Opera Theatre Company is Ireland's National Touring Company.

We are delighted this year to have our production night and opening week in Waterford's Theatre Royal.

Ben Barnes, who directs this production of Monteverdi's Orfeo, is the Director of the Theatre Royal. He has kindly agreed to blog for us:

 

The Theatre Royal Waterford is very pleased and excited to have the Opera Theatre Company premier its new production of Orfeo by Monteverdi at our venue.

There is something appropriate about the 'first' opera being presented at the oldest performing arts venue in the country.

The Theatre Royal has been entertaining audiences for over 220 years now and the venue, which sits at the heart of the historic cultural quarter of the ancient Viking city, has been splendidly restored over the past five years. Indeed the whole cultural quarter boasting Christchurch Cathedral, The Bishops Palace, the Theatre Royal, the Waterford Glass, Reginald's Tower and the soon to be opened medieval museum, the Choristers Hall, is fast gaining a reputation as one of the most vibrant and exciting cultural and historic square miles in the whole country.

We hope our local patrons and visitors from around the country and from abroad will take the opportunity on the weekend of June 9th/10th to visit and stay in Waterford at one of our partner hotels and in addition to attending the performance of Orfeo join us for a special concert on Saturday morning, June 9th at Christchurch Cathedral and sample some of the other cultural gems on offer in and around The Mall in Waterford City.

Ben Barnes

DirectorTheatre Royal

1st May 2012

Below is a list of productions Annilese Miskimmon directed for Opera Theatre Company.

This list does not fully signify the impact of Annilese's vision, skill and enthusiasm as Artistic Director of Opera Theatre Company. In particular, there are many Young Artists who will be ever-grateful for her direction.

Mozart - THE MAGIC FLUTE - national tour 2011/2012

Donizetti - PASQUAL€ - national tour 2011

Frid - THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK - national tour 2010 - international tour 2011

Mozart - THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO - national tour 2010

Handel - ALCINA - national tour 2009 - Buxton Festival 2010

Handel - ACIS & GALATEA - national tour 2009

Debussy - PELLÉAS & MÉLISANDE - site-specific Dublin & Belfast 2008

Mozart - BASTIEN & BASTIENNE - national tour 2008 - revived 2009 & 2010

Handel - ORLANDO - national tour 2007 - Buxton Festival 2009

Mozart - FIDELIO - site specific Dublin, concert performance Derry 2006

Mozart - APOLLO & HYACINTHUS - national & international tour 2006

Monteverdi - THE CORONATION OF POPPEA - national tour 2005 - Buxton Festival 2006

Puccini - LA BOHÈME - national tour 2005

Hagen - VERA OF LAS VEGAS - national tour 2004

Rossini - CINDERELLA - national tour 2003

Allison Cook in The Coronation of Poppea

Frank Hopkins, author of the best-selling Rare Old Dublin: Heroes, Hawkers & Hoors and Hidden Dublin: Deadbeats, Dossers and Decent Skins has kindly agreed to contribute to our guest blog.

Frank's son Jack, along with trebles Gavin Jones and Ferdia Peelo-Walsh, made his professional opera debut in our recent tour of The Magic Flute. Conversations in the rehearsal room led to the mention of Michael O'Kelly - Dublin's very own link to Mozart.

 Jack Hopkins, far left, in the final scene of The Magic Flute, which was Mozart's last opera.

"Dublin-born Michael Kelly, also known on the continent as Ochelli or O’Kelly, was one of the foremost tenors of his day and was also an accomplished thespian and composer, and he was also one of Mozart‘s best friends.

Kelly, the eldest of fourteen children, was the son of a Mary Street wine merchant, Thomas Kelly, who was also Master of Ceremonies at Dublin Castle, and his mother was a McCabe from a wealthy Westmeath family. Both Kelly’s parents were accomplished musicians and singers and they met while his mother was attending a convent on Arran Quay.

Michael Kelly was born on Christmas day in 1762 and from an early age he and several of his siblings showed great musical promise. Michael was said to possess a powerful soprano voice and he was sent at a very early age to study with a number of Dublin’s leading music teachers. One of these was the eccentric singing master, Morland, who spent his days sleeping in a cellar and began his classes at eleven o’clock at night. It wasn’t unusual for the young Kelly to be given his music lesson at one o’clock in the morning under the direction of Morland, who was usually half out of his mind on a lethal concoction of whiskey and punch.

Kelly later studied under another singing master, Signor St. Giorgio, who had rooms at the Rotunda on Rutland (now Parnell) Square, and he revealed in later life that he once saw the great man eating peaches, nectarines and a pineapple in a Dublin fruit shop. The young Kelly said that this incident left such a deep and lasting impression on him that he at once resolved to work hard at his music so that he too, would be able to “lounge about in fruit shops, and eat peaches and pineapples as well as Signor St. Giorgio.”

Kelly was later sent to Dr. Burke’s Academy for young gentlemen and also studied under Cogan, the piano teacher, and the singing-masters Peretti and Passerini.

Kelly made his singing debut in Fishamble Street Theatre in 1777 and also performed at Crow Street theatre during that year.

On the recommendation of the famous castrato Rauzzini, Kelly’s father dispatched him to Italy to further his musical studies there and he departed Dublin on May 1st 1779 and arrived in Naples a month later, where he underwent further training.

Between 1783 and 1787 Kelly was the leading tenor at the Vienna Court Theatre and one of his greatest claims to fame was his friendship with the composer Mozart, whom he met in Vienna.

Kelly tells us that when Mozart wasn’t composing, he was ‘remarkably fond of punch’, of which he often drank copious draughts, and he also reveals that Mozart was an excellent billiard-player.

Kelly was fond of a good story and his memoirs include a humorous tale involving a Dublin saddle-maker called Lennan who fancied himself as an actor: Lennan - after much lobbying - eventually landed himself a part in a play called The West Indian of Cumberland in the role of Major O’Flaherty. Kelly describes Lennan’s debut performance as ‘truly execrable’. After the show, Lennan moved on to a watering hole called the Cockle Club, where he proceeded to get extremely intoxicated, and insisted on giving the members a repeat dose of his earlier performance. The club members had the last laugh however, when they handed him over to the parish watch, informing them that the ossified saddler had murdered Major O’Flaherty earlier in the evening. The watchmen kept Lennan locked up all night and when he was released the next day he returned to his former occupation of saddle-making.

Kelly retired from the stage in 1808, although he continued to manage the King’s Theatre, and did some directing at Drury Lane until 1820. During his final years, he suffered from severe gout and died October 9th 1826 at Margate in Kent. He was buried at St Paul’s Churchyard, Covent Garden."

Our Queen of the Night, Allison Bell, has also begun a blog under the name The Hungry Soprano...

 

 

THURSDAY, 2 FEBRUARY 2012

So I figured it's about time I started telling people about some of the great places I find as I travel about the place as a freelance singer. Varied - often good and sometimes great, and mostly never boring - gastronomic experiences are one of the great perks about my profession. At the moment I'm in Ireland singing Queen of the Night for Opera Theatre Company's Magic Flute and with up to 4 different venues in one week, one is confronted with a lot of different food options. One place in particular this week has been rather special - Fishy Fishy in Kinsale on the County Cork Coast. And I'll tell you all about it after my performance tonight because now it's time to warm up! "

READ MORE....

Hello to all our friends at Opera Theatre Company and Greetings from Kilkenny!

What a time we have had with flu and floods and then the snow – so it has been a while since we have told you about our operatic adventures. And we have an awful lot to tell you.


Dropping off our last blog at the OTC offices. Here we are with Teresa and Brendan.

The last time we told you all about our trip to Barcelona. Well we were only catching our breaths and showing off our tans when Alan and Brendan told us that we had to pack our bags and we were off again and this time we were going to Wexford. We love Wexford and visiting our Auntie Mairead who puts us up for the festival every year.


Here we are with Brendan and our Auntie Mairead

There were four operas to see – Maria Padilla by Donizetti, Une Education Manquee by Chabrier, La Cambiale di Matrimonio by Rossini and finally The Ghosts of Versailles by Corigliano. Art wasn’t too sure about the last one but when we heard that the great cuddle-giver, Owen Gilhooly, was going to be in it he cheered up. It was wonderful. Owen was a King and some of the ghosts were very funny. It was a strange story about Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Beaumarchais, the playwright and characters from some of his plays all mixed together with ghosts at the palace in Versailles. To tell the truth we were slightly confused but the music was lovely and the production as a whole was fabulous.


Here we are with Owen in the Wexford Opera House

We also saw Owen singing in concert with Paula Murrihy, the Irish Mezzo – this was a brilliant concert and one of the highlights of the festival. Paula was in the Ghosts of Versailles also but had a bigger role in Une Educatione Manquee where she shone on a rather otherwise dull night.


Cuddles from Paula Murrihy in St Iberius’ Church, Wexford

We were brought to another concert entitled – A Postcard from America – all the American singers who were at the festival sang songs from American Operas. We loved this because two of Alan’s favourite composers are Barber and Adams. We got to meet all the singers and the incredible American Tenor, Jason Ferrante agreed to have his picture taken with us.


Look at us sitting on a piano with the hugely talented Jason Ferrante

The final opera we saw and which was the unexpected hit of the festival was Maria Padilla. The lead role was sung by Barbara Quintiliani - a wonderful performer in an opera that deserves to be seen more. The story is about a woman who is secretly married to the King and the tragedy that unfolds because of this secret.

Well we were only back from Wexford when the order came to pack again and off to the train station with Alan and Brendan. Our destination was Cork for the last night of Opera Theatre Company’s tour of Handel’s Alcina. Once again Art was not impressed with the idea of spending an evening with a witch and her sister, specially when we heard that she turned people into stone and wild animals. But this turned out to be one of the best nights we ever had at the Opera. The production was splendid and all the cast were excellent but special praise must be made of the three singers who played the characters caught in the love triangle. Doreen Curran as Bradamante, Steven Wallace as Ruggiero and Sinead Campbell-Wallace as Alcina were all brilliant and could easily hold their own on any opera stage in the world. We had a lovely time after the show with all the cast and we had loads of photos taken but we can’t show them to you because Sinead lost the disc. Silly Witch!!! But we’d forgiven her by the time we met her again at Handel’s Messiah in the RDS, where once again the audience was wowed by the stunning performances of both herself and the cuddly Owen Gilhooly.

A few weeks later we were taken to Dublin to see the Opera Ireland production of Verdi’s Macbeth. This was another great night of Opera. Bruno Caproni in the title role was outstanding. The Opera tells the story of Macbeth and his wife and how they come to the Scottish throne. Unlike Shakespeare, who had Macbeth meet three witches, Verdi had Macbeth meet a whole chorus of witches – poor Art was petrified and hid under the seat for nearly a whole act. We also saw the concert performance of Wagner’s Das Rheingold. It was a pity that this was only a concert performance, as the mainly Irish cast were very good. Special mention should be made of Imelda Drumm and Gerard O’Connor.


Our friend Sandra Oman sang the role of Lady in Waiting in Macbeth – here we are with her and Alan and Brendan

The week before we went to see Opera Ireland, we had great excitement when we were told at the last minute that we were to see one of the all-time greats of the Opera Stage – the American Mezzo, Frederica von Stade. What a wonderful night we had at the National Concert Hall. We even got a wonderful cuddle from Ms. von Stade after the concert.


Here we are with Ms. Frederica von Stade at the National Concert Hall

Well that was what we got up to at the end of 2009. We are looking forward to 2010 and trips to Madrid for Der Fliegender Hollander by Wagner, London to see the countertenor David Daniels and Paris for Don Carlos by Verdi. 

Congratulations to all the nominees for the Irish Times Theatre Awards specially to OTC who received two nominations – one for Alcina and one for the Judges Special Award for the work done with the Young Associated Artists Programme – Hurray!   Looking forward to seeing you all at the Opera To Celebrate night at the National Concert Hall on the 6th of April if not before.  Don’t forget to say hello to us on Facebook – Art&Music

Until then,

BIG HUGS,

Art and Music.