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Unsung voices from Ireland’s Great Famine.
Select your performance date and time
September 2016
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Friday September 30, 2016
Performances no longer available.
NY Premiere
The Hunger
Sep 30—Oct 1, 2016
 
Opera

By Donnacha Dennehy
Alarm Will Sound
Conducted by Alan Pierson
Directed by Tom Creed

Presented in association with Irish Arts Center

 
 

Underdog history comes to life through new music and old Irish songs in composer Donnacha Dennehy’s opera about the Great Famine of 1845-52, rooted in Asenath Nicholson’s harrowing first-person account in Annals of the Famine in Ireland. Featuring acclaimed ensemble Alarm Will Sound (Nonesuch Records at BAM, 2014 Next Wave) and celebrated Irish folk singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, The Hunger imagines soprano Katherine Manley as Nicholson and Ó Lionáird as the voice of the voiceless, with instrumentalists integrated into the staging. Old recordings of traditional sean-nós songs dovetail seamlessly with Dennehy’s score, while video clips of interviews with Noam Chomsky, Paul Krugman, and others underscore the political roots of this tragedy that brought a nation to its knees.

 

Set and video design by Jim Findlay

Co-produced by Alarm Will Sound and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
Commissioned by Alarm Will Sound with additional funding from Arts Council of Ireland, MAP Fund, The Sinquefield Charitable Foundation, and New Music USA

 
RUN TIME
1hr 15min
VENUE
SUBSCRIPTIONS START AT  $14
FULL PRICE TICKETS START AT  $20
 
Leadership support for opera at BAM provided by:

Aashish & Dinyar Devitre

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

 
“...ambitious, deeply researched, often beautiful and somewhat uncompromising.”
— The Washington Post
“…[Alarm Will Sound is] one of the most vital and original ensembles on the American Music scene.”
— The New York Times
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