TAKE the most poignant of love stories from Oscar Wilde’s book of glory and bring it to life in music, song and dance. Arrive at the alchemy of The Everyman’s operatic production of ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’.
‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ is a work of art originated in the mind of composer John O’Brien, long standing collaborator with this Cork institution, and made wild with input from librettist Éadaoin O’Donoghue, choreographer Philip Connaughton, the musician performers and singers.
Limerick’s international class tenor Owen Gilhooly is in the cast of 17 for this symbolic ode to love unrequited: the nightingale (Kim Sheehan, soprano) falls for a student who is tasked with finding a rose to win his damsel. It’s a consuming mission for the principals on a stage interlacing with the costumed musicians in character, playing their instruments.
For insight, Arts Page hopped on the Lisnagry man (a teacher at the Royal College of Music and his own Mid West Vocal Academy and Music School; Aoide community choir master also). First up, we hear that John O’Brien is a genius, a weaver of quavers and cadence that scale up a thrill.
“The last time I worked with John was for Guonod’s ‘Faust’ in The Everyman three or four years ago. That’s the last big production they did with John. ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ is a full opera, a full production with design by Lisa Zagone who has done magnificent work. Wonderfully fun and really creative things.
“It is not set in a timeframe and every one of the musicians plays an animal and a muse – there are nine muses and the story is fully interactive.”
Owen Gilhooly himself is the sun, “kind of a narrator role, kind of a Dad figure who radiates goodness and light and the good things of the sun. The great Majella McCullagh (soprano) plays the moon and there’s a gravitational pull between us. The moon is cooler, calmer, mysterious and there’s a little history between the two characters. We are the cycle of life.”
“The music is really accessible. John has written a lot of melodies and really interesting harmonies as well. There is even a scene where the audience are brought in.”
‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ had its world premiere in Cork on Saturday 13 for this week’s run. It made Gill Fenton of Lime Tree Theatre sing: “It’s so beautiful, full of lush colour and magical moments. The music is melodic but quite angular…has now become an earworm that has stayed with me all day. There is a lovely dynamic on stage with singers, dancers and unusually, musicians all interacting at the same time to create a hive of operatic activity.”
On to Tallaght’s Civic Theatre before The Nightingale alights on Lime Tree Theatre on Saturday 27, 8pm.
