For 30 years Lyric Opera has been producing opera live on the stage of
the National Concert Hall
Sunday, 20th October 2024
at 4:00pm
at the
National Concert Hall, Dublin
Box Office: 01 417 0000
Anguish in a Tudor court, an unreconciled death, Jacobean madness, a friend assassinated, a fallen women, troubles with some newly weds, the depths of man’s evil – these are some of the themes we have for you in this unforgeable programme showcasing some extraordinary Irish and international voices.
Whether you are a long term opera lover and these works are among you favourites, or you are new to opera and just beginning your awesome journey, we cannot wait to welcome you to our special performance of opera classics.
This semi-staged concert is curated and directed by Lyric Opera’s Artistic Director Vivian J. Coates
Continuing our celebrations of our 30th Birthday in 2024, Lyric Opera Ireland presents
MOMENTS OF LOVE AND SACRIFICE
A glorious operatic concert featuring arias and extended scenes from the world’s greatest composers and best loved operas. Featuring the incredible talents of our own Irish Sopranos, Ava Dodd and Eimear Harper, they will be joined by the extraordinary Cypriot mezzo, Shakira Tsindos, the sensational Portuguese Tenor, Jose de Eca and the incredible Hungarian baritone Gyula Nagy.
In Moments of Love and Sacrifice this season we have spread our net wider to include more composers including Mozart, Korngold, Massenet, Offenbach as well as major scenes from Bellini, Puccini, Donizetti and Verdi. Extended operas scenes include Don Carlo, La Traviata, I Puritani, Werther, Le Nozze di Figaro and the rarely performed La Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini. Some stunning arias and duets will be taken from the extraordinary Die Tote Stadt by Erich Korngold, Les Conte Hoffmann, Roberto Devereaux and Verdi’s Otello.
Stunning music with each piece staged from these celebrated composers, this will make for another special Lyric Opera evening… not to be missed.!
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Ava Dodd
Ava Dodd
Irish soprano Ava Dodd is the recipient of the 2023 Yves Paternot Prize from the Verbier Festival Academy – recognizing the most accomplished and promising musician at the Academy. She is a Harewood Artist at ENO for the 2024-2025 season after being a member of the ensemble in the Stadttheater Klagenfurt for the 2022/2023 season where she sang the roles of Waldvögleinin Siegfried, Oscar Un Ballo in Maschera, Mirjam in the world premiere of HIOB by Bernard Land and the soprano solo in Carmina Burana.
Ava completed her bachelor’s degree at the Royal Irish Academy of Music where she studied with Professor Mary Brennan. She then went on to complete a master’s degree in the Royal College of Music, London, where she studied under the tutelage of Professor Janis Kelly. As a Karaviotis scholar and an Eva Klenitz scholar, she achieved a first-class honours grade in both degrees.
Competition success include being a prize-winner in the final of the Hans Gabor Belvedere International Singing Competition in 2022. She was the Boston district winner of the winner of the Met Opera competition/ Laffont Competition. Ava was also awarded first prize in the International Grand Prix of Romania Trophaeum Artis Cantorum. Ava received first prize in the Northern Ireland Opera’s Glenarm Festival of Voice Competition, and was named the “Young Opera Voice of 2019”.
In 2022 Ava made her debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTE Concert Orchestra, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra (Die Nürnberger Symphoniker), The Carinthian Symphony Orchestra (Das Kärntner Sinfonieorchester) and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. Other operatic credits include performing the role of ‘Perdita’ in Ein Wintermärchen, Wexford Opera Festival, 2021 and the role of ‘Yum-Yum’ in The Mikado in her operetta debut with Lyric Opera Ireland. Ava was a young artist in the International Meistersinger Akademie (2022), The Wexford Factory (2020,2021) and in the Leeds Lieder Festival (2021).
Recent and future engagements include Voice of the High Priestess Aida in Frankfurt, Anne Trulove Rake’s Progress in Verbier, her ENO debut as Second Niece Peter Grimes and Rosina The Barber of Seville, Sonia L’Aube rouge and Tilburina The Critic for Wexford Festival, Fenimore Der Silbersee at the Opéra national de Lorraine.
Ava joined the Lies Askonas Fellowship Programme of Askonas Holt in 2023 and released her first EP Gems in 2024.
Sopprano
Gyula Nagy
Gyula Nagy
Gyula Nagy is a Hungarian baritone based in Ireland. He trained at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with teacher Philip O’Reilly, then at the National Opera Studio, London and he is an alumnus of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.
He appeared in the title role in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria for Opera Collective Ireland, as the Gypsy in Mussorgsky’s The Fair at Sorochyntsi for Komische Oper Berlin, as Schaunard in La Bohéme for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, as Pizarro in Beethoven’s Fidelio for Lyric Opera, Dublin.
Recently he sang Escamillo in Carmen for Opera North, made his role debut in the title role of Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Auditorio Nacional de Música, Madrid, appeared as Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and for Lyric Opera, Dublin, sang Lescaut in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut for Dorset Opera Festival, the title role of Rossini’s Guillaume Tell for Irish National Opera, Urok in Paderewski’s Manru for Opéra National de Lorraine, Alfio/Tonio in Cavalleria Rusticana/ I Pagliacci for Cambridge Philharmonic and Valentin in Gounod’s Faust for Irish National Opera.
Baritone
Shakira Tsindos
Shakira Tsindos
Australian/Cypriot Mezzo Soprano Shakira Tsindos was a 2021/2022 young artist with the National Opera Studio, an emerging artist with Oxford International Song Festival and is a Samling Artist.
Recent engagements include Mercédès Carmen for Staatsoper Hamburg & Shenzhen Opera & Dance Theatre, Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel for Opera Holland Park, Second Witch D ido and Aeneas or Waterperry Opera Festival, a tour of OPERA HIGHLIGHTS with Scottish Opera, Suzy & Lolette La Rondine for IF Opera, the title role Carmen for Opera Loki, Zerlina Don Giovanni for Merry Opera, Dorabella Cosi fan Tutte for MOF, Dorothée Cendrillon & Alisa Lucia di Lammeroor for Victorian Opera (Australia), and Agatha the Cat By the light of the Moon for Opera Australia.
On the concert platform Shakira made her Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra debut as the mezzo soprano soloist in the world premiere of Teresa Barlow Requiem 2020, Mozart Missa Brevis in D minor in Norway, Handel Messiah and Vivaldi Gloria.
Shakira’s principal work has spanned across various companies in Australia including Opera Australia, Victorian Opera, and as a soloist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. While at the National Opera Studio Shakira performed with the English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera and Opera North.
Shakira won the Nigel Beale First Prize at the 2021 Hurn Court Opera competition, is an award holder with: Help Musicians UK, the Tait Memorial Trust and the Australian Music Foundation. She holds a Masters of Performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.
Mezzo Soprano
Eimear Harper
Eiméar Harper
Eiméar Harper is a Wicklow-born soprano with a wealth of experience performing across a range of genres. She has cultivated a love of chamber music, regularly collaborating with other musicians in duos and ensembles.
Eiméar made her debut in the role of Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with Lyric Opera Ireland. Other roles include Mary Crawford in the Irish premiere of Dove’s Mansfield Park, Cousin in Madama Butterfly and Yum-Yum in The Mikado at the National Concert Hall, as well as singing chorus in Wallace’s Lurline, with Heritage Music Productions.
As a young artist, Eiméar has given recitals at Boyne Music Festival and Boyle Arts Festival. She has also sung soprano solo in both Handel’s Messiah and Scarlatti’s St. Cecilia’s Mass. She is currently a mentee of the Sestina Music: Next Generation Mentoring Programme.
Eiméar recently graduated with first-class honours with a Master of Music (Performance) from TU Dublin Conservatoire.
Soprano
José de Eça
José de Eça
José de Eça trained under the guidance of his father, the distinguished Portuguese operatic baritone and lieder singer José de Oliveira Lopes, before attending the Conservatório Superior de Música de Gaia under the guidance of Professor Fernanda Correia.
He began his professional career as a teenage baritone, with performances of Amhal and the Night Visitors, The Sound of Music, Eloise, Bundibár, Die Zauberflöte and Le nozze di Figaro.
His solo Oratorio debut, as a baritone, in Fauré’s Requiem with Círculo Portuense de Ópera (CPO), returning to the company, as a tenor, to sing Haydn’s Missa In Angustis and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle.
He has performed in recital throughout Portugal, and internationally in Brazil, Chile, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Italy, Mozambique and Spain. He made his Irish at the Wexford Festival as Capello Il bravo and Nick La fanciulla del West.
He has collaborated with several conductors and pianists, including: Helena Marinho; Paule Grimaldi; Álvaro Teixeira Lopes; Adriano Jordão; Mário Mateus; José Eduardo Gomes; Luís Costa; Ángel González; Armando Vidal; among others.
Recent engagements include: Pinkerton Madama Butterfly with Lyric Opera Ireland under the baton of Ann-Sophie Duprels.
Future engagements include: Christmas concerts for Lyric Opera Ireland in Dublin, Wexford and Cork, and his debut as Cavaradossi at Opera Holland Park.
Tenor
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Alex Norton
Alex Norton
Alex Norton is a British pianist and continuo player, who trained as a Young artist at the National Opera Studio (2023/24).
As a repetiteur recent productions include the UK premiere of Salieri’s La fiera di Venzia, the Danish premiere of Mascagni’s Zanetto, and multiple premieres with the Music Troupe.
Other highlights include various projects with the Royal Opera House’s Learning and Participation programme, English Touring Opera, and Welsh National Opera’s Cherry Town by Shostakovich, where he was a repetiteur and orchestral pianist. As a collaborative pianist Alex has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Wigmore Hall, various European venues, and made his concerto debut with the Leeds Symphony Orchestra performing Gershwin’s piano concerto.
Accompanist
Vivian J. Coates
Vivian J. Coates
Returning from abroad having worked in most of the opera companies in the UK, Vivian Coates has spent much of his career in Ireland nurturing young Irish talent on stage and guiding them on their first professional rung of the ladder. He has presented countless fully staged operas in Ireland through his company Lyric Opera, and is recognised for the tireless work he has done in keeping core opera alive in this city.
He is privileged to work across opera and musical theatre, directing and designing in most of the main theatres in Ireland; The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, The Grand Opera House, Belfast, The National Opera House, Wexford and the National Concert Hall, Dublin. Opera productions include Aida, Il Trovatore, Don Giovanni, Hansel und Gretel, I Due Foscari, La Traviata, Carmen, Nabucco, Macbeth, La Bohéme. Turandot, Suor Angelica, The Turn of the Screw, Rusalka, Cavalleria Rusticana, Madama Butterfly and Attila among others. His musical theatre credits include Annie, The Sound of Music, Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof, Carousel, 9 to 5, Camelot and many more.
Mr Coates has received many international accolades for his work. In 2007 he was honoured with a Knighthood and title of Cavaliere by the Italian Government for his work in presenting Italian opera in Ireland. In 2015 he designed for The Music of Northern Ireland, which received 4 EMMY’S in the 2016 roll of honour. And his recent productions with The 2018 International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Harrogate UK played to extraordinary acclaim, garnering five star reviews in The Stage & The Daily Mail.
Recent productions include Sweeney Todd (The National Opera House), La Traviata, Pirates of Penzance and La Bohème (NCH) and Carmen (NCH).
Artistic Director
Joby Redmond
Joby Redmond
Joby Redmond started out as a child actor and made his last appearance in the film Micheal Collins in 1996.
Since then he trained as a costume designer and maker. He has worked in theatre, opera, film, concerts and musical theatre. As a stage designer he has worked on Dancing at Lughnasa, Juno and the Paycock, Da, A-life both by Hugh Leonard, Flynn at The Abbey, Somewhere under the Rainbow at the Olympia and on the Irish and UK tour and supervising shows like Colin Tobin’s The Blackwater Lightship and Connor Mcpherson’s award winning play The Night Alive at the Gaiety Theatre and also Speed the Plough by David Mammets Irish tour.
Joby first started working in opera with the legendary singer Dr. Bernadette Greevy. Working on the operas La Rondine, Il Tabbaro and Gianni Schicchi by Puccini, Faust, and Samson and Dalilah – all under the watchful eye of Anibal Lappis, costume designer at Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires. With Lyric Opera Ireland, at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, the Gaiety Theatre and the National Opera House he has been wardrobe supervisor on works including – Rusalka, La Boheme, La Traviata, Tosca, Hansel und Gretel, The Barber of Seville, Madama Butterfly, The Merry Widow, Fidelio, Werther and Carmen.
He has also been costume supervisor for Festival Productions; productions includes Grease, The Wizard Of Oz, Annie, Bugsy Malone, Oliver!, The Sound Of Music. Also Les Miserables Irish and Uk tour, Dirty Dancing Irish and UK tour, Angela’s Ashes at the Bord Gais theatre Dublin.
Joby has also dressed Christina Aqullera, 3Arena and Janelle Monae on her Irish tour. Recent film/TV credits, Sunphlowers with Patrick Bergan, Proclaim, Fur Coat No Knickers, A Quiet Love for TG4, Grand Canal, Martini Shot with Mathew Modine, John Cleese and Sir Derek Jacobi, The Mikado and Hansel and Gretel.
Costume Designer
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of extended scenes ** and some arias and duets
La Traviatta**
Giuseppe Verdi
Lunge da lei …O mio rimorso
Addio del passato
Parigi o cara…Werther**
Jules Massenet
Werther, Werther, qui m’avrait dit la place
Oui, c’est moi!… Je reviens!
Pourquoi me réveillerDie Tote Stadt
Erich Korngold
O freund… Glück das mir verblieb…Turandot**
Giacomo Puccini
Signor ascolta…
Non piangere, LiùOtello
Guiseppe Verdi
Vanne, la tua meta già vedo…
Credo in un Dio crudeleDon Carlo**
Guiseppe Verdi
Son io, mio Carlo
Per me giunto è il di supremo
Che parli tu di morto? …O Carlo ascolta
Ah! Io morróLe Nozze di Figaro**
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Cinque.. dieci.. venti.. trenta …
Cosa stai misurando… Se a caso madama?
Non so più cosa son cosa faccio
Aprite, presto, aprite
Hai gia vinta la causaDue to a financially difficult year last year, this concert is a Gala Fundraising evening in order to sustain the rest of Our 2024 / 25 season.