The Three Mezzos - Opera in Ireland
Show notes
Opera Road Trip is Operavision's new two-year podcast series, a journey through the 17 countries that currently partner with OperaVision, discovering their operatic history and current relationship with the artform, and meeting along the way young talents finding their voice and seasoned professionals who have devoted their lives to the stage, discovering the diverse paths that have led them to opera and the enduring belief in its relevance, past, present, and future.
Opera Road Trip's third episode is dedicated to opera in Ireland. We hear from Rosetta Cucchi, Artistic Director of Wexford Festival Opera about rediscovering forgotten repertoire; from Fergus Sheil and Diego Fasciati, respectively Artistic Director and CEO of the relatively young Irish National Opera about the birth of their national institution, and from the three mesmerizing Irish mezzosopranos Ann Murray, Tara Erraught and Niamh O'Sullivan about their paths to opera in a country without a developed operatic infrastructure.
Opera Road Trip is hosted by Sebastian F. Schwarz whose curriculum as an opera manager includes positions at Theater an der Wien, Glyndebourne, Teatro Regio Torino, Festival della Valle d'Itria, Hamburgische Staatsoper and Wexford Festival Opera. He is Vice-president of the International Richard Strauss Society, member of the board of the European Musical Theatre Academy and co-founder of the Cesti Competition for Baroque Opera.
All episodes: https://operavision.eu/feature/operav...
Music extracts for Episode 3:
Introduction: Fidelio (Beethoven): Overture, op. 72
He was despised from Messiah (Georg Friedrich Händel): Niamh O'Sullivan
Freude schöner Götterfunken from The importance of being Earnest (Gerald Barry) - Nouvel Opéra Fribourg
Tranquille nuit, le monde sommeille (Tacea la notte placida) from Le Trouvère (Giuseppe Verdi): Lydia Grindatto, Wexford Festival Opera 2025
Ah! dal ciel discenda un raggio, from Maria Stuarda (Gaetano Donizetti): Tara Erraught, Fergus Sheil (cond.) Irish National Opera 2022
He promised me at parting, from 12 Irish songs, WoO 154 (Ludwig van Beethoven): Ann Murray, Graham Johnson
Bonus: Irish National Anthem, Wexford Festival Opera 2025
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