor, County Down, Bruno Caproni has performed the great baritone roles by Verdi, Puccini, and others in the most important theatres in the world.

These include: the New York Metropolitan, Vienna Staatsoper, La Scala Milan, ROH Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper in Berlin, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, San Diego Opera, Florida Grand Opera, English and Welsh National Opera, Opera Du Rhin Strasbourg, Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp as well as the opera houses in Cologne, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Düsseldorf.

Bruno Caproni has also been a guest of prestigious festivals such as the Vienna Klangboden and the Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico. He has collaborated with numerous distinguished conductors, including Marco Armiliato, Paolo Carignani, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Edward Downes, Placido Domingo, Daniele Gatti, Edward Gardner, Sir Bernard Haitink, Carlos Kleiber, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Metha, Riccardo Muti, Donald Runnicles, Jeffery Tate and Silvio Varviso. He has recently performed Rigoletto at the Komische Oper Berlin and in Livorno; Simon Boccanegra at the ENO, and Lucia di Lammermoor at the Pittsburgh Opera. He was also personally invited by the distinguished Brazilian director Felipe Hirsch to sing Rigoletto to mark the 100th anniversary of the Theatro Municipal in Saò Paolo.

T H E F L Y I N G D U T C H M A N

Nicholas Chalmers, ConductorNicholas conducts productions for Northern Ireland Opera, and is the artistic director of Nevill Holt Opera and Second Movement Opera Company. He

studied music at Oxford university and conducting at the Piacenza Conservatoire. From 2003 to 2008 Nicholas worked at Westminster Abbey as Assistant Organist and Director of Music of the Choir School. From 2008 until 2011 Nicholas was Assistant Chorus Master of English National Opera. With ENO he prepared 24 operas for conductors including Edward Gardner, Mark Wigglesworth, Sir Charles Mackerras, Baldur Bronnimann and Sir Richard Armstrong. For Second Movement he has conducted Mozart and Salieri (October 2004), Trouble in Tahiti (June 2005), The Medium and Impresario (January 2006), Les Deux Aveugles, Rothschild’s Violin and The Knife’s Tears (May 2007), all to wide critical acclaim.

Conducting engagements with Northern Ireland Opera include The Medium (Feb 2011), Tosca (Best Opera - Irish Theatre Awards - April 2011), Turn of the Screw (March 2012 and Buxton Festival July 2012), Noye’s Fludde (Belfast Zoo - August 2012 and Beijing October 2012). Current and future engagements include Messiah (Lyon Opera), The Bear (NI Opera - February 2013) and The Magic Flute (Nevill Holt Opera - June 2013).

Doreen Curran, maryBorn in Derry, Doreen studied music at the DIT College of Music, where she was awarded a BMus Performance Degree with First Class Honours and a Gold Medal. Doreen entered the Royal

Northern College of Music as a post-graduate and completed her studies at the National Opera Studio.

Operatic roles include Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea / ENO), Mercedes (Carmen /

Glyndebourne Touring Opera, ATAO Tenerife), Tamiri (Farnace / Salzburg), Blanche (The Gambler / Grange Park Opera), Zoe (La Fiamma), Ernestina (L’occasione Fa il Ladro) and Penelope (Clione) for Wexford, Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro / ENO, Garsington Opera, Savoy Opera), Dorabella (Cosi fan Tutte / Opera Holland Park), Ottavia and Bradamante (Alcina) for Opera Theatre Company and at the Aldeburgh and Buxton Festivals, Rosina (The Barber of Seville / OTC), Kate (Pirates of Penzance / ENO), Lola (Cavalleria Rusticana / Opera Northern Ireland), Second Lady (Die Zauberflote) and Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi) for Opera Ireland, Baba (The Medium), Mother (Hansel and Gretel) and Mrs Noye (Noye’s Fludde) for NI Opera.Solo engagements include Verdi Requiem, Elgar Sea Pictures, Rossini Petite Messe, Bach B minor Mass, St Matthew’s and St John’s Passion, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Three Cornered Hat with the LPO, Messiah in Royal Festival Hall and Bridgewater Hall Manchester, and Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music at the Edinburgh Festival.

adrian Dwyer, SteersmanBorn in Melbourne, Australia, Adrian Dwyer studied at the GSMD and the National Opera Studio. He currently studies with Julian Gavin.

Operatic roles include Bénédict (Béatrice et Bénédict /Opera Comique, Paris), Francesco (Benvenuto Cellini / Orchestre de Paris), Rodolfo (La Boheme / Baz Luhrmann’s TONY award-winning production, Los Angeles), Lensky (Eugene Onegin / Aldeburgh), Roderigo (Otello / Birmingham Opera Company), Jenik (The Bartered Bride / MWO), Alfredo (La Traviata / Opera Queensland), Sam Kaplan (Street Scene / Opera de Toulon), Tamino (The Magic Flute / Opera Theatre Company, Ireland, Grange Park Opera), Edgar (Promised End / Linbury ROH). For Scottish Opera, Almaviva (Barbiere di Siviglia), Macduff (Macbeth), Broucek (Excursions

b I O G r a p H I e S

of Mr Broucek). For ENO, Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Grailknight (Parsifal) and SS Officer in Weinberg’s The Passenger. For Opera North, Cherevin / Young Prisoner (From the House of the Dead), Janek (The Makropulos Case), Broucek (Excursions of Mr Broucek). For Opera Holland Park, Hagenbach (La Wally), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni).

Future engagements include Andres (Wozzeck), Strolling Player (Death in Venice) and Jaquino (Fidelio), all for English National Opera.

Simon Holdsworth, Set and Costume DesignerSimon Lima Holdsworth trained at Wimbledon School of Art, London and the Kunstacademie, Maastricht.

Designs for opera and musical theatre include Hansel and Gretel (NI Opera/Opera North); Orpheus in the Underworld (Scottish Opera/Northern Ireland Opera); Noye’s Fludde (NI Opera/Beijing Music Festival); Die Fledermaus and The Merry Widow (Hyogo Performing Arts Centre, Japan); Tosca (Northern Ireland Opera); Don Giovanni (Ekaterinburg State Theatre, Russia); Gianni Schicchi and La Notte di un Nevrastenico (Theater Magdeburg, Germany); Britain’s got Bhangra (uK tour); Der Freischütz (Landestheater Salzburg); Orlando (Buxton Festival/Opera Theatre Company); The Bear (Nationale Reisopera, The Netherlands); Bluebeard (Buxton Festival).

As part of the Second Movement Creative Team, Simon has designed Trouble in Tahiti, Fade, A Hand of Bridge, The Two Blind Men, Rothschild’s Violin, The Knife’s Tears, The Impresario, The Medium and Zatopek! Designs for theatre include Screwmachine (Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh); Richard II (Ludlow Festival/Almagro Festival, Spain); Messiah (Old Vic, London); The Secret Love Life of Ophelia (London, Edinburgh and

Denmark); Ritual in Blood (Nottingham Playhouse); Dracula (Derby Playhouse); ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Southwark Playhouse). For television Simon designed The Waltz King, BBC 1. Simon is currently designing Benvenuto Cellini (Städtische Bühnen Münster, Germany); The Magic Flute (Nevill Holt Opera); The Bear (Northern Ireland Opera) and Ariadne auf Naxos (Theater St. Gallen, Switzerland).

miles Lallemant, répétiteurMiles was a chorister at Llandaff Cathedral in Wales and read Classics at Cambridge. He studied piano with Richard McMahon and Peter Katin. For a short while he taught Latin

in a small school in Yorkshire before becoming a Lay Vicar at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. After a year as organist at the Anglican church in Taormina in Sicily, Miles moved to Belfast. He is a member of the National Chamber Choir of Ireland and sings with various choirs including Resurgam, Ars Nova Copenhagen, and Coro Casa da Musica Porto.

Duncan mcLean, Video DesignerDuncan’s theatre work includes – The Bodyguard (Adelphi); Derren Brown – Infamous (uK Tour); And In The Beginning

Was The End (Somerset House); 9 to 5 – The Musical (uK Tour); Epidemic (Old Vic Tunnels); All New People (Duke of York’s and uK Tour); Shrek the Musical (Drury Lane); Frisky & Mannish: Extra Curricular Activities (Edinburgh Festival/uK Tour); Pete Firman (Edinburgh Festival/uK Tour); Chris Cox - Fatal Distraction (uK Tour); Peter Pan (Dublin/Southampton); Ivan and the Dogs (uK and International Tour); Catwalk Confidential (Miami/London); A Flea in Her Ear (Old Vic); Reasons to be Cheerful (Theatre Royal, Stratford East and two uK Tours); The Tempest (Old Vic/Bridge Project);

T H E F L Y I N G D U T C H M A N

Kristina (Royal Albert Hall); The Real Thing (Old Vic); The Hairy Bikers Big Night Out (uK Tour); Blowing Whistles (Leicester Square Theatre); The Norman Conquests (Old Vic/Broadway); Sir Barrington Ganch - My Life is Art (Edinburgh Festival); All About My Mother (Old Vic); Frost/Nixon (Donmar/Gielgud) and Evita (New Zealand Tour).

Television work includes - BBC News, London Olympics 2012, Newsnight, BBC Sport, Match of the Day, The One Show, Strictly Come Dancing, Big Brother and BBC documentary pilot, Unknown Islands.

In 2001, Duncan won the BFI’s Young Filmmaker of the Year Award.

paul mcNamara, erikFrom Limerick, Paul McNamara is based in Germany where he has sung in several theatres including Kiel, Weimar, Münster, Wuppertal, Halle & Hannover. His many notable successes

have included his critically acclaimed début at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in Braunfels’ Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna and the title roles in Wagner’s Tannhäuser & Parsifal at the Mainfrankentheater Würzburg, for both of which he was nominated as Singer of the Year in the German magazine Opernwelt. Elsewhere he has appeared at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the Stadttheater Bern, OTC, Opera Ireland, Cape Town Opera, the Janácek Festival in Brno and at the Opera Lesna in Sopot (Poland). In December 2010 he appeared at the National Opera in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he sang Tannhäuser in the first ever production of a Wagner opera in Central Asia.

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In addition to Wagner (Erik, Loge, Tannhäuser, Tristan and Parsifal) McNamara’s extensive repertoire encompasses operas by Mozart, Weber, Meyerbeer, Tchaikovsky, Dvorák, Janácek, Leoncavallo, Richard Strauss, Cilea, Zemlinsky, Alfano, Berg, Britten and André Previn.

Furture plans include new productions of Tannhäuser, Salome and Peter Grimes in Germany as well as debuts in Lima (Tannhäuser) and Warsaw (Penderecki The Devils of Loudun).

Oliver mears, DirectorOliver read English and History at Lincoln College, Oxford, and began his career assisting playwright Howard Barker, before going on to work at the Kings Head, Islington (directing

productions of Judith, Creditors and The Lesson) and in opera, working on productions in London (ENO, ROH), Leeds, Milan, Copenhagen, Tokyo, and Basel.

As Artistic Director of Second Movement Opera, Oliver directed many site-specific opera productions in London, including works by Mozart, Bernstein, Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich/Fleischmann, Barber, the world premiere of Stefan Weisman’s opera Fade, and in 2010 a tour of Martinu’s The Knife’s Tears which travelled to Brno and Prague, Czech Republic. He has also directed a prison project with lifers, Sweeney Todd (HMP Kingston/Pimlico Opera), La Calisto (Early Opera Company), Hansel and Gretel (Opera North), the National Opera Studio Showcase 2010, The Bear (National Reisopera, Holland), My Brother’s Keeper (Edinburgh /Pleasance), Albert Herring (Aldeburgh) and David Almond’s critically-acclaimed play My Dad’s a Birdman, with original music by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe (Young Vic).

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As Artistic Director of NI Opera, Oliver has directed Tosca (Irish Times Theatre Award for ‘Best Opera Production’, 2011), The Turn of the Screw (nominated for Irish Times Theatre Awards 2012 ‘Best Opera Production’ and ‘Best Director’) Orpheus in the Underworld (co-production, Scottish Opera), Hansel and Gretel, and Noye’s Fludde (Belfast Zoo/Beijing Music Festival). In autumn 2012 he was nominated for an ‘Achievement in Opera’ award by the TMA Awards for his leadership of NI Opera. Future plans include The Magic Flute for Nevill Holt Opera.

eugene monteith, assistant ConductorFrom Strabane, Eugene Monteith read music at Queen’s university Belfast, and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where he gained a PG Diploma

in Orchestral Conducting and an MA in Choral Conducting under the tutelage of David Jones, Adrian Partington, Simon Halsey and Neil Ferris. Eugene was trained as a trumpeter, and studied with Hugh Carslaw at QuB. His first public performance was with the QuB Orchestra conducting Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question. In 2006 he studied at Canford Summer School, and moved to Wales in 2007. He was assistant conductor on all productions, and conducted the RWCMD Opera Scenes. Eugene studied singing with Philip Lloyd Evans and Eric Roberts.

Eugene has participated in master classes with Jac van Steen and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and Kenneth Kiesler and the Berlin Sinfonietta (supported by Arts Council for Northern Ireland). Eugene has conducted for Welsh National Opera MAX, Welsh National Youth Opera, Wales International Academy of Voice, Co-Opera Co. and the BBC National Chorus

of Wales. Eugene is Musical Director of Bath Symphony Orchestra and Abergavenny Symphony Orchestra.

anna morrissey, movement DirectorMovement Assistant for the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. The Comedy of Errors (Royal Exchange Theatre); Antony &

Cleopatra, Dunsinane, The Drunks, Grain Store, Thomas Hobbes, Cordelia Dream, I’ll Be The Devil, Pericles (RSC); Noye’s Fludde (Belfast Zoo, Beijing Music Festival); Village Bike (Cruicible Theatre, Sheffield); Merchant of Venice (Creation Theatre Company); Hansel & Gretel (NI Opera/ Opera North); Marat/Sade (RSC); Orpheus inthe Underworld (Scottish Opera); Caledonia (National Theatre of Scotland); Bus Stop (New Vic Theatre); On The Record (Arcola); My Dad’s a Birdman (Young Vic); The Barber of Seville, Manon Lescaut (Opera Holland Park); 101 Dalmatians (Northampton Theatre Royal); Julius Caesar (Menier Chocolate Factory); Tamburlaine the Great (Rose Theatre); Human Rites (Southwark Playhouse) and Shivered (Southwark Playhouse).

Stephen richardson, DalandStephen studied at Manchester university and the RNCM. Recent and future engagements include Baron Ochs (Der Rosenkavalier / Bolshoi Theatre‚ Moscow)‚ Hobson (Peter Grimes / La Scala

Milan‚ ROH, Opera North and Aldeburgh)‚ Frank (Die Fledermaus / Korean National Opera), Lady Bracknell (The Importance of Being Earnest / NIO and Los Angeles), Flint (Billy Budd / Netherlands Opera)‚ Barry’s The Intelligence Park (Irish Museum of Modern Art‚ Dublin)‚ Beethoven in Barry’s Schott and Sons‚ Mainz (National Chamber Choir of Ireland‚ Dublin)‚ Commandant (From The House

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of The Dead)‚ Bass roles in The Adventures of Pinocchio (ON) and Ferrando (Il Trovatore / Danish National Opera).

Stephen has created roles in many important contemporary works including Adès’s The Tempest (ROH); Tan Dun’s Orchestral Theatre II‚ Re‚ and Tea (Suntory Hall‚ Tokyo); Barry’s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit‚ The Importance of Being Earnest and The Intelligence Park; Tavener’s Eis Thanaton‚ Resurrection‚ The Apocalypse and Fall and Resurrection (City of London Sinfonia‚ St Paul’s Cathedral); and the British premiere of Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale (ENO). Recordings include Where the Wild Things Are‚ Moses (Death of Moses / unicorn Kanchana)‚ Purcell’s Ode for the Birthday of Queen Mary (DG Archiv)‚ A Midsummer Night’s Dream (London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Colin Davis) and Albert Herring (Chandos).

Ian ryan, répétiteurIan read economics at Selwyn College, Cambridge, before studying as a répétiteur at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. He was a staff répétiteur

for Scottish Opera between 2007 and 2010. He has worked for Opera North (Carmen, The Portrait, The Queen of Spades), English National Opera (The Death of Klinghoffer), Royal Opera House (Thaïs), Grange Park Opera (Idomeneo) and the Edinburgh International Festival (El Niño, La Donna del Lago).

Performances with BBC Symphony Orchestra include Nixon in China, conducted by the composer, at the BBC Proms and the Musikfest Berlin. As an accompanist, his collaboration with baritone Paul Carey Jones has led to an album of 21st Century British Song for Meridian records. Future plans include Death in Venice for Opera North.

Laura Stanfield, Costume DesignerAfter studying Theatre Design at Wimbledon School of Art, Laura has worked predominantly in theatrical costume. As Head of Costume at Laine Theatre Arts

she designed and produced costumes for ballet, dance and musical theatre, collaborating with many choreographers including Derek Deane. She has also been Head of Costume on the MS Disney Wonder (Bahamas) and works regularly for the English National Opera’s costume department.

Design Credits include: King – A Cathedral Opera, by Stephen Barlow (costumes), Britain’s Got Bhangra, (costume - collaboration), 118 118 Summer tour (costumes), Three Wishes, Second Movement (costumes), Parallel Lives by Jon Oram (set and costumes), Matters of Chance by Jon Oram (set and costumes) Royal Palace, France (cabaret costumes). Supervising credits include: Royal Gala – Wales Millennium Centre, Hansel and Gretel (Opera North and NI Opera), Tosca, The Medium, Noye’s Fludde and Turn of the Screw (all NI Opera). Laura has an ongoing relationship with ‘Claque’, a theatre company which creates unique performances written specifically for the community in which they are performed. As designer she helps to create inclusive community plays that aim, through storytelling, workshops and a final performance to create a legacy for future creative, social and theatrical collaboration within communities.

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Kevin Treacy, Lighting DesignerPrevious designs for NI Opera include Tosca, The Turn of the Screw and NI Opera Shorts. Recent designs include The Seafarer (Perth Theatre), The

Changeling, The wonderful World of Dissocia and Rose Bernd (Platform Theatre),The Government Inspector and Arrah-na-pogue (Abbey Theatre, Dublin), Beside the Sea (Southbank Centre), Orpheus in the Underworld (Scottish Opera), Dancing Shoes - The George Best Story (Grand Opera House, Belfast), Theatre Brothel (Almeida Festival, London), Rodelinda (Royal College of Music, London), Anything But Love (Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick), The Shawshank Redemption (Wyndhams Theatre, West End and Irish Tour), Twelfth Night (Nottingham Playhouse), Flavio, Xerxes and The Fairy Queen (English Touring Opera). Other Theatre design includes The Nose (The Performance Corporation) for which he won the Irish Times award for Best Lighting Design, The Charming Man (Theatre 503), This is our Youth (Bedrock Productions), Drive-By (Dublin Fringe Festival and Canterbury Festival), The Yokohama Delegation (Kilkenny Festival), Dr Ledbetter’s Experiment (Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Kilkenny Festival) nominated Best Production, Irish Times awards. Future projects include The Seafarer (Lyric Theatre), Imeneo (Royal College of Music), The Magic Flute (Nevill Holt Opera).

Danielle urbas, assistant DirectorDanielle trained as an actor at the Drama Centre London. Her acting credits include productions for stage, TV and film. She has previously assisted

Oliver Mears on the following productions with Second Movement: The Three Wishes (Tete a Tete August 2010), The Knife’s Tears (Brno and Prague October 2010), and with NI Opera: The Medium (Feb 2010), Orpheus in the Underworld (Scottish Opera and NI Opera 2011) and Turn of the Screw (2012).

Last summer she made her directorial debut with Zatopek! a short opera as part of the New Music Festival 20x12 (Epstein theatre, Liverpool and The South Bank Centre, London)

“There’s a real buzz and sense of purpose about what this company is doing” – The Guardian

ni opera was formed in 2010, with a mission to provide the highest quality opera to the widest possible audience, and to promote young northern irish talent. generously supported by the Arts council of northern ireland, ni opera has a philosophy of excellence and risk-taking underpinned by an imaginative programming policy and first-rate casting. ni opera is committed to broadening the audience for this incredible art form that famously combines exciting stories, big spectacle, and great music.

Artistic Director - oliver mears

General Manager - clíona donnelly

Marketing & Communications Director - simon goldrick

Company Manager - katrina Black

upCOmING prODuCTIONS

The Bear (Walton), march 2013, touring northern ireland

For further details, see www.niopera.com

preVIOuS prODuCTIONS

Noye’s Fludde, august & October 2012

“ An enchanting show” – the sunday times

“ Simply gorgeous” – irish times

NI Opera Shorts, June 2012

“ Remarkable...each opera was skillful, provoking laughter as well as sorrow” – the observer

“ (NI Opera’s) most ambitious project so far, NI Opera Shorts was another resounding success” – opera Journal

The Turn of the Screw, march & July 2012

“ This is a first-rate cast…It’s a Screw that any company would be proud to tour. From a company that is barely a year old, it’s remarkable” – the independent on sunday

“ An extraordinarily good cast…this was very impressive stuff” – opera now

Hansel and Gretel, November 2011, January & November 2012

“ Lively, funny and provocatively gruesome”– the sunday times

“ A feisty staging of Humperdinck’s opera…Northern Ireland Opera continues to punch above its weight” – the independent on sunday

“ NI Opera...comes of age with this, its first full-scale show in Belfast...it winningly hooks in both adults and children to its overarching theme: the line between appearance and reality; dream and nightmare” - the times

Orpheus in the Underworld, October 2011

“ Flamboyantly irreverent” – the guardian

“ A raucously enjoyable affair, staged with energy and imagination”– the telegraph

Tosca (best Opera winner at the 2011 Irish Times Theatre awards), march 2011

“ A remarkable achievement…the results breathed charisma and conviction” – the times

An extravaganza in One Act based on the play by Anton Chekhov

W I L L I A M W A L T O N

“There’s a real buzz and sense of purpose about what this company is doing” ~ The Guardian

Northern Ireland Tour 2013 Theatre at the mill, Newtownabbey, march 21

Strule arts Centre, Omagh, march 22ardhowen Theatre, enniskillen, march 23

the maC, belfast, march 26riverside Theatre, Coleraine, march 30

www.niopera.com