Sheil brings inaugural national opera work to Navan
The fledgling Irish National Opera (INO), under its new artistic director, Fergus Sheil, opens its inaugural programme with Thomas Adés' darkly comic opera, 'Powder Her Face', coming to Solstice Navan as part of its tour.
Julianstown resident Sheil was appointed artistic director of the new company in December. Sheil lives in Julianstown with his wife Maria and their two daughters. Fergus & Maria founded Julianstown Youth Orchestra in 2011.
Irish National Opera is an amalgamations of Wide Open Opera and Opera Theatre Company, two organisations of which Fergus was the artistic director. He has been really vocal in championing Irish opera talent in both these companies and this remit will continue strongly with INO.
The pioneering work 'Powder Her Face' is based on the exploits of a notorious socialite, Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, the so-called ‘Dirty Duchess’. She lived the high life from the 1930s onwards — the era is one of the many nostalgically evoked in Adès's score — and in the 1960s became embroiled in one of the first sex scandals of modern tabloid journalism. As the Judge in the opera puts it: “She is a Don Juan among women.”
The work has been hailed as “a modern classic” by The Times and The Observer. INO's tour takes director and designer Antony McDonald's highly-acclaimed production to Wexford, Kilkenny, Navan, Sligo, Dublin and Tralee between Saturday 24 February and Friday 9 March. The co-production with NI Opera was first staged last year at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.
The title role is taken by Mary Plazas, with Irish soprano Daire Halpin, and Australian-British tenor Adrian Dwyer, and British bass-baritone Stephen Richardson. The four singers bring a staggering 16 roles to life while the 15-member Irish National Opera Orchestra, under conductor Timothy Redmond, swarm through the style shifting world of Thomas Adès in a work that features the world’s most notoriously explicit aria.
Ade's, whose second opera, 'The Tempest', has been seen in London, New York, Vienna and Quebec, and whose third opera, 'The Exterminating Angel', was co-commissioned by the Salzburg Festival, The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera New York and the Royal Danish Opera, is coming to see Irish National Opera’s production of Power Her Face in Tralee, where he will also give a pre-performance interview with conductor Timothy Redmond.
Fergus Sheil sees him as “arguably the most prominent opera composer of our day”.
“Powder Her Face was written when he was just 24 and is a youthful explosion of energy and creativity. He’s the composer of the moment, and it’s unprecedented to have somebody of his stature at one of our shows in Tralee, which is a very long remove from New York's Metropolitan Opera”.
Irish National Opera’s tour of Powder Her Face opens at the National Opera House, Wexford (Saturday 24 February) and tours to Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny (Tuesday 27 February ); Solstice Arts Centre, Navan (Thursday 1 March); Hawk’s Well, Sligo (Saturday 3 March ); O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin (Tuesday 6 & Wednesday 7 March); and finally Siamsa Tíre, Tralee (Friday 9 March).
Tickets start at €27, see irishnationalopera.ie.