15 February 7.15pm & 17 February 2pm

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

www.niopera.com Grand House, Welcome to The Grand 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 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 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 . 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 Bailie Chairman DIRECTOR’S NOTES

Wagner’s fourth opera was premiered in Dresden is appropriate. Despite its composer’s professed Sean Rafferty Festival of Voice vocal competition, along with in June 1843. With stage sets cannibalised from irreligion, The Flying Dutchman is filled with Patron, NI Opera singers from last year’s Young Artists’ Programme, other productions in the theatre’s repertoire, references to angels and salvation. Perhaps this is Páidí Ó Dubháin, Mary McCabe and Gemma it found only limited success, its audiences to be expected in what is, after all, a remote and When I was asked by NI Prince. nonplussed by the opera’s Nordic bleakness and conservative community on the fringes of northern Opera last year to be Patron dissimilarity to the same composer’s lavish grand Europe. Senta’s commitment to the Dutchman, of the company, I was Away from the opera house, NI Opera’s opera premiered in the same theatre only in this context, seems less pathological – more delighted to accept for two development programmes provide them with a year earlier. A transitional work between his understandable, and potentially more heroic. It reasons. First, I believe that mentoring and coaching from some of the earlier, more conventional and his later certainly was to Wagner, who stressed that Senta’s Northern Ireland needs and most respected names in the opera world, both music dramas, Wagner continued to tinker with ‘naivety’ was a positive trait; doubtless, Senta was deserves a first class opera here and in London, and give them invaluable Dutchman for the rest of his life, never quite his fantasy as much as it is the Dutchman’s. But company that can bring innovative productions experience through sharing the stage with achieving the final version he sought. Nevertheless, she is also no mere cipher or mental case, to be of the highest quality to people throughout the established singers in recitals. The Flying Dutchman has become one of his most confined to the kitchen or to the asylum. Senta country. Although only two years old, NI Opera is popular operas, its compact directness giving the embodies other values important to Wagner, doing that already. NI Opera has been fortunate enough to receive lie to Wagner’s reputation – persistent amongst important to the Wagner who only six years after generous funding from the Arts Council of non-admirers – for tedious long-windedness. the opera’s premiere would man the barricades in Equally important is recruiting and nurturing the Northern Ireland to bring its development revolt against capitalism and the established order. most promising local talent. We have a long and programmes to life, but we need more help to give A large part of the reason for the opera’s The Dutchman is a criminal who has alienated rich tradition in Ireland of producing wonderful more young people even greater opportunities. directness lies in the very personal circumstances himself from the world – and hence, mankind – opera singers, musicians, directors, designers The present economic climate makes funding all of its composition. Certainly, the essence of the by challenging it, by engaging in a fruitless and and conductors, but without enough support the more difficult to come by, and so it is even story – the eternal wanderer, a strong-willed martyr ferocious battle with life as it is. By energetically and encouragement the current generation of more important to have your support and help. doomed to a lonely existence on the turbulent choosing him and offering him a ‘home’ in herself, young professionals may not be able to fulfill their seas of life – appealed to Wagner’s image of Senta also makes an abdication from the world, but undoubted potential. Please think of sponsoring our young artists. himself (as well as being a staple for Romantic it is constructive and joyous. It is a positive choice For a relatively modest financial commitment art in general). Feeling his way towards a new to reject a conventional, patriarchal, conservative Bold initiatives such as NI Opera’s Young Artists’ you can make a real difference. aesthetic, and dismissing in ever more combative society - locked in surface relationships and Programme and its annual Festival of Voice in terms what he regarded as the debased work of his acquisitive greed - in favour of love. Glenarm give young people with exceptional talent If you enjoy the performances of our young artists contemporaries (as well as the corruption of society the chance to develop and become genuinely in The Flying Dutchman and would like to know in general), Wagner was in any case a difficult man. Nevertheless, the opera’s tragedy lies in the world-class. more about opportunities to sponsor them, please Perpetually falling out with managements and certainty that both the Dutchman and Senta are call Clíona Donnelly, NI Opera’s General Manager endlessly accumulating debts, restlessly seeking a trapped in their pasts as much as the other. Senta This performance of The Flying Dutchman is a on 028 9027 7734, or alternatively send an email to country in Europe that was worthy of him, Wagner and Wagner offer a possibility for redemption that good example. Of the current class of NI Opera [email protected]. nursed a keen sense of injustice matched by a the Dutchman – the nameless Everyman – and Young Artists, Eugene Monteith is Assistant sense of being not only victimised, but Other. mankind have the opportunity to seize. For the Conductor for the production, and Laura Sheerin Thank you for supporting NI Opera and its young In 1839, harried by creditors in Riga where he was characters, the outcome may even actually be and Aaron O’Hare are singing in the chorus. Also artists. Enjoy the show! principal conductor of the opera house, Wagner spiritually redemptive or transfiguring; Wagner’s in the chorus is Dawn Burns, the winner of the 2012 (plus wife and dog) escaped through the Baltic Sea subsequent modifications to the opera worked in a melodramatic episode culminating in a forced hard at emphasising this. But in human terms, night landing on the Norwegian coast. This landing neither Senta or the Dutchman have been able provided fruitful sonic and atmospheric material to escape the worlds from which they come, for the first scene of his already germinating opera, the decisions they have taken, and the people and Wagner (in characteristically self-mythologising they are. Perhaps Wagner, for all his personal mood) later laboriously altered the ’s preoccupations and subsequent mysticism, original Scottish setting to a Norwegian one, thus recognised this predicament to be the reality of identifying even more with his nameless wanderer. the human lot. It’s fortunate, at least, that while it is this tension that leads to the opera’s fatal outcome, The other essential component of Wagnerian it also generated its imperishable music and lasting music drama, that of the woman unconditionally place in the art of the world. 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 Oliver Mears NI Opera Young Artists 2012/13: Aaron O'Hare, Laura Sheerin, Laura Murphy and Eugene Monteith manifested in the flesh. The religious language February 2013 SYNOPSIS

Richard Wagner Elements of this can be seen in The Flying Dutchman intensity she prays that she may be the one to save 1813-1883 The Flying Dutchman – widely considered to be An Opera in three Acts by , him. Erik enters, telling of the imminent arrival Wagner’s first mature work – but they reach their with a translation by David Pountney of Daland and his ship. After the others have left Born in the same year as fullest expression in Der Ring des Nibelungen to prepare for the arrival of the men, Erik asks , Richard and the operas that followed – Tristan und Senta to plead his cause with Daland, despairing Wagner stands as one of Isolde, Die Meistersingers von Nürnberg of her love. Noticing her preoccupation with the the most important and and Parsifal. Similarly, Wagner’s celebrated Act 1 controversial figures in the history of opera. treatment of leitmotifs – short, constantly Dutchman’s picture, he relates a dream in which Wagner’s turbulent career and colourful reoccurring musical phrases associated with A storm forces the sea captain Daland to find he saw her embrace the Dutchman and sail away private life was marked almost from the start a particular person, place or idea – can be refuge on a barren stretch of the Norwegian in his ship. With delight, Senta exclaims that this by radical ideas and actions. Wagner rejected glimpsed in Dutchman, but only becomes coast, only a few miles from the ship’s home port. is her own dream as well, and Erik rushes away. what he saw as the commercial, crowd- a systematically applied device to propel the Cursing the wind that prevents him from reaching A moment later, the Dutchman himself stands pleasing form of modern opera exemplified emotional drama forward in Der Ring. home and seeing his daughter, Senta, he retires to before the girl. Senta and the Dutchman gaze at by the works of Rossini and Meyerbeer, and sleep, leaving his Steersman on watch. Exhausted, each other in rapt silence while Daland talks about aimed instead to take opera to an entirely As Wagner’s operas grew in maturity, so did the the Steersman falls asleep. The storm revives and wealth and marriage. Daland leaves, and the different level, fusing music with literary and expression of his belief in the inherent unity of a mysterious ship appears. Its captain, the Flying Dutchman tells Senta of his fate, warning her of the philosophical ideas in an unprecedented way the arts. His radical plans for the construction to create a hitherto unimaginable art form. of the Theatre, which opened Dutchman, steps ashore, despairing of his fate. terrible sacrifice she must make if she promises to Wagner intended his music to transcend all with the first ever cycles of Der Ring in August He once swore he would sail around the Cape of be faithful to him until death. Senta is undeterred, that had gone before it, raising the status 1876, take this belief to its natural conclusion, Good Hope if it took him till eternity - and the devil and vows her love. Daland arrives to bless the union. of his art to the realms of the spiritual, and developing a physical space designed took him at his word. However, he has one hope, offering a form of redemption and catharsis to specifically to allow his operas to be performed promised by an angel: once every seven years he the entire human race. as he intended them, and for them to be open to may leave his ship in search of a woman who will Act 3 all, regardless of social class. redeem him from his deathless wandering if she The ambitious claims he made for opera gives him faithful, absolute love; failing this, he Later that evening, Daland’s crew are drinking were underpinned by a radical reappraisal Wagner completed his final opera, Parsifal in is condemned to roam the seas until the Day of and celebrating their arrival home. As the women of the form. Wagner had great respect for January 1882, and died of a heart attack in Beethoven, admiring in particular his nine Venice the following year. He was buried in the Judgment, which the Dutchman yearns for as the arrive with more food and drink, they invite the symphonies, and Wagner’s quasi-symphonic garden of his villa in Bayreuth. only end to his pain. crew of The Flying Dutchman to join them, joking treatment of opera, expressed in his insistence that they must be either dead or guarding their on the musical unity and integrity of an entire Karl Marx famously said, “Wherever one goes, Daland returns and wakes his Steersman. He golden hoard. The women, increasingly alarmed, work, became an important feature of his one is plagued with the question: what do sees the mysterious stranger, who, on learning leave the Norwegians. The Dutchman’s ship music. By combining his genius for arranging you think of Richard Wagner?” Whether one that Daland has a daughter, asks for her hand in explodes into life, and its crew sings that because vast tracts of continuously flowing music, accepts WH Auden’s assertion that Wagner marriage in return for the unimaginable riches on of Satan’s curse they will be at sea for ever. The with his desire for uniting the dramatic and was “perhaps the greatest genius that ever board his vessel. Barely believing his luck, and Norwegian crew disperses in fear. emotional expression found in composers and lived”, or concurs with Nietzsche’s view that tempted by the gold, Daland agrees. The wind writers such as Beethoven and Shakespeare, “He contaminates everything he touches – he Wagner was able to develop his concept has made music sick”, there is no denying the changes course, dawn breaks, and both ships set Senta arrives, followed by Erik, who is horrified of gesamtkunstwerk, or ‘total art’, creating composer’s legacy for music, society and the arts. sail for Daland’s home. that she has agreed to marry the stranger despite music dramas that transcended the previously her previous professions of love for him. The accepted forms of opera. Dutchman overhears the conversation and is Act 2 overwhelmed with despair, believing that Senta is unfaithful and his only hope of redemption is lost. Footnote to NI Opera’s 2013 production of The Flying Dutchman In Daland’s town, Senta, Mary, and other local As Erik calls for help, the Dutchman summons his women are singing and working. Senta is men, and reveals his true identity to Daland and It seems that Wagner was never fully satisfied with The Flying Dutchman, as he revised the score transfixed by a picture of the legendary Dutchman. the assembled Norwegians. As he sets sail once on numerous occasions between its Dresden première in 1843 and his death in 1883. One aspect The other girls tease Senta about her suitor, the again, Senta destroys herself - fulfilling her promise of the opera that has been a near constant source of debate is whether Wagner intended it to hunter Erik, but she remains in a trance. Staring to be true to the Dutchman until death. be performed with continuous momentum, without intervals. In his own lifetime it was most at a portrait of the Flying Dutchman, she sings a commonly seen with two breaks, but Wagner’s widow, Cosima, insisted that he had not wanted ballad about the wandering captain. With burning There will be an interval after Act 1 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 FLYING DUTCHMAN

Creative Team Production Team Acknowledgements Cast

Director Production Manager Arts Council of Northern Ireland Dutchman Erik Oliver Mears Patrick McLaughlin Peter Moores Foundation Bruno Caproni Paul McNamara The Leche Trust Conductor Company Stage Manager Brendan McCrisken Senta Steersman Nicholas Chalmers Kate Watkins Eimear Crealey Giselle Allen Adrian Dwyer Rachel Armstrong Set and Costume Designer Stage Manager Megan Gillespie Daland Mary Simon Holdsworth Diarmuid O’Quigley Andrew Hill and the staff of the Stephen Richardson Doreen Curran Grand Opera House Movement Director Props Mistress Richard McBride Anna Morrissey Patsy Hughes Ulster Orchestra Belfast Philharmonic CHORUS Costume Designer Master Carpenter Sarah Speers at Stag Head Laura Stanfield Nic Rée Lyric Theatre Chorus Master Belvoir Players Nicholas Chalmers Michael Bell Lighting Designer Technical Manager Oscar + Oscar Conor Breen Kevin Treacy Stephen Anderson Jim Carson Alex Connolly Queen’s University, Belfast Andrea Delaney David Lynn Video Designer Assistant Costume Supervisor Sew ‘n’ Knit Alice Hamilton Shane McCormick Duncan McLean Melanie Carmichael Belfast Central Mission Susan Graham Brian McNamee Costume Assistant Belfast Buildings Trust Caroline Jones Yuri Sabatini Assistant Conductor Rosie Moore Philip Goss Shonagh Lyons Gabriel Seawright Eugene Monteith Costume Breakdown Artists Fashion students and Mary McCabe Marc Tilley Marie Breen Patricia Dickson at Belfast MET Ciara McCartan Thompson Assistant Director Sophie Wallace Helen O’Hare BASSES Danielle Urbas Costume Maker Elaine Pelan Tor Alexander Margaret Pescott Gemma Prince Salwan Cartwright-Shamoon Répétiteurs Costume Intern Laura Sheerin Christopher Cull Ian Ryan Clare Taggart Rachel Thompson Páidí Ó Dubháin Miles Lallemant Victoria Warwick Robert Garland Wigs and Make-up Supervisor Matt Jeffrey Carole Dunne ALTOS Donal McCrisken Assistant Wigs and Make-up Sarah Alcorn Gareth McFarland Dana Kalder Shamariah Bennett Nathan Morrison Wigs and Make-up Intern Dawn Burns Lorcan O’Byrne Carrie McDonald Harriet Jenkins Aaron O’Hare Sinead Lalor Chris O’Reilly Set Construction Laura McFall Noel Thompson Scenedock Diane Morrison John Ward Scenic Artists Lynda-Jane Nelson Chris Hunter Pat Cullen Sculpter Andy MacIntyre SUPERNUMERARY ACTORS Scenic Photographer Neil Harrison Rhiann Jeffrey Megan Magill The Flying Dutchman in rehearsal

Principal Conductor Associate Composer Leader JoAnn Falletta Ian Wilson Tamás Kocsis

Associate Conductor Artist Laureate Associate Leader Christopher Bell Sir James Galway Ioana Petcu-Colan

First violins Basses Trombones Giselle Allen as Ioana Petcu-Colan Gareth Hopkins*• Martin Wilson**• Senta, and Bruno Beverley Scott* Michele Strong+• Neil Gallie Caproni as the Thomas Jackson+ Helen Glynn Dutchman Jonathan Griffin• Trombone Claire Thatcher Flutes Richard Ashmore* Gillian Leeming• Colin Fleming**• Alys Jackson Elizabeth Bennett*• Tuba Philip Davies• Kieran Moynihan Stephen Irvine* Alexandra Lawrence• Ottoline Maas• Piccolo Timpani Elizabeth Bennett*• Nick Brown Second violins Michael Alexander**• Oboes Percussion Nicholas Rippon* Christopher Blake**• Sam Staunton** Danny McCann-Williams Colin Stark*• Clare Hadwen Off-stage Piccolos Mireia Ferrer Colin Irvine Helen Wakelam• Paul Schumann* Andrew Douglas Stephen Richardson Kevin Harrell Andrew Roberts Stephen Rankin as Daland Karen Sexton Bassoons Off-stage Horns Violas Julian Partridge* Derek Parkins*• Ashley Mason**• Tom Hardy Louise Edwards Stephen Begley+• Charlie Doherty Jonathan Simmance Horns Philip Walton• Paul Klein** Richard Hadwen Martin Wall* Richard Guthrie• Jesse Durkan* Jacqueline McCarthy Cellos Daniel Beer John Leeming**• Sarah Shephard+ Trumpets Liubov Ulybysheva Paul Young** Kathryn Lowry• Patrick McCarthy* Giselle Allen as Sian Hetherington Senta, and Paul McNamara as Erik ** Section Leader · * Principal · + Sub-principal · Guest players’ names in italics THE FLYINGBIOG DUTCHMANRAPHIES

Giselle Allen, Senta Bruno Caproni, Dutchman Nicholas Chalmers, Conductor Glyndebourne Touring Opera, ATAO Tenerife), Giselle was born in Belfast, and Born in Bangor, County Down, Nicholas conducts productions Tamiri (Farnace / Salzburg), Blanche (The Gambler studied at the Belfast School of Bruno Caproni has performed for Northern Ireland Opera, / Grange Park Opera), Zoe (La Fiamma), Ernestina Music, Cardiff University, The the great roles by Verdi, and is the artistic director of (L’occasione Fa il Ladro) and Penelope (Clione) Guildhall School of Music and Puccini, and others in the most Nevill Holt Opera and Second for Wexford, Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro / The Royal Academy of Music important theatres in the world. Movement Opera Company. He ENO, Garsington Opera, Savoy Opera), Dorabella Opera School, where she is also an Associate. These include: the New York Metropolitan, studied music at Oxford University and (Cosi fan Tutte / Opera Holland Park), Ottavia and Staatsoper, La Scala Milan, ROH , at the Piacenza Conservatoire. From 2003 to Bradamante (Alcina) for Opera Theatre Company Roles include: Tatyana (Eugene Onegin / Deutsche Oper in Berlin, , 2008 Nicholas worked at Westminster Abbey and at the Aldeburgh and Buxton Festivals, Canadian Opera Company, ), Jenufa Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Pittsburgh as Assistant Organist and Director of Music of Rosina ( / OTC), Kate (Pirates (Glyndebourne, Opera North), Musetta (La Opera, San Diego Opera, Florida Grand Opera, the Choir School. From 2008 until 2011 Nicholas of Penzance / ENO), Lola ( Monnaie / ENO, Opera North), Ellen Orford (Peter English and , Opera Du Rhin was Assistant Chorus Master of English National / Opera Northern Ireland), Second Lady (Die Grimes / Komische Oper Berlin, Opera North), Strasbourg, Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp as well as Opera. With ENO he prepared 24 operas for Zauberflote) and Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi) for Opera Marie (Wozzeck / COC Toronto), Miss Jessel (The the opera houses in Cologne, Hamburg, Frankfurt, conductors including Edward Gardner, Mark Ireland, Baba (The Medium), Mother (Hansel and Turn of the Screw / Glyndebourne Festival Opera). and Düsseldorf. Wigglesworth, Sir , Baldur Gretel) and Mrs Noye (Noye’s Fludde) for NI Opera. Bronnimann and Sir Richard Armstrong. For Solo engagements include Verdi Requiem, For Opera North: , Katya Kabanova, Bruno Caproni has also been a guest of Second Movement he has conducted Mozart and Elgar Sea Pictures, Rossini Petite Messe, Bach B Jenufa, Marenka (Bartered Bride), Donna Elvira prestigious festivals such as the Vienna Salieri (October 2004), Trouble in Tahiti (June 2005), minor Mass, St Matthew’s and St John’s Passion, (), The Fox (Cunning Little Vixen), Klangboden and the Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico. The Medium and Impresario (January 2006), Les Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Three Cornered Hat with the Miss Jessel, and Ellen Orford. He has collaborated with numerous distinguished Deux Aveugles, Rothschild’s Violin and The Knife’s LPO, Messiah in Royal Festival Hall and Bridgewater conductors, including Marco Armiliato, Paolo Tears (May 2007), all to wide critical acclaim. Hall Manchester, and Vaughan Williams Serenade Other roles include Vitellia (Clemenza / Malaga), Carignani, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Edward Downes, to Music at the Edinburgh Festival. Iris and Countess (Figaro) for Opera Holland Placido Domingo, Daniele Gatti, Edward Gardner, Conducting engagements with Northern Ireland Park, (Herodiade / Anna Livia Festival, Sir , Carlos Kleiber, , Opera include The Medium (Feb 2011), (Best Adrian Dwyer, Steersman Dublin), Geraldine (A Hand of Bridge / Barbican), Zubin Metha, Riccardo Muti, Donald Runnicles, Opera - Irish Theatre Awards - April 2011), Turn of Born in , Australia, Gerhilde (Die Walkure / ENO), Svatava (Fibich Jeffery Tate and Silvio Varviso. He has recently the Screw (March 2012 and Buxton Festival July Adrian Dwyer studied at the Sarka / Wexford), Wellgunde (Das Rheingold) performed at the Komische Oper Berlin 2012), Noye’s Fludde (Belfast Zoo - August 2012 GSMD and the National Opera and Gutrune (Gotterdammerung) for the Covent and in Livorno; Simon Boccanegra at the ENO, and Beijing October 2012). Current and future Studio. He currently studies with Garden Festival, both Donna Eleonora (Salieri) and and at the Pittsburgh engagements include Messiah (Lyon Opera), The . Jenny (The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) Opera. He was also personally invited by the Bear (NI Opera - February 2013) and The Magic for the International Edinburgh Festival, Tosca for distinguished Brazilian director Felipe Hirsch to Flute (Nevill Holt Opera - June 2013). Operatic roles include Bénédict (Béatrice et NI Opera, Marta (The Passenger / ENO), and Mimi sing Rigoletto to mark the 100th anniversary of the Bénédict /Opera Comique, Paris), Francesco (La Boheme / WNO). Theatro Municipal in Saò Paolo. Doreen Curran, Mary (Benvenuto Cellini / Orchestre de Paris), Born in Derry, Doreen studied Rodolfo (La Boheme / Baz Luhrmann’s TONY Future plans include Sieglinde at the RFH with music at the DIT College of award-winning production, Los Angeles), Sir Andrew Davies, and Ellen Orford for both the Music, where she was awarded a Lensky (Eugene Onegin / Aldeburgh), Roderigo Aldeburgh Festival and Opera North. BMus Performance Degree with ( / Opera Company), Jenik First Class Honours and a Gold ( / MWO), Alfredo (La Traviata Medal. Doreen entered the Royal / Opera Queensland), Sam Kaplan (Street Scene Northern College of Music as a post-graduate and / Opera de Toulon), Tamino ( completed her studies at the . / Opera Theatre Company, Ireland, Grange Park Opera), Edgar (Promised End / Linbury Operatic roles include Ottavia (L’incoronazione ROH). For Scottish Opera, Almaviva (Barbiere di di Poppea / ENO), Mercedes ( / Siviglia), Macduff (Macbeth), Broucek (Excursions THE FLYINGBIOG DUTCHMANRAPHIES

of Mr Broucek). For ENO, Arturo (Lucia di Denmark); Ritual in Blood (Nottingham Playhouse); Kristina (Royal Albert Hall); The Real Thing (Old In addition to Wagner (Erik, Loge, Tannhäuser, Lammermoor), Grailknight (Parsifal) and SS Officer Dracula (Derby Playhouse); ‘Tis Pity She’s a Vic); The Hairy Bikers Big Night Out (UK Tour); Tristan and Parsifal) McNamara’s extensive in Weinberg’s The Passenger. For Opera North, Whore (Southwark Playhouse). For television Blowing Whistles (Leicester Square Theatre); repertoire encompasses operas by Mozart, Cherevin / Young Prisoner (From the House of Simon designed The Waltz King, BBC 1. Simon is The Norman Conquests (Old Vic/Broadway); Sir Weber, Meyerbeer, Tchaikovsky, Dvorák, Janácek, the Dead), Janek (The Makropulos Case), Broucek currently designing Benvenuto Cellini (Städtische Barrington Ganch - My Life is Art Leoncavallo, , Cilea, Zemlinsky, (Excursions of Mr Broucek). For Opera Holland Bühnen Münster, Germany); The Magic Flute (Edinburgh Festival); All About My Mother Alfano, Berg, Britten and André Previn. Park, Hagenbach (La Wally), Don Ottavio (Don (Nevill Holt Opera); The Bear (Northern Ireland (Old Vic); Frost/Nixon (Donmar/Gielgud) Giovanni). Opera) and (Theater and Evita (New Zealand Tour). Furture plans include new productions of St. Gallen, Switzerland). Tannhäuser, Salome and in Germany Future engagements include Andres (Wozzeck), Television work includes - BBC News, London as well as debuts in Lima (Tannhäuser) and Warsaw Strolling Player () and Jaquino Miles Lallemant, Répétiteur Olympics 2012, Newsnight, BBC Sport, Match (Penderecki The Devils of Loudun). (Fidelio), all for . Miles was a chorister at Llandaff of the Day, The One Show, Strictly Come Dancing, Cathedral in Wales and read Big Brother and BBC documentary pilot, Oliver Mears, Director Simon Holdsworth, Classics at Cambridge. He Unknown Islands. Oliver read English and History Set and Costume Designer studied piano with Richard at Lincoln College, Oxford, Simon Lima Holdsworth trained McMahon and Peter Katin. In 2001, Duncan won the BFI’s Young Filmmaker and began his career assisting at Wimbledon School of Art, For a short while he taught Latin of the Year Award. playwright Howard Barker, London and the Kunstacademie, in a small school in Yorkshire before becoming before going on to work at the Maastricht. a Lay Vicar at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. Paul McNamara, Erik Kings Head, Islington (directing After a year as organist at the Anglican church in From Limerick, Paul McNamara productions of Judith, Creditors and The Lesson) Designs for opera and include Taormina in Sicily, Miles moved to Belfast. He is a is based in Germany where he and in opera, working on productions in London Hansel and Gretel (NI Opera/Opera North); member of the National Chamber Choir of Ireland has sung in several theatres (ENO, ROH), Leeds, Milan, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Orpheus in the Underworld (Scottish Opera/ and sings with various including Resurgam, including Kiel, , Münster, and . Northern Ireland Opera); Noye’s Fludde (NI Ars Nova Copenhagen, and Coro Casa da Musica Wuppertal, Halle & Hannover. Opera/Beijing Music Festival); Porto. His many notable successes As Artistic Director of Second Movement and The Merry Widow (Hyogo Performing Arts have included his critically acclaimed début at Opera, Oliver directed many site-specific opera Centre, Japan); Tosca (Northern Ireland Opera); Duncan McLean, the in Braunfels’ Szenen productions in London, including works by Don Giovanni (Ekaterinburg State Theatre, Russia); Video Designer aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna and the Mozart, Bernstein, Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich/ Gianni Schicchi and La Notte di un Nevrastenico Duncan’s theatre work includes title roles in Wagner’s Tannhäuser & Parsifal at Fleischmann, Barber, the world premiere of (Theater Magdeburg, Germany); Britain’s got – The Bodyguard (Adelphi); the Mainfrankentheater Würzburg, for both of Stefan Weisman’s opera Fade, and in 2010 a tour Bhangra (UK tour); Der Freischütz (Landestheater Derren Brown – Infamous (UK which he was nominated as Singer of the Year in of Martinu’s The Knife’s Tears which travelled to Salzburg); Orlando (Buxton Festival/Opera Theatre Tour); And In The Beginning the German magazine Opernwelt. Elsewhere he Brno and Prague, . He has also Company); The Bear (Nationale Reisopera, The Was The End (Somerset House); 9 to 5 – The has appeared at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie directed a prison project with lifers, Sweeney Netherlands); Bluebeard (Buxton Festival). Musical (UK Tour); Epidemic (Old Vic Tunnels); in Brussels, the Stadttheater Bern, OTC, Opera Todd (HMP Kingston/Pimlico Opera), La Calisto All New People (Duke of York’s and UK Tour); Ireland, Cape Town Opera, the Janácek Festival (Early Opera Company), Hansel and Gretel (Opera As part of the Second Movement Creative Team, Shrek the Musical (Drury Lane); Frisky & Mannish: in Brno and at the Opera Lesna in Sopot (Poland). North), the National Opera Studio Showcase Simon has designed Trouble in Tahiti, Fade, A Extra Curricular Activities (Edinburgh Festival/UK In December 2010 he appeared at the National 2010, The Bear (National Reisopera, Holland), My Hand of Bridge, The Two Blind Men, Rothschild’s Tour); Pete Firman (Edinburgh Festival/UK Tour); Opera in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he sang Brother’s Keeper (Edinburgh /Pleasance), Albert Violin, The Knife’s Tears, The Impresario, The Chris Cox - Fatal Distraction (UK Tour); Peter Pan Tannhäuser in the first ever production of a Wagner Herring (Aldeburgh) and David Almond’s critically- Medium and Zatopek! Designs for theatre include (Dublin/Southampton); Ivan and the Dogs (UK and opera in Central Asia. acclaimed play My Dad’s a Birdman, with original Screwmachine (Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh); International Tour); Catwalk Confidential (Miami/ music by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe (). Richard II (Ludlow Festival/Almagro Festival, London); A Flea in Her Ear (Old Vic); Reasons to Spain); Messiah (Old Vic, London); be Cheerful (Theatre Royal, Stratford East and two Love Life of Ophelia (London, Edinburgh and UK Tours); The Tempest (Old Vic/Bridge Project); BIOGRAPHIES THE FLYINGBIOG DUTCHMANRAPHIES

As Artistic Director of NI Opera, Oliver has of Wales. Eugene is Musical Director of Bath of The Dead)‚ Bass roles in The Adventures of Laura Stanfield, directed Tosca (Irish Times Theatre Award for Symphony Orchestra and Abergavenny Pinocchio (ON) and Ferrando ( / Danish Costume Designer ‘Best Opera Production’, 2011), The Turn of Symphony Orchestra. National Opera). After studying Theatre Design at the Screw (nominated for Irish Times Theatre Wimbledon School of Art, Laura Awards 2012 ‘Best Opera Production’ and ‘Best Anna Morrissey, Stephen has created roles in many important has worked predominantly in Director’) Orpheus in the Underworld (co- Movement Director contemporary works including Adès’s The theatrical costume. As Head of production, Scottish Opera), Hansel and Gretel, Movement Assistant for the Tempest (ROH); ’s Orchestral Theatre Costume at Laine Theatre Arts and Noye’s Fludde (Belfast Zoo/Beijing Music Opening Ceremony of the II‚ Re‚ and Tea (Suntory Hall‚ Tokyo); Barry’s The she designed and produced costumes for ballet, Festival). In autumn 2012 he was nominated for an London 2012 Olympic Games. Triumph of Beauty and Deceit‚ The Importance of dance and musical theatre, collaborating with ‘Achievement in Opera’ award by the TMA Awards The Comedy of Errors (Royal Being Earnest and The Intelligence Park; Tavener’s many choreographers including Derek Deane. for his leadership of NI Opera. Future plans include Exchange Theatre); Antony & Eis Thanaton‚ Resurrection‚ The Apocalypse and She has also been Head of Costume on the MS The Magic Flute for Nevill Holt Opera. Cleopatra, Dunsinane, The Drunks, Grain Store, Fall and Resurrection (City of London Sinfonia‚ Disney Wonder (Bahamas) and works regularly for Thomas Hobbes, Cordelia Dream, I’ll Be The Devil, St Paul’s Cathedral); and the British premiere of the English National Opera’s costume department. Eugene Monteith, Pericles (RSC); Noye’s Fludde (Belfast Zoo, Beijing Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale (ENO). Assistant Conductor Music Festival); Village Bike (Cruicible Theatre, Recordings include Where the Wild Things Are‚ Design Credits include: King – A Cathedral From Strabane, Eugene Monteith Sheffield); Merchant of Venice (Creation Theatre Moses (Death of Moses / Unicorn Kanchana)‚ Opera, by Stephen Barlow (costumes), Britain’s read music at Queen’s University Company); Hansel & Gretel (NI Opera Purcell’s Ode for the Birthday of Queen Mary Got Bhangra, (costume - collaboration), 118 118 Belfast, and the Royal Welsh / Opera North); Marat/Sade (RSC); Orpheus in (DG Archiv)‚ A Midsummer Night’s Dream (London Summer tour (costumes), Three Wishes, Second College of Music and Drama the Underworld (Scottish Opera); Caledonia Symphony Orchestra / Sir Colin Davis) and Albert Movement (costumes), Parallel Lives by Jon Oram where he gained a PG Diploma (National Theatre of Scotland); Bus Stop (New Herring (Chandos). (set and costumes), Matters of Chance by Jon in Orchestral Conducting and an MA in Choral Vic Theatre); On The Record (Arcola); My Dad’s a Oram (set and costumes) Royal Palace, France Conducting under the tutelage of David Jones, Birdman (Young Vic); The Barber of Seville, Manon Ian Ryan, Répétiteur (cabaret costumes). Supervising credits include: Adrian Partington, and Neil Ferris. Lescaut (Opera Holland Park); 101 Dalmatians Ian read economics at Selwyn Royal Gala – Wales Millennium Centre, Hansel and (Northampton Theatre Royal); Julius Caesar College, Cambridge, before Gretel (Opera North and NI Opera), Tosca, The Eugene was trained as a trumpeter, and studied (Menier Chocolate Factory); Tamburlaine the studying as a répétiteur at the Medium, Noye’s Fludde and Turn of the Screw with Hugh Carslaw at QUB. His first public Great (Rose Theatre); Human Rites (Southwark Guildhall School of Music and (all NI Opera). Laura has an ongoing relationship performance was with the QUB Orchestra Playhouse) and Shivered (Southwark Playhouse). Drama and the National Opera with ‘Claque’, a theatre company which creates conducting Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Studio. He was a staff répétiteur unique performances written specifically for the Question. In 2006 he studied at Canford Summer Stephen Richardson, Daland for Scottish Opera between 2007 and 2010. community in which they are performed. School, and moved to Wales in 2007. He was Stephen studied at Manchester He has worked for Opera North (Carmen, As designer she helps to create inclusive assistant conductor on all productions, and University and the RNCM. Recent The Portrait, The Queen of Spades), English community plays that aim, through storytelling, conducted the RWCMD Opera Scenes. and future engagements include National Opera (The Death of Klinghoffer), workshops and a final performance to create a Eugene studied singing with Philip Lloyd Evans Baron Ochs ( (Thaïs), Grange Park Opera legacy for future creative, social and theatrical and Eric Roberts. / Bolshoi Theatre‚ Moscow)‚ (Idomeneo) and the Edinburgh International collaboration within communities. Hobson (Peter Grimes / La Scala Festival (El Niño, La Donna del Lago). Eugene has participated in master classes with Milan‚ ROH, Opera North and Aldeburgh)‚ Frank Jac van Steen and the BBC National Orchestra (Die Fledermaus / Korean National Opera), Lady Performances with BBC Symphony Orchestra of Wales, and Kenneth Kiesler and the Berlin Bracknell (The Importance of Being Earnest / NIO include Nixon in China, conducted by the Sinfonietta (supported by Arts Council for and Los Angeles), Flint ( / Netherlands composer, at the BBC Proms and the Musikfest Northern Ireland). Eugene has conducted for Opera)‚ Barry’s The Intelligence Park (Irish Museum Berlin. As an accompanist, his collaboration with Welsh National Opera MAX, Welsh National Youth of Modern Art‚ Dublin)‚ Beethoven in Barry’s baritone has led to an album of Opera, Wales International Academy of Voice, Schott and Sons‚ Mainz (National Chamber Choir 21st Century British Song for Meridian records. Future Co-Opera Co. and the BBC National Chorus of Ireland‚ Dublin)‚ Commandant (From The House plans include Death in Venice for Opera North.

Previous productions Noye’s Fludde, August & October 2012 Kevin Treacy, Danielle Urbas, Lighting Designer Assistant Director “An enchanting show” – The Sunday Times Previous designs for NI Opera Danielle trained as an actor “Simply gorgeous” – Irish Times include Tosca, The Turn of the at the Drama Centre London. Screw and NI Opera Shorts. Her acting credits include Recent designs include The productions for stage, TV and NI Opera Shorts, June 2012 Seafarer (Perth Theatre), The film. She has previously assisted “Remarkable...each opera was skillful, provoking Changeling, The wonderful World of Dissocia and Oliver Mears on the following productions laughter as well as sorrow” – The Observer Rose Bernd (Platform Theatre),The Government with Second Movement: The Three Wishes Inspector and Arrah-na-pogue (Abbey Theatre, (Tete a Tete August 2010), The Knife’s Tears “(NI Opera’s) most ambitious project so far, NI Dublin), Beside the Sea (Southbank Centre), (Brno and Prague October 2010), and with NI Opera Shorts was another resounding success” Orpheus in the Underworld (Scottish Opera), Opera: The Medium (Feb 2010), Orpheus in the – Opera Journal Dancing Shoes - The George Best Story Underworld (Scottish Opera and NI Opera 2011) (Grand Opera House, Belfast), Theatre Brothel and Turn of the Screw (2012). (Almeida Festival, London), Rodelinda (Royal “There’s a real buzz and sense The Turn of the Screw, March & July 2012 College of Music, London), Anything But Love Last summer she made her directorial debut with of purpose about what this “This is a first-rate cast…It’s a Screw that any (Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick), The Shawshank Zatopek! a short opera as part of the New Music company would be proud to tour. From a Redemption (Wyndhams Theatre, West End and Festival 20x12 (Epstein theatre, Liverpool and The company is doing” – The Guardian company that is barely a year old, it’s remarkable” Irish Tour), Twelfth Night (Nottingham Playhouse), South Bank Centre, London) – on Sunday Flavio, Xerxes and The Fairy Queen (English NI Opera was formed in 2010, with a mission Touring Opera). Other Theatre design includes to provide the highest quality opera to the “An extraordinarily good cast…this was very The Nose (The Performance Corporation) for widest possible audience, and to promote impressive stuff” – Opera Now which he won the Irish Times award for Best young Northern Irish talent. Generously Lighting Design, The Charming Man (Theatre 503), supported by the Arts Council of Northern Hansel and Gretel, November 2011, This is our Youth (Bedrock Productions), Drive-By Ireland, NI Opera has a philosophy of January & November 2012 (Dublin Fringe Festival and Canterbury Festival), excellence and risk-taking underpinned by an “Lively, funny and provocatively gruesome”– The Yokohama Delegation (Kilkenny Festival), Dr imaginative programming policy and first-rate The Sunday Times Ledbetter’s Experiment (Edinburgh Fringe Festival casting. NI Opera is committed to broadening and Kilkenny Festival) nominated Best Production, the audience for this incredible art form “A feisty staging of Humperdinck’s opera…Northern Irish Times awards. Future projects include The that famously combines exciting stories, big Ireland Opera continues to punch above its weight” spectacle, and great music. Seafarer (Lyric Theatre), Imeneo (Royal College of – The Independent on Sunday Music), The Magic Flute (Nevill Holt Opera). Artistic Director - “NI Opera...comes of age with this, its first full- Oliver Mears scale show in Belfast...it winningly hooks in both General Manager - adults and children to its overarching theme: the Clíona Donnelly line between appearance and reality; dream and nightmare” - The Times Marketing & Communications Director - Simon Goldrick Company Manager - Orpheus in the Underworld, October 2011 Katrina Black “Flamboyantly irreverent” – The Guardian

Upcoming productions “A raucously enjoyable affair, staged with energy and imagination”– The Telegraph The Bear (Walton), March 2013, Touring Northern Ireland Tosca (Best Opera winner at the 2011 Irish Times Theatre Awards), March 2011 For further details, “A remarkable achievement…the results breathed see www.niopera.com charisma and conviction” – The Times

WILLIAM WALTON

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

Northern Ireland Tour 2013 Theatre at the Mill, Newtownabbey, March 21 Strule Arts Centre, Omagh, March 22 Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen, March 23 the MAC, Belfast, March 26 Riverside Theatre, Coleraine, March 30 www.niopera.com

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