World Première Live Recording 2021
During a quick trip to Ireland after last year, I visited the library archives at Trinity College Dublin to look at the manuscripts of Maudlin of Paplewick by Ina Boyle. Poring over the 622 pages of hand-written score, what I discovered was a charming pastoral opera based on The Sad Shepherd by Ben Jonson. What struck me even more than the story, though, was how successful Boyle’s music is in sustaining the dramatic narrative throughout. Her mastery of both orchestral and chamber textures is evident in skilful instrumentation that supports the voices and underlines the drama. As a student of Vaughan Williams she evokes a distinctive English character, using only a chamber orchestra of eleven instruments: 2 Violins, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Harp, Flute, Oboe, Bassoon, Horn and Timpani.
I am delighted to collaborate for the first time with the Royal Irish Academy of Music, eleven of whose talented instrumentalists will play in the chamber orchestra.
I will conduct a live recording of the world première of Ina Boyle’s Maudlin of Paplewick, the only surviving opera for the stage by an Irish woman composer, with a cast of talented Irish singers in Dublin in August.
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