BirD
BIRD will be the first opera by acclaimed composer/performer Julie Feeney and her avant garde approach to her one-of–a-kind sound is certain to bring an innovative and exciting vision to the opera stage. Information about the production will emerge in 2022.
Inspired by Oscar Wilde’s much-loved story, The Happy Prince, the work-in-progress has been presented at two different stages of development at Dublin Theatre Festival and at Galway Arts Festival. Both presentations were completely sold out. The creative team included director and actor Mikel Murfi and designer Joanne Hynes and presentations were produced by Maura O'Keeffe and Margaret O'Sullivan. Musician booker for both presentations was Louis Roden. The next stage of development includes Marina Carr coming on board as Dramaturge.
For the Dublin Theatre Festival showing. 20 minutes of excerpts were performed at Project Arts Centre by a cast of 14 singers and 16 instrumentalists conducted by David Brophy. Julie didn't perform in this. For the Galway performance Julie completely revised the libretto and story line and presented excerpts of 12 scenes at St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church clocking in at a 40 minutes long performance. This concert performance featured 9 singers including Julie and 8 instrumentalists conducted by Andrew Synnott.
BIRD is the inaugural commission from festival firsts, an initiative of IFCN (Irish Festivals’ Co-Production Network)."BIRD" is commissioned by Dublin Theatre Festival, Cork Midsummer Festival, Galway Arts Festival & Kilkenny Arts Festival. The development phase and presentation was funded by the Arts Council Opera Project Awards.