Irish National Opera’s flagship digital lockdown project, 20 Shots of Opera, has been a resounding success.
20 new operas commissioned for digital release – all composed, recorded, produced and streamed during lockdown.
I was lucky enough to be the sole performer on stage for Peter Fahey’s Through and Through. The piece tells the story of a woman who murders her lover in revenge for his infidelity.
There have been a number of excellent reviews for the project as a whole from the Wall Street Journal, Opera News and The Stage among others.
The Journal of Music had the following to say:
Despite the short duration, Fahey manages to portray a range of emotional states from the unhinged opening of whistling and scratching noises where the woman (soprano Daire Halpin) tries to coax the bird to come down from the tree, to the pulsing, deranged eroticism of the central section were she compares her sexual prowess to her rival. The impact of this very convincing piece was greatly helped by some nifty camerawork and a great performance from Halpin.
Operawire also enjoyed the piece:
Soprano Daire Halpin produces a strong and energetic performance as the woman, as she whispers, speaks, employs sprechstimme, makes heavy breathing sounds and whistles her way through the role, although using little in the way of what you would call traditional singing. She also utters the words of the bird and of her lover in the first person.
Daire Halpin - Soprano 