Latest news with #DavidBrophy
Irish Times
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
A Midsummer Night's Dream at Blackwater Valley Opera Festival 2025: Vocally sure singing, but has a revamp muted Britten's orchestral magic?
A Midsummer Night's Dream Blackwater Valley Opera Festival ★★★☆☆ How things change. Back in 2010 the first Lismore Music Festival, today's Blackwater Valley Opera Festival , presented sure-fire repertoire – Bizet's Carmen, with Fiona Murphy heading the cast of 10 in the title role – in a marquee in the stable yard of Lismore Castle, with an ensemble of violin, accordion, guitar, double bass and percussion standing in for the colourful orchestral score. Move on 15 years and the festival is offering Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with a cast of 19 and the Irish Chamber Orchestra conducted by David Brophy, with nearly five times as many musicians in the pit. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Piccolo Lasso, Ami Hewitt and Dominic Veilleux. Photograph: Frances Marshall The stage area is transformed this year. A raised platform now covers the entire performance area, not only allowing for greater freedom of movement but also creating a pit for the orchestra at floor level. (The tiny Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh, where Britten's opera was first performed, in June 1960, also had to be enlarged and improved to accommodate the work.) The festival has made cosmetic improvements, too, with better-looking seating – which, strangely, is less comfortable because of the way it tilts forward – and black ceiling drapes, which give a softer interior appearance; sadly, they seem to do little or nothing to damp the percussive onslaught of rain on opening night on Wednesday. READ MORE So far so good. What about the production itself, directed by Patrick Mason and designed by Paul Keogan (set and lighting) and Catherine Fay (costumes)? It's a handsome, brightly lit show, the central, white-curtained bed about as close as it gets to any suggestion of night, and with different social levels distinguished through costumes of different periods. The actor Barry McGovern's black-clad Puck, wielding a white feather/wand/baton, falls somewhere between master of ceremonies, wizard and wannabe conductor. The soprano Ami Hewitt's beautifully bewigged Tytania sweeps and soars in style and manages a suppleness of vocal line that is otherwise in short supply. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Barry McGovern. Photograph: Frances Marshall A Midsummer Night's Dream: David Brophy and Irish Chamber Orchestra. Photograph: Frances Marshall The voice of the countertenor Iestyn Morris is too ethereal for his Oberon to make a real impression, sounding mostly insubstantial rather than atmospheric. The various couples – Christopher Cull and Gemma Ní Bhriain as Theseus and Hippolyta, Peter O'Reilly and Sarah Richmond as Lysander and Hermia, and Gregory Feldmann and Amy Ní Fhearraigh as Demetrius and Helena – are more engaging, vocally sure and with real tension in the conflicts they experience as a result of the love-inducing magic juice that mismatches them. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Amy Ní Fhearraigh, Gregory Feldmann, Peter O'Reilly, Sarah Richmond and Dominic Veilleux. Photograph: Frances Marshall A Midsummer Night's Dream: Ami Hewitt and Dominic Veilleux. Photograph: Frances Marshall The mechanicals are a damp squib when going through the preparations for their play within a play but altogether livelier in their performance of that comedy. The Bottom of the bass-baritone Dominic Veilleux revels in the comic opportunities afforded him as the ass Tytania is made to fall in love with. But, musically, there is something pallid about the performance. I'm not sure that this is entirely the fault of either singers or conductor. The voices don't carry well, and the orchestra is often so soft and muted that much of Britten's orchestral magic fails to register. My seat near the back may have played a part, but my primary suspicion is that the drapes just absorb too much sound in a space that's already severely acoustically challenged. A Midsummer Night's Dream is at Blackwater Valley Opera Festival , Lismore, Co Waterford, on Friday, May 30th, Saturday, May 31st, and Sunday, June 1st; the festival runs until Monday, June 2nd
RTÉ News
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Conductor David Brophy, an Irishman in Cologne: The Lyric Feature
The Lyric Feature production Der Musikmann follows conductor David Brophy's progress over his first six months with the WDR Funkhausorchester, on his new podium in Cologne; Presented by George Hamilton, the documentary observes the musical, cultural, and personal challenges this Irish conductor faces as he takes on one of the most prestigious positions in his field in Europe. Producer Michael O' Kane introduces Der Musikmann – An Irishman in Cologne below - listen above. From John Field, Michael Balfe, and Margaret Burke Sheridan in the past to James Galway and Barry Douglas in more recent times, Irish musicians have captivated audiences across Europe. To that illustrious list can now be added the name of David Brophy. His musical journey, which began in a band at home on the northside of Dublin, took in a spell playing keyboards with the National Symphony Orchestra before he opted for a career on the podium, shaping the sounds with baton in hand. David is one of music's most engaging characters, and a man I've known for a long time, collaborating on a variety of concert platforms. Watch: Daft Punk's Around the World performed by Uwaga! with David Brophy & WDR Funkhausorchester When he was appointed to the post of Chief Conductor of the WDR Rundfunkorchester in Cologne, this was too good an opportunity to miss. The Westdeutscher Rundfunk was my local radio and TV station when I lived in Germany many years ago and the personal connection expanded into a professional one when I began my career as a broadcaster in Belfast. WDR was one of the German-language stations I worked for as what's known in the business as a "stringer", a local correspondent. I was no stranger to the Funkhaus on Wallrafplatz with its famous paternoster lift, the broadcast centre in the heart of the city that's home to David Brophy's new band. What emerges is a most engaging portrait of a dedicated musician whose winning charm puts students, musicians, and indeed audiences in the palm of his hand. It already had its Irish connection through the work of the author Heinrich Böll, a native of Cologne, one of whose short stories is set in the Funkhaus and who was a regular in the café that welcomes all-comers to a corner of its ground floor. Tiring of the brashness of post-war Germany, Böll retreated to Achill Island where he wrote a journal – his Irisches Tagebuch – that captured worldwide attention when it was published in 1957. David Brophy's artistic journey has taken him in the opposite direction. Producer Michael O'Kane and I followed him to the Rhineland to find out how. We covered his debut on the podium in Cologne – an afternoon event broadcast live on the radio from the packed Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal, the station's very own concert hall – and returned six months later for a progress report. In between, we had the opportunity to follow the part of the David Brophy career that still resides in Ireland – his performances here and his teaching work at TU Dublin in Grangegorman. What emerges is a most engaging portrait of a dedicated musician whose winning charm puts students, musicians, and indeed audiences in the palm of his hand. You may be surprised as the story takes shape, as preconceived notions give way to the colourful reality that includes the shoes he's been wearing in the orchestra's trademark shade of purple. The world of classical music is by no means all black tie and tails.
