Major award for Arts Festival opera
The Second Violinist, a new opera by Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh which will premiere at Galway International Arts Festival next month, has won €150,000 in a major international competition.
The Fedora-Generali Prize for Opera 2017 was awarded to Wide Open Opera and Landmark Productions, the co-producers of The Second Violinist, in Salzburg, Austria, last week at that city’s annual Whitsun Festival.
The Dublin production saw off competition from leading opera companies including Milan’s Teatro alla Scala; the English National Opera; the Danish National Opera, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, and France’s Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Opera Europa, the professional Association of Opera Houses and Festivals in Europe, which represents over 170 opera houses and festivals across 43 countries, assessed the applications and created shortlists, which were presented to two independent jury panels.
This competition is run by The European Circle of Philanthropists of Opera and Ballet, FEDORA, a privately funded, non-profit organisation founded in 2014. The prize supports co-productions of new opera and ballet projects, created by emerging artists. The money will enable Wide Open Opera and Landmark Productions to tour The Second Violinist internationally in 2018. The Arts Council has funded the project to the tune of €500,000.
The Second Violinist is composed by Donnacha Dennehy and written by Enda Walsh who also directs. It follows the success of their first opera, The Last Hotel. Aaron Monaghan plays the violinist of the title and is joined by singers Máire Flavin, Sharon Carty and Benedict Nelson, together with the 16-strong chorus of Wide Open Opera. Music is from the 14-member Crash Ensemble, the group founded by Dennehy and described by The New York Times as ‘the Irish new-music band that plays with the energy and spirit of a rock group’. US conductor Ryan McAdams will direct the musicians.
GIAF’s Artistic Director Paul Fahy attended last week’s event in Salzburg together with the opera’s producers, Anne Clarke of Landmark Productions, and Fergus Shiel and Gavin O’Sullivan of Wide Open Opera.
■ The Second Violinist will run from July 26-30 and premiere on July 27 at the City’s Black Box Theatre as part of the Arts Festival.