Emma O'Halloran

★★★★★ – “Ultimately, it’s the razor-sharp combination of emotional directness and complexity that compels the audience to step into the characters’ lives in all their fury, violence, savage loneliness and agonisingly tender love.” – BBC Music Magazine

“Rarely, if ever, does every element – score, text, singers, instrumentalists, conductor, director, sets, costumes, lighting, sound design—all come together. This is that rarity.” – Los Angeles Times

“Virtuosic showcases” — New York Times

“Emma and Mark O’Halloran’s complex opera double bill Trade/Mary Motorhead is remarkable” – Irish Independent

“Tenor Oisín Ó Dálaigh and bass-baritone John Molloy simply astonishing throughout.” – The Arts Review

“powerful singing from mezzo soprano Naomi Louisa O’Connell, whose voice as expressive instrument and interpreter of lyrics proves breathtaking.” – The Arts Review

“Irish conductor Elaine Kelly is a discovery, tracing the musical lines with exactitude.” – Los Angeles Times

ABOUT TRADE / MARY MOTORHEAD

Featuring two new operas from composer Emma O’Halloran, with librettos by Mark O’Halloran, Irish National Opera and Signum Classics present TRADE and Mary Motorhead.

Featuring singers Oisín Ó Dálaigh, John Molloy (TRADE), and Naomi Louisa O’Connell (Mary Motorhead), along with the Irish National Opera Orchestra, conducted by Elaine Kelly.

TRADE: In a guesthouse in Dublin’s north inner city, a vulnerable and confused young rent boy sits with a middle-aged client. The older man has blood on his shirt. A lot has happened since the two last met.

Mary Motorhead: In the compelling monodrama Mary Motorhead, a convicted murderer invites us to hear her secret history—the disappointments and betrayals that shaped her life—in the hope that it may shine some light upon the darkness of her actions. 

PERFORMERS

TRADE

Oisín Ó Dálaigh, Tenor (Younger Man)

John Molloy, Bass-baritone (Older Man)

Mary Motorhead

Naomi Louisa O’Connell, Mezzo-soprano (Mary Motorhead)

IRISH NATIONAL OPERA ORCHESTRA

Sarah Sew, Leader (Violin)

Joanna Mattrey (Viola)

David Edmonds (Cello)

Malachy Robinson (Double bass)

Lina Andonovska (Flute)

Conor Sheil (Clarinet/bass clarinet)

Kenneth Edge (Tenor Saxophone)

Catríona Frost (Percussion)

Eliza McCarthy (Keyboard)

Barry O’Halpin (Electric Guitar)

TRADE

[1] – Waiting
[2] – “You finished?”
[3] – “I’m weird about my teeth…”
[4] – “Are you alright?”
[5] – “Who done that on you?”
[6] – “You hot?”
[7] – “I’m glad you’re here…”
[8] – I’m Alright – “So how have you been keeping?”
[9] – Chloe – “So…what’s your baby?”
[10] – “Who slapped you?”
[11] – Dream Aria – “I been worried about you, ya know?”
[12] – “Mad. I know.”
[13] – “We going to do this?”
[14] – Not One of Those
[15] – Jason Connolly – “There was a lad in school with me…”
[16] – “My son it was who slapped me.”
[17] – A Shining Thing – “You’re young…”
[18] – “But at my father’s funeral…”
[19] – I Wanted Him to Know Me – “When I think about all that…”
[20] – “Pulled the whole fucking thing around my ears…”
[21] – “Only first though…”

MARY MOTORHEAD

[1] – “I live mostly for the past now…”
[2] – “Then there’s the other, a secret history…”
[3] – “My Big History?”
[4] – Landscape Aria – “Now they say…”
[5] – Kathleen – “Me and Kathleen…”
[6] – “Now it might sound strange…”
[7] – Rage Aria – “Something had been taken off me…”
[8] – “And now to Red O’Brien…”
[9] – Something Changed – “But something changed…”
[10] – “Anyway, it was inevitable…”

Recorded at The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny, on August 2024

Audio Producers: Emma O’Halloran, Alex Dowling

Assistant Audio Producer: Caterina Schembri

Creative Producers: Fergus Sheil (Irish National Opera), Beth Morrison (Beth Morrison Projects)

Recording Engineer: Simon Cullen

Audio Mix Engineer: Edu Prado

Mastering Engineer: Seán MacErlaine