The Austrian-German recorder consort VUENV, along with Irish mezzosoprano Sharon Carty present Orfea Britannica on a nationwide tour of Ireland this summer, including a performance in Mullingar Arts Centre, tonight, Friday August 5.
The programme is a quasi-operatic reworking of the Orfeo story, told in concert form, through the medium of the hauntingly beautiful instrumental and vocal music of Elisabethan and Jacobean England. Included are pieces by John Downland, Nathaniel Giles, Christopher Tye, and Alfonso Ferrabosco, among others.
Irish mezzosoprano Sharon Carty is currently a member of the Opera Studio at Frankfurt Opera House, and made her German stage debut there in September as Tebaldo in Don Carlo. She has since performed the roles of 2nd Lady (Zauberflöte ), Cleone (Médée ), The Woman (Barabbas Dialogues ) there. In October/November 2011 she will add Flora (La Traviata ) and Aloès (L’Etoile ) to her repertoire there. Other operatic repertoire includes Ruggiero (Alcina ), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro ), Angiolina (La Cenerentola ), Maddalena (Rigoletto ), and Mrs Grose (The Turn of the Screw ).
Sharon also enjoys a busy schedule as a concert soloist, and has performed with orchestras such as the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Capella Istrapolitana, Wiener Akademie, Capella Leopoldina, European Union Chamber Orchestra under the batons of conductors such as Martin Haselboeck, Karl Jenkins, Konrad Junghanel, Sebastian Weigle, and Andrea Marcon among others, and has been broadcast on radio in both Ireland and Germany.
The production comes to Mullingar Arts Centre tonight, Friday August 5 at 8pm.
For more information call (044 ) 9347777.
