Oh, it’s all very exciting, honest! There is going to be an Opera in Carlow, for Carlow! We must be very important down here!
Visual, in association with the very artistic people in the Carlow authorities thought about this very idea 3 years ago. The Opera will be written by Brian Irvine and Peter Morgan Barnes, these 2 men happen to be extremely talented songwriters. Fergus Sheil will be conducting it all, Fergus has worked with loads of orchestras like the Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and the RTE Concert Orchestra, just to name a few.
The project is going to take just under a year and last month, an advertisement went out, searching for local people to lend their voices for this massive event.
I thought it sounded amazing so I trekked along to Visual, expecting to be overwhelmed by experienced singers. There were few obviously experienced and trained singers but a lot of people who are just like me-have an okay voice that needs a lot of work!
The project is to made into a 7-part series for Lyric FM and the National Symphony Orchestra are going to be playing alongside the group. I’ve heard that Aspiro are involved too, which makes sense. I did think it was a huge gamble to take just relying on local people.I would say that Aspiro will make up the biggest part of the group as I cannot imagine that it works on the premise “If you want to be in it, you can!” Perhaps, we will see!
The “audition” consisted of a 2 hour workshop, which was energetic and fun. I have the opportunity to volunteer for a worthwhile, community event while gaining musical, singing and performance skills. At the end, we took part in a solo-type circle singing activity, which took the pressure away from nervous people.
The next workshop is tonight and I’m really looking forward to it. I think it’s really going to push me in a dramatic way that I’ve never experienced before.
I’ll keep you posted!
