Choir fundraiser for Louisburgh Order of Malta tonight
A concert in aid of the local Order of Malta will be held tonight (Friday ) at 8pm in the parochial hall, Louisburgh. Doughmakeown native and internationally acclaimed mezzo soprano Anne-Marie Gibbons will be performing on the night. A great night of entertainment is assured with the Louisburgh Junior Choir and the Mayo Male Voice Choir performing also. Mayo Male Voice choir will be under the direction of Deirdre Lee (conductor ) and Rebecca Cresham (pianist ). Catherine Macleod will direct the junior choir and Valerie Quirke accompanies the junior choir on the piano. Tickets are available in local shops for €10 or you can call 087 1254561 for queries.
New exhibition opening in Belmullet tomorrow
An exciting new exhibition by Geraldine O’Reilly and Margo McNulty will be officially launched tomorrow (Saturday ) at 7pm in Belmullet Arts Centre. The exhibition, by two well known artists with a heritage in Mayo, is titled Of Space and Place. Geraldine O’Reilly’s work looks at the deserted village on Achill which was started while on a residency at the Heinrich Boll house on Achill. Margo McNulty’s images in this exhibition are from her grandmother’s and great grandmother’s houses in Achill. The large-scale lithographs and photoetchings are close-up, microscopic, portals to the past. The exhibition will run until Monday May 6 at Áras Inis Gluaire and it offers a unique take on an environment very familiar to us all.
Handel’s Giulo Cesare live from the Met in Castlebar
Direct from the Met in HD on Saturday April 27 at 5pm is the final presentation in the Linenhall’s highly successful Spring Opera series, Handel’s superb Giulio Cesare.
The opera that conquered London in Handel’s own time comes to the Met in David McVicar’s lively production. Leading countertenor David Daniels is Julius Caesar opposite the remarkable French soprano Natalie Dessay as an irresistibly exotic Cleopatra. Baroque specialist Harry Bicket conducts. And with this glittering presentation, the Linenhall and its enthusiastic opera audience bids farewell to the Metropolitan in New York for the summer, but fear not, there is a brand new programme of opera greats lined up for the autumn.
Mayo Concert Orchestra to hold spring concert next week
Mayo Concert Orchestra (MCO ) presents its annual spring concert next Thursday April 18. The concert entitled April Airs is due to take place in the Welcome Inn Hotel, Castlebar, at 8pm. This year’s varied programme includes dance, film, swing, as well as many classical favourites. The orchestra is a county-wide age-varied organisation. With around 40 members the group has been in existence for nearly 18 years. Many of the musicians are involved since inception, including musical director George Lee and newly appointed leader Anne Moriarty. This year MCO is excited to welcome three special guests/groups onto stage. Mayo Youth Orchestra, the junior branch, will perform after a very successful recital in The National Concert Hall this February. Special guests include acclaimed entertainer, singer, and harpist Annette Griffin and lively a cappella group Note-Orious4.
The Salvage Shop at the Linenhall
Whitethorn Theatre Company presents The Salvage Shop at the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar on Thursday and Friday May 9 and 10 at 8pm. Sylvester Tansey, owner of The Salvage Shop, is a strict taskmaster who demands loyalty from family, friends, and the band he conducts in the seaside town of Garris. In his twilight years, the opera buff and bandmaster is left with his unfulfilled dreams, and the bitter memory of his band failing to win a prestigious state-wide musical competition. Now rebellion is brewing in the ranks, and the time has come for the maestro to pass on his baton, but Sylvester has a long memory and the sting of betrayal still smarts after all these years. Meanwhile his son Eddie, euphonium player in exile, invokes the intervention of the great Luciano Pavarotti as he struggles to forge a reconciliation with his father. Written by playwright Jim Nolan, directed by multi-award-winning veteran Whitethorn director Frank Herraghty, starring John Rooney, Frank Herraghty, Tom Lyons, Donna Ruane, Aoife Carr, and Eamon Smith.
