TRADE | MARY MOTORHEAD (2022)
“Rarely, if ever, does every element — score, text, singers, instrumentalists, conductor, director, sets, costumes, lighting, sound design — all come together. This is that rarity.” – The Los Angeles Times
TRADE is the story of a rent boy and his closeted client in working-class Dublin, both trapped within their own lives. Meeting secretly in a cheap hotel, they wrestle with their own inner demons and their need for each other. Three-time Tony nominee Marc Kudisch (star of LA Opera's Wonderful Town and anatomy theater) portrays a family man whose world is crumbling apart, with international recording artist Kyle Bielfield as a young hustler determined to take charge of his future.
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. Mezzo-soprano Naomi Louisa O’Connell stars as the woman pushed to the edge by circumstance, now finding the road back to herself.
“No Irish opera has entered the standard repertory. But that is about to change.” – The Los Angeles Times
“The score unfolds like a series of weather fronts, each with its own kind of texture and force. More objectively speaking, the fronts are organized into modules, each one skillfully building on the last…Just as remarkable is O’Halloran’s sound palette, which mixes acoustic and electric strains in ways that one can’t always tell which is which.” – Musical America
'“O’Halloran shapes lucid, communicative vocal lines; the text always sings out.” – The New York Times
cREative team
Composer - Emma O’Halloran
Libretto - Mark O’Halloran
Conductor - Elaine Kelly
Creative Producer - Beth Morrison Projects
Director - Tom Creed
Electronic Sound Design - Alex Dowling
Scenery - Jim Findlay
Costumes - Montana Levi Blanco
Lighting - Christopher Kuhl
Sound Engineering - Charles Hagaman
Commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, Irish National Opera, Trinity Church Wall Street, and Nancy & Barry Sanders. Produced by Beth Morrison Projects and Irish National Opera in association with Trinity Church Wall Street. Additional support provided by Virginia B. Toulmin Charitable Foundation, Antonia & Vladimer Kulaev Cultural Heritage Fund,Inc, Elizabeth Greenberg, Culture Ireland, and Charlotte Isaacs.
Duration: 105 minutes