In partnership with Sundays At Noon Concert Series, Dublin City Gallery: the Hugh Lane
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The doomed love affair between Aeneas, the Trojan hero, and Dido, Queen of Carthage inspired poets, painters and Henry Purcell’s seventeenth-century opera, Dido & Aeneas. This beautiful Baroque work captures the intensity and tragedy of the story of the lovers first told by Virgil in Book IV of his epic poem, The Aeneid, and represented in art and music down through the centuries.
Join us to discover the many facets of the fascinating Dido in excerpts and arias from Purcell, Cavalli and Schubert, including Purcell’s famous Dido’s Lament (‘When I am laid in earth’). Performed by acclaimed mezzo soprano, Sharon Carty, accompanied by harpsichordist David O’Shea, with readings from Virgil and Ovid and introductions by opera director Conor Hanratty.
Irish mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty has established a reputation as a respected interpreter of both early and contemporary works, alongside maintaining a busy schedule in mainstream opera and concert repertoire. She is an alumna of the RIAM Dublin, MDW Vienna, and Oper Frankfurt Young Artist Programme, and has been an Artistic Partner to Irish National Opera since the company began in 2018. She is the 2023/2024 Artist in residence for the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
Her opera repertoire includes many of the important lyric and coloratura mezzosoprano roles, such as Hänsel, Dido, Ruggiero, Dorabella, Cherubino, Ariodante, Orfeo (Gluck) and Sesto (Handel). Career highlights to date include London and Amsterdam opera debuts with The Second Violinist at the Barbican Theatre, and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, her Wexford Festival Opera debut as Lucy Talbot in the European première of William Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight, the title role in Irish National Opera’s critically acclaimed Orfeo ed Euridice and her Italian debut at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, where she premiered a new opera, Proserpine by Silvia Colasanti, to critical acclaim.
Highlights for 2023 included a Northern Irish tour of Boccherini’s Stabat Mater with the FewsEnsemble, a recital with Fiachra Garvey in the Walled City Music Festival Derry, and Dorabella in INO’s new production of Cosi fan tutte; a concert tour of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the opening concert of the Sligo Baroque Festival, Mozart and George Benjamin in Nîmes, and Sesto for Blackwater Valley Opera. Early 2024 will see the release of a CD of songs of C.V.Stanford with pianist Finghin Collins for the SOMM label, to celebrate the centenary of the composer’s death, as well as promotional concerts in Ireland, Germany and Switzerland. www.sharoncarty.com
