Ulster Consort world premiere at Stormont
The marble-clad Great Hall at Parliament Buildings echoed last Saturday to the dramatic sounds of the Ulster Consort's world première performance of a new opera by Diana Burrell. The new work "Apostle to the Apostles" was commissioned and conducted by Ulster Consort’s director, Matthew Owens.
Stormont’s Deputy Speaker and host for the day, Stephen Aiken MLA, spoke of the importance of commissioning new music and the remarkable contribution which Matthew Owens and the Ulster Consort were making to the cultural life of the Province.
Diana Burrell was present for the world première and said how delighted she was with the very high quality of the performance which had been supported by the Garrick Club Charitable Trust and private sponsorship. She explained to the large and appreciative audience how she had researched early Christian writings about Mary Magdelene’s role in the early church as a basis for the opera. She had written the whole libretto as well as composing the music for voices and instruments.
Malachy Frame, who is formerly of St Peter’s Cathedral and is now a free-lance Baritone in London has often been a soloist with the Ulster Consort and flew back to Belfast to perform a major solo role in the remarkable world première.
Fermanagh man, Andrew Irwin, who had taken time out from his Opera House in Germany to undertake a leading solo role in the Stormont performance, told the News Letter “I have never sung with a better choir”.
In total contrast to a world première, the Ulster Consort’s next concert (ulsterconsort.org) on July 25 will feature Renaissance music from four centuries ago when they bring “Glories of the Sistine Chapel” to St Patrick’s Church, Donegall Street.