This Christmas Eve from 7pm, listeners can enjoy a special Opera Night/Lyric Feature collaboration on RTÉ lyric fm. The programme presents the broadcast premiere of the acclaimed opera Paper Boat, preceded by a documentary about the making of that opera. Listen above...
That documentary, Paper Boat Sets Sail sees Alan Meaney go behind the scenes at Music For Galway’s community opera Paper Boat. It follows the build up to the opera, from rehearsals to opening night.
Producer and presenter Alan Meaney writes about the making of the programme below.
When Music For Galway asked me to make a documentary about their upcoming opera, Paper Boat, I was intrigued. I didn’t know much about opera, although music is a huge passion of mine, so I was looking forward to the challenge. This was a project that was supposed to happen as part of Galway 2020, when my home town was the European Capital of Culture. As we all know so many projects were cancelled and postponed from 2020 onwards and Paper Boat was among them. But the project was revived and by the time I got to the rehearsal space I could see the determination of the team behind Paper Boat to finally realise their vision from the beginning of making the documentary.
It was a rapid process of recording behind the scenes, with the opera set to have its world premiere at Galway’s St. Nicholas’ Collegiate church in April 2022. I had just a few weeks to chronicle this incredible creative collaboration between over 140 people, using observational recordings, interviews and excerpts from the opera.
With so many people involved, I had to focus on the core team who were working diligently to bring the show to life. One of them was Mark Duley, organist and choirmaster at St. Nicholas', who showed me around the church. He explained how he had the original idea to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the church and Galway’s status as European Capital of Culture in 2020.
The opera combines music from children and adult choirs, a brass band, young strings, four soloists and an ensemble of professional musicians. I knew that composer Elaine Agnew had been involved from the start and she described trips to Galway to meet music schools and to watch rehearsals with the brass band. Her enthusiasm was palpable and I could see the opera constantly evolving during rehearsals. When interviewing different groups from the teenagers of the young strings to the adults of the Collegium choir, they were all so passionate about putting on an opera that represented the city.
The words were also so important to the opera, and librettist Jessica Traynor explained how she wanted to write a simple story, based in St. Nicholas’ and the idea of the church as a place of sanctuary. It tells the story of three strangers who arrive at the doors of St. Nicholas’, all seeking refuge and had echoes of today’s migrant crisis.
Four professional singers, Gemma ní Bhriain, Bríd ní Gruagáin, Brendan Collins and Rory Dunne, gave me their takes on how they represented the different characters.
Anna Lardi, the executive director from Music For Galway explained the difficulties that the opera faced with so many cancellations and disruptions throughout 2020 and 2021. I could hear the pain in her voice, as well as the others when they remembered the frustration of possibly abandoning a project they put so much work into.
The energy to finally accomplish the project was embodied in Sinead Hayes, who was both the conductor and project manager. I recorded rehearsals and practices from the St. Patrick’s band hall in Galway city centre to Knocknacarra community centre and onto the studio of the Irish Concert Orchestra at the University of Limerick. Sinead was always driving the project forward and organising the many people involved, while conducting and honing the music.
The shadow of Covid and further disruptions fell over the production with some prominent members of the team testing positive close to opening night. The resilience of the project team prevailed and when Paper Boat finally set sail in St. Nicholas church. I was delighted to have documented its journey.
The Lyric Feature: The Paper Boat Sets Sail, RTÉ lyric fm, Christmas Eve at 7 pm, directly followed by The Lyric Concert: Paper Boat at 8 pm - listen to more from The Lyric Feature here.
