An extravaganza in One Act based on the play by Anton Chekhov
Northern Ireland Tour March 21 – 26
“There’s a real buzz and sense of purpose about what this company is doing” ~ The Guardian Welcome
Welcome to this evening’s performance of The Bear. Tonight’s programme showcases not only a rarely performed jewel of an opera, but also brings to Northern Ireland three wonderful singers who are making a real name for themselves on the world stage. Anna Burford and Andrew Rupp are performing with NI Opera for the first time following recent engagements at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and English National Opera. Those of you who saw our production of Tosca back in 2011 will remember John Molloy who sang the roles of Angelotti and Sciarrone then, and sings the role of Luka tonight.
We are also delighted that some of Northern Ireland’s finest choirs are appearing in the first part of tonight’s programme, singing a selection of George Shearing’s beautiful Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare.
The combination of Northern Irish talent, internationally-renowned singers and innovative programming has been highly evident throughout our 2012/13 season, which draws to a close with this tour. From commissioning exciting new short operas from leading Irish composers and playwrights, to performing a children’s opera in Belfast Zoo and at the Beijing Music Festival, to bringing a home grown production of a Wagner opera to the Belfast stage for the first time ever, this has certainly been a year to remember. 2012/13 has also seen NI Opera make its debuts at the prestigious Buxton Festival and in the Irish Republic, whilst our programmes for nurturing the best young Irish talent – particularly our Young Artists’ Programme and our annual Festival of Voice in Glenarm – continue to prosper.
It is also very gratifying that our achievements are being recognised by respected opera critics in the media, and by high profile international opera awards. This time last year we won the Irish Times Theatre Award (ITTA) for Best Opera Production for Tosca, and 12 months later we were nominated for this award again for The Turn of the Screw. In addition, Artistic Director Oliver Mears was nominated in this year’s ITTA in the Best Director category, and was also nominated for an Achievement in Opera award by the Theatre Management Association for his leadership of NI Opera. Furthermore, Oliver has been shortlisted as Best Newcomer in the highly prestigious 2013 International Opera Awards.
As ever, I would like to end by thanking the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for its continuing and unstinting support, as well as everyone who has been to see one of our productions this year. Our exciting new season will be unveiled shortly after Easter, and I hope you enjoy the fantastic new productions of contemporary and traditional operas that we will be performing across Northern Ireland and beyond. Sign up for our free newsletters at www.niopera.com to hear more.
Roy Bailie Chairman Sir George Shearing As a painstaking perfectionist and a slow Director’s Note (1919 – 2011) worker, however, Walton’s complete body George Shearing was an of work is not large, and his compositions Premiered at the 1967 Aldeburgh Festival in the Jubilee Hall, where Anglo-American jazz pianist, received mixed reviews during his lifetime. arranger and composer, Initially regarded as something of a so many Britten works had their first outings, The Bear was the whose music found enormous commercial modernist, Walton’s work came to be seen as second of only two operas written by Walton (the first, Troilus and success from the 1950s through to the old fashioned by the time he moved to the Cressida, was completed over a decade earlier). Chekhov’s one-act 1990s. Shearing’s harmonically complex Italian island of Ischia in 1949. His work was farce was very different to the playwright’s later (and lengthier) style, which mixed elements of swing, bop re-evaluated towards the end of his life, and mood pieces such as The Cherry Orchard, even if the piece shares and classical, was influenced by artists such is now regularly performed and recorded. one of Chekhov’s persistent themes – the inability of human beings as Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller and the Glen Miller Orchestra. He wrote over 300 pieces, Born into a musical family in Oldham, Walton to understand and empathise with each other. In fact, Chekhov including the classic Lullaby of Birdland, studied at Oxford, where his talents were (who always regarded drama as his ‘mistress’ and prose as his which has become a jazz standard. spotted by Hubert Parry. Following university, ‘lawful wife’) frankly wrote for laughs in this play, something which Walton moved to London, where he had suited Walton after his lengthy and exhausting attempt at grand Born blind in London in 1919, Shearing his first success with Façade, although the operatic tragedy in the 1950s. The topic had been suggested to began his career playing in a Lambeth pub press at the time seemed unsure of what to Walton by Peter Pears, and suited Walton’s gift for parody (already before emigrating to the United States in make of the work, which comprised verse 1947. Here, his career caught fire, particularly recited through a megaphone, accompanied evidenced in youthful pieces such as Façade), a gift influenced as after he formed the George Shearing by Walton’s music. In 1926 Sir Henry Wood it surely was by Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, the exemplar of Quintet in 1949. During the 1950s and programmed Portsmouth Point into The twentieth century operatic pastiche. Puccini, Britten, Strauss and 1960s his love of Satie, Delius and Debussy Proms, but it was the Viola Concerto of 1929 Bizet are just some of the composers Walton references in an opera led him to perform with concert orchestras that propelled Walton to the forefront of that wears its Russian origins lightly. Sadly, the early death of his as well as jazz bands, and later in his career British classical music. collaborator/librettist Paul Dehn (who Walton met on his island his collaboration with singer Mel Tormé resulted in two Grammys – the first in 1983, Belshazzar’s Feast, the First Symphony, and home of Ischia in Italy) meant that a companion piece for The Bear, followed by another in 1984. Nine years the Violin Concerto followed in the 1930s, as one of his most successful pieces with both critics and audiences, later he received an Ivor Novello Lifetime well as a commission to compose a march for was never written. Achievement Award. the coronation of George VI in 1937. After the war Walton turned his attention to opera, Oliver Mears Twice married, Shearing died in composing Troilus and Cressida in 1954, March 2013 February 2011. which was received warmly if not entirely enthusiastically, and The Bear in 1967 which Sir William Walton found greater acclaim. (1902 – 1983) William Walton was one As Walton grew older he found it increasingly of England’s foremost difficult to compose, and he died in 1983 composers of the 20th at the age of 80. After his burial on Ischia, century. Over a 60 year career he composed a commemorative plaque was unveiled orchestral, operatic, chamber and choral in Westminster Abbey, close to those works, including Belshazzar’s Feast and the honouring Elgar and Britten. Viola Concerto. Programme Creative team Acknowledgements Conductor – Nicholas Chalmers Andrew Smith From Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare, Director – Oliver Mears Ann McCarthy by George Shearing (1919 – 2011) Set and Costume Designer – Arts Council of Northern Ireland Simon Holdsworth 1. Live with me and be my love Brendan McCrisken 2. When daffodils begin to peer Lighting Designer – Kevin Treacy Brian McNamee 3. It was a lover and his lass Répétiteur – Chris Hopkins Capella Caeciliana 4. Who is Silvia Assistant Conductor – Eugene Monteith Colette McAllister 5. Hey, ho, the wind and the rain Donal McCrisken Enniskillen Light Operatic Society Interval Production team Fermanagh Choral Society Production Manager – The Bear, by William Walton (1902 – 1983) Geraldine Smyth Patrick McLaughlin Grosvenor Chorale Madame Popova, an attractive young widow, is in mourning for her late husband. Stage Manager – Jeanne Munroe Her servant, Luka, urges her to begin living life again: her husband was unfaithful Kate Watkins Mark Chambers and did not deserve her loyalty to his memory. Assistant Stage Manager – Patsy Hughes Omagh Community Youth Choir They are interrupted by Grigory Smirnov, a huge bear of a man, who bursts in Omagh Music Society Costume Supervisor – demanding the immediate repayment of a debt incurred by Popova’s husband. Melanie Carmichael Oonagh Harran Smirnov joins Luka in urging Popova to throw off her mourning, but an argument soon develops over whether men or women are more faithful in love. As tempers rise, Wigs & Make-up Supervisor – Pauline Flanagan Smirnov, attracted by Popova’s feisty spirit, challenges her to a duel… Carole Dunne Rachel Armstrong Master Carpenter – Rachel Bingam This production was first produced by the National Reisopera, Holland, as part of the Steve Anderson Renaissance Grachten Festival, Amsterdam, August 2009. Set Construction – Richard McBride Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare, copyright 2001@ Hindon Publications. Jim Carson The Bear by Sir William Walton and Paul Dehn © Oxford University Press 1967, 1968, 1977. Roe Valley Singers Performed by arrangement with Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Scenic Artist – Stewart Smyth Chris Hunter
Transport – Phillip Goss The Cast The Choirs
Yeliena Ivanova Popova – Anna Burford Performing at The Theatre at Performing at the Strule Arts Centre Grigory Stepanovitch Smirnov – Andrew Rupp The Mill and the MAC and the Ardhowen Theatre Luka – John Molloy Salwan Cartwright-Shamoon Anne Beattie Ethan Darby Jill Brown Ellis Daniel Diffin Yvette Browne Cover for Anna Burford - Laura Murphy Joanna Donaldson Salwan Cartwright-Shamoon Peter Donaldson Damien Conway Valerie Evans Calvin Davison Gillian Hutchinson Keane Davison Simon Jackson Michelle Davison The Orchestra Matty Jeffrey Marian Doran Sinéad Lalor Seamus Falconer 1st Violin – Niamh McGowan Fiona Lavery Pauline Flanagan 2nd Violin – Catherine Humphreys Cathy Loughrey Juila Frazer David Macartney Rosemary Frazer Viola – Niamh Roche Siobhan Martin Joe Gilmour Cello – Aoife Dennedy Adrienne Martin-Poots Miranda Gilmore Double Bass – Paul Stephens Jane Matthews Traude Graham Harp – Dianne Marshall Anita Mawhinney Oonagh Haran Cormac McCool Simon Harron Flute – Colin Irvine Donal McCrisken Georgina Kelly Oboe – Erwin Shaw Helena McCrisken Catherine Masterson Clarinet – Anne Harper Matthew McCullough Colette McAllister Fiona McNeill Ann McCarthy Bassoon – Gavin Forde Paul McQuillan Olivia McKee French Horn – Jacqueline McCarthy Louis McTeggert David McKervey Trumpet – Alan Blair Steven Norris Margaret Mitchell Trombone – Nathan Power Aaron O’Hare Fr. Kevin Mullan Dorothy Platt Emer Murnaghan Percussion – Malcolm Neale Matthew Quinn Nuala Murnaghan Timpani – Brian Rice Fiona Stanley Petronilla O’Connor Piano – Chris Hopkins Emma Taylor Teresa O’Hare Anita Wilkinson Heather Patterson Liz Robertson Carol Simpson Damien Sorley Anita Wilkinson Biographies
Anna Burford, Nicholas Chalmers, Simon Lima Holdsworth, For television Simon designed The Waltz Madame Popova Conductor Set and Costume King, BBC 1. Anna Burford was born Nicholas conducts Designer in Cornwall, and studied productions for Northern Simon Lima Holdsworth Simon is currently designing Benvenuto at the Royal Northern Ireland Opera, and is the trained at Wimbledon Cellini, Städtische Bühnen Münster, College of Music. artistic director of Nevill School of Art, London and Germany; The Magic Flute, Nevill Holt Holt Opera and Second Movement the Kunstacademie, Maastricht. Opera and Ariadne auf Naxos, Theater Operatic engagements include her USA Opera Company. He studied music at St. Gallen, Switzerland. debut in the title role Giulio Cesare Oxford University and conducting at the Designs for opera and musical theatre for Seattle Opera; title-role Orfeo et Piacenza Conservatoire. From 2003 to include: The Flying Dutchman and Chris Hopkins, Répétiteur Euridice and Roswita Heloise et Abelard 2008 Nicholas worked at Westminster Tosca, NI Opera; Hansel and Gretel, NI Conductor and pianist, for Opera National du Rhin, Strasbourg; Abbey as Assistant Organist and Opera/Opera North; Orpheus in the Chris Hopkins has Roswita Heloise et Abelard for Chatelet, Director of Music of the Choir School. Underworld, Scottish Opera/NI Opera; performed around Paris; Olga in Eugene Onegin at Théâtre From 2008 until 2011 Nicholas was Noye’s Fludde, NI Opera/Beijing Music the world, in the last de Caen; Owl in The Cricket Recovers at Assistant Chorus Master of English Festival; Die Fledermaus and The Merry season appearing as Bregenz Festival; Mrs McLean Susannah National Opera. With ENO he prepared Widow, Hyogo Performing Arts Centre, song and instrumental accompanist, and Mrs Nolan The Medium for Wexford 24 operas for conductors including Japan; Don Giovanni, Ekaterinburg chamber and solo pianist in Japan, Festival; and Cesare in Giulio Cesare Edward Gardner, Mark Wigglesworth, Sir State Theatre, Russia; Gianni Schicchi New York, Singapore, South America, for Opera Ireland. In Britain her roles Charles Mackerras, Baldur Bronnimann and La Notte di un Nevrastenico, and throughout Europe and the UK, include Ursule Beatrice and Benedict, and Sir Richard Armstrong. For Second Theater Magdeburg, Germany; Britain’s in venues including the Wigmore Hall, Magdalena in Die Meistersinger von Movement he has conducted Mozart and got Bhangra, UK tour; Der Freischütz, Concertgebouw, Royal Festival Hall, as Nürnberg, Suzuki Madame Butterfly, Salieri (October 2004), Trouble in Tahiti Landestheater Salzburg; Orlando, Buxton well as live and recorded on BBC Radio Maddalena Rigoletto and Page Salome (June 2005), The Medium and Impresario Festival/Opera Theatre Company; 3 and Classic FM. He is Musical Director for Welsh National Opera; Amastris (January 2006), Les Deux Aveugles, The Bear, Nationale Reisopera, The of the Orchestra of the City and has Xerxes, Maddalena, Anna The Trojans Rothschild’s Violin and The Knife’s Tears Netherlands; Bluebeard, Buxton Festival. worked with numerous international and Dresser, Schoolboy, Waiter Lulu for (May 2007), all to wide critical acclaim. soloists including Guy Johnston, Nicola English National Opera. With Second Movement: Trouble in Benedetti, Charlie Siem, Craig Ogden Conducting engagements with Northern Tahiti, Fade, A Hand of Bridge, The Two and Linda Lin. Recent solo appearances Recent engagements include Ireland Opera include The Medium Blind Men, Rothschild’s Violin, The Knife’s include concertos by Mozart, Schumann, Schwertleite in Die Walküre for Royal (Feb 2011), Tosca (Best Opera - Irish Tears, The Impresario, The Medium and Grieg, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff. Opera House, Covent Garden, Margret Theatre Awards - April 2011), Turn of the Zatopek!. in concert performances of Wozzeck with Screw (March 2012 and Buxton Festival In opera, he has worked as assistant the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted July 2012), Noye’s Fludde (Belfast Zoo - Designs for theatre include to conductors including Sir Charles by Esa-Pekka Salonen in Dortmund, San August 2012 and Beijing October 2012), Screwmachine, Assembly Rooms, Mackerras, Jane Glover, Dominic Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. The Flying Dutchman (Feb 2013). Current Edinburgh; Richard II, Ludlow Festival/ Wheeler and Trevor Pinnock. Future plans include Schwertleite in Die and future engagements include Messiah Almagro Festival, Spain; Messiah, Conducting at Sadler’s Wells, he worked Walküre and Erda in Siegfried and Das and Peter Grimes (Lyon Opera), Old Vic, London; The Secret Love Life with the Pet Shop Boys with their ballet Rheingold for Longborough Festival The Magic Flute (Nevill Holt Opera - of Ophelia, London, Edinburgh and The Most Incredible Thing in 2011 and Opera and First Maid in Elektra for Royal June 2013). Denmark; Ritual in Blood, Nottingham 2012. He has been a member of the Opera House, Covent Garden. Playhouse; Dracula, Derby Playhouse; ‘Tis music staff of both Welsh National Opera Pity She’s a Whore, Southwark Playhouse. and English National Opera, as well as with Garsington Opera, Co-Opera Biographies company, Opera North, Clonter Opera for Irish Times Theatre Awards 2012 Canberra International Festival of Music Eugene has participated in master classes and the Aldeburgh Festival, working with ‘Best Opera Production’ and ‘Best and Haydn’s Creation in The Hague with Jac van Steen and The BBC National Sir Mark Elder, David Parry and Edward Director’) Orpheus in the Underworld with Continuo Rotterdam. John has also Orchestra of Wales, and Kenneth Kiesler Gardner amongst others. (coproduction, Scottish Opera), Hansel appeared with The National Symphony and The Berlin Sinfonietta (supported and Gretel, Noye’s Fludde (Belfast Zoo/ Orchestra of Ireland, RTE Concert by Arts Council for Northern Ireland). Oliver Mears, Director Beijing Music Festival) and The Flying Orchestra, London Gala Orchestra and Eugene has conducted for Welsh Oliver read English and Dutchman. In 2012 he was nominated The Goldberg Ensemble. National Opera MAX, Welsh National History at Oxford, and for an ‘Achievement in Opera’ award by Youth Opera, Wales International began his career assisting the TMA Awards for his leadership of NI Oratorio repertoire includes the Academy of Voice and Co-Opera Co. playwright Howard Barker, Opera, and he has also been nominated Requiems of Verdi, Mozart, Bruckner, Laura Murphy, before going on to work for ‘Best Newcomer’ in the 2013 Opera Durufle and Schumann, Haydn’s Creation Madame Popova (cover/ at the Kings Head, Islington (directing Awards. Future plans include The Magic and Nelson Mass and Vaughan Williams’ NI Opera Young Artist) productions of Judith, Creditors and Flute for Nevill Holt Opera. The First Nowell, Elgar’s Dream of Laura Murphy is studying The Lesson), and in opera, working on Gerontius John Molloy, Luka for her Masters in productions in London (ENO, ROH), John Molloy comes from Eugene Monteith, Performance at the Royal Leeds, Milan, Copenhagen, Tokyo, and Birr in Ireland, and studied Irish Academy of Music (RIAM). Basel. Assistant Conductor at the DIT Conservatory From Strabane, Eugene of Music & Drama, Dublin Recent engagements include As Artistic Director of Second Movement Monteith read music at and the Royal Northern Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the RTE Opera, Oliver directed many site-specific Queen’s University Belfast College of Music, where he received the NSO, Nancy (Albert Herring / RIAM), opera productions in London, including and The Royal Welsh PPRNCM Diploma. Recent engagements Le Roi Malgré Lui and L’Arlesiana works by Mozart, Bernstein, Rimsky- College of Music and Drama where include the title role in Le Nozze Die (Wexford Festival Chorus), Ino (Semele Korsakov, Shostakovich/ Fleischmann, he gained a PG Diploma in Orchestral Figaro and Arthur The Lighthouse with / RIAM), Kate (The Pirates of Penzance Barber, the world premiere of Stefan Conducting and an MA in Choral Nationale Reisopera, Le Commandeur Conducting under the tutelage of David / NCH), and Haydn’s Scena di Berenice Weisman’s opera Fade, and a Czech de Beaupré Le Cour De Célimène at Jones, Adrian Partington, Simon Halsey (NCH). Laura has sung in Handel’s Republic tour of Martinu’s The Knife’s Wexford and Masetto Don Giovanni with and Neil Ferris. He is currently Musical Solomon, Mahler’s Symphony II, Haydn’s Tears. He has also directed a prison English National Opera. Director of Bath Symphony Orchestra, Creation and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana project with lifers, Sweeney Todd (HMP Abergavenny Symphony Orchestra and with the Schleswig-Holstein Music Kingston/Pimlico Opera), La Calisto John has worked with many Opera a guest chorus master with BBC National Festival Choir, and has also performed (Early Opera Company), Hansel and Companies in Ireland and the UK Chorus of Wales. in the chorus of Lyric Opera and Opera Gretel (Opera North), the National including Opera North, Opera Ireland, Ireland. Her concert work includes Opera Studio Showcase 2010, The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. He Eugene was trained as a trumpeter and Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Nelson Mass Bear (National Reisopera, Holland), My has also performed at The Farmleigh studied with Hugh Carslaw at QUB. His and Mozart’s Coronation Mass. Brother’s Keeper (Edinburgh /Pleasance), Proms and the Sir Malcolm Sergeant first public performance was with the Albert Herring (Aldeburgh) and David Festival in London. His operatic roles QUB Orchestra conducting Charles Ives’ Laura was a finalist in the NCH Almond’s critically-acclaimed play My include Sarastro The Magic Flute, Snug In 2006 he Bernadette Greevy Bursary. She is the Dad’s a Birdman, with original music by The Unanswered Question. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Colline winner of the Iréne Sandford Award and Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe (Young Vic). studied at Canford Summer School, La Boheme and Tiger Brown The and moved to Wales in 2007. He was Bursary at RIAM, the Lieder Prize, the Threepenny Opera. Nancy Calthorpe for French Song, the As Artistic Director of NI Opera, Oliver assistant conductor on all RWCMD productions and conducted RWCMD German Government Cup for Bach aria, has directed Tosca (Irish Times Theatre Recent concert appearances include the Mezzo-Soprano competition and the Award for ‘Best Opera Production’, Opera Scenes. Eugene studied singing the Australian premiere of Van Gogh - with Philip Lloyd Evans and Eric Roberts. Plunket Greene for Interpretation at the 2011), The Turn of the Screw (nominated The Opera with Crash Ensemble at the ESB Feis.
Biographies Noye’s Fludde, August & October 2012 “An enchanting show” – The Sunday Times Andrew Rupp, Smirnov Kevin Treacy, “Simply gorgeous” Andrew was born in Lighting Designer – Irish Times Canterbury and started Previous designs for “There’s a real buzz and sense singing there as a NI Opera include The of purpose about what this NI Opera Shorts, June 2012 Cathedral Chorister. He Flying Dutchman, Tosca, company is doing” – The Guardian “Remarkable...each opera was skillful, provoking was subsequently a choral The Turn of the Screw, laughter as well as sorrow” – The Observer scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge. Orpheus in the Underworld and NI NI Opera was formed in 2010, with a mission “(NI Opera’s) most ambitious project so far, NI Opera Shorts. Recent designs include to provide the highest quality opera to the Opera Shorts was another resounding success” In 1996 Andrew made his operatic debut widest possible audience, and to promote The Seafarer (Perth Theatre and Lyric – Opera Journal as The Vicar in Britten’s Albert Herring Theatre), The Changeling, The Wonderful young Northern Irish talent. Generously for British Youth Opera. Since then he World of Dissocia and Rose Bernd supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, NI Opera has a philosophy of has sung roles at Glyndebourne, Berlin (Platform Theatre), The Turn of the Screw, March & July 2012 The Government excellence and risk-taking underpinned by an Staatsoper, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, “This is a first-rate cast…It’s a Screw that any Inspector and Arrah-na-Pogue (Abbey imaginative programming policy and first-rate company would be proud to tour. From a Lausanne, Caen, Paris, Vienna, Aldeburgh Theatre, Dublin), Beside the Sea casting. NI Opera is committed to broadening company that is barely a year old, it’s remarkable” and Cardiff. (Southbank Centre), Orpheus in the the audience for this incredible art form Underworld (Scottish Opera), Dancing that famously combines exciting stories, big – The Independent on Sunday Other recent engagements include the Shoes - The George Best Story (Grand spectacle, and great music. “An extraordinarily good cast…this was very roles of Sharpless in Raymond Gubbay’s Opera House, Belfast), Theatre Brothel impressive stuff” – Opera Now production of Madam Butterfly at (Almeida Festival, London), Rodelinda Artistic Director - Oliver Mears the Royal Albert Hall, and Jean in a (Royal College of Music, London), Hansel and Gretel, November 2011, production of Boesmann’s Miss Julie, Anything But Love (Belltable Arts Centre, General Manager - January & November 2012 Clíona Donnelly including performances at The Royal Limerick), The Shawshank Redemption “Lively, funny and provocatively gruesome”– Opera House’s Linbury Theatre. He (Wyndhams Theatre, West End and Marketing & Communications Director - The Sunday Times made his debut for Opera North as Irish Tour), Twelfth Night (Nottingham Simon Goldrick “A feisty staging of Humperdinck’s opera…Northern Balstrode in their acclaimed production Company Manager - Playhouse), Flavio, Xerxes and The Fairy Ireland Opera continues to punch above its weight” of Peter Grimes and performed John Queen (English Touring Opera). Other Katrina Black – The Independent on Sunday in Birtwistle’s The Last Supper in Milan Theatre design includes The Nose (The and Turin. He also appeared as Dancairo Performance Corporation) for which For further details, “NI Opera...comes of age with this, its first full- in Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall and he won the Irish Times award for Best see www.niopera.com scale show in Belfast...it winningly hooks in both performed the role of Bosola for English Lighting Design, The Charming Man adults and children to its overarching theme: the line between appearance and reality; dream and National Opera (ENO) in its recent (Theatre 503), This is our Youth (Bedrock Previous productions nightmare” - The Times coproduction of The Duchess of Malfi Productions), Drive-By (Dublin Fringe with Punchdrunk. Festival and Canterbury Festival), The The Flying Dutchman, February 2013 Last Autumn he sang High Priest Yokohama Delegation (Kilkenny Festival), “An achievement of which Wagner Orpheus in the Underworld, October 2011 of Jupiter in ENO’s award winning Dr Ledbetter’s Experiment (Edinburgh himself would no doubt have been proud” “Flamboyantly irreverent” – The Guardian production of Castor and Pollux. He has Fringe Festival and Kilkenny Festival) - The Telegraph “A raucously enjoyable affair, staged with energy just returned there to sing the role of nominated Best Production, Irish Times “A thrilling Wagner debut” - and imagination”– The Telegraph Bosun in Billy Budd. Andrew is also a awards. Future projects include, Imeneo The Independent on Sunday member of the BBC Singers. (Royal College of Music), The Magic Flute Tosca (Best Opera winner at the 2011 “Electrifying” (Nevill Holt Opera). - The Observer Irish Times Theatre Awards), March 2011 “A tremendous achievement” - “A remarkable achievement…the results breathed The Sunday Times charisma and conviction” – The Times