Dublin Fringe Festival 2017 Preview: Colette McGahon, the Artistic Director of Opera Collective Ireland, writes for RTÉ Culture about their latest production, Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave - and the challenges of starting an opera company that puts Irish talent first.
It seemed like a good idea at the time... Whose bright idea was this, again?
These are the two phrases which come to mind when I try to think what possessed me to start up an opera company back in 2011. As a freelance opera singer, I was acutely aware on my return to Ireland in the early 1990s that nothing much had progressed operatically in all the years I had spent abroad. At the time I was too busy with my own career to give it much serious consideration, but as time went on and I began to teach I realised that if the younger generation of Irish singers, conductors, repetiteurs and other opera artists were to have the opportunities at home which would be of serious benefit to their development, then I had to do something.
My first thought was to find like-minded colleagues and see how they reacted to my embryonic plan and so I called my friends, soprano Suzanne Murphy and tenor Paul McNamara, and shared my thoughts. They bit the bullet and by 2014 we had distilled a plan to the point where we made a successful Arts Council application for a production of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia.
Irish Youth Opera was born, and the rest, as they say, is history!
Who'd have thought it! Opera singers running a professional opera company! I can't say it hasn't been a steep learning curve, but I'm sure that our collective experience as performers gives us a unique insight into the needs of the young singers we provide performance opportunities for. We've been there and we've done that!
Seriously though, I still have to pinch myself to believe that this year - 2017- with continuing support from the Arts Council, will see our third production hit the stage and having previously collaborated with Wexford Opera Festival, NI Opera and the Irish Chamber Orchestra we now find ourselves co-producing with the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris!!! Yes, you did read that correctly - now rebranded as Opera Collective Ireland (OCI), we will be the first Irish company to collaborate with the world-renowned Paris Opera when we mount a production of Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave in September. The production premiered in Paris last November under the watchful gaze of an Irish creative team - director Tom Creed, Aedín Cosgrove, set and lighting designer, and Catherine Fay who designed the costumes. The container with sets, costumes and props has now arrived in Dublin and awaits our cast to bring the production to life for Irish audiences.
For me one of great joys of being involved in OCI is the overwhelming response we get to our audition calls, with 70-80 young singers auditioning for 8-10 roles! I have always known that in the international world of opera Irish singers punch way above their weight, but hearing all these young singers in audition really brings it home. Together with Suzanne and Paul we now use our contacts in the opera business worldwide to engage conductors, directors and designers of the highest professional and artistic standards to work with our young casts. The experience this provides together with the professional contacts that are made, can be hugely career changing!
There are a number of things about the way we do our business that differentiates OCI from other Irish opera providers and I think one of the most important is how we choose our repertoire. We are unique in that we are the only Irish opera company with a clearly formulated policy for casting Irish artists and our repertoire is artist-led and chosen with great care for young voices. Using these two pillars as guides we have succeeded in mounting opera to the highest artistic standard using solely native talent. Something I am really proud of!
One of the downsides of all this is that it has become rather expensive to travel in support of all the artists who had their first major role with OCI and are now singing around Europe. To date we have been there to support them in the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, at Welsh National Opera and Opera North, La Scala Milan, Opera di Firenze and the list gets longer.
So despite the fact that there is no Opera House in our capital city and that companies still find it difficult to see beyond sport as an outlet for major sponsorship, I am feeling very excited as we head towards OCI's next production, Owen Wingrave. I will continue to share my passion for this most unique artform and I will still argue the toss with anyone who tries to tell me that going to the opera is expensive (try buying tickets for U2 or the Six Nations!) or indeed elitist! To the latter I say - please come and give it a go before labelling opera as not being for you - you may likely end up with a musical and emotional experience of a lifetime for the price of going to the cinema!
Opera Collective Ireland’s latest production Owen Wingrave, a co-production with the Académie de l'Opéra national de Paris, premieres at Lime Tree, Limerick on Sep 9 and tours to the Everyman, Cork (Sep 13) and the O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2017 (Sep 15 & 16) - details here.
