Baroque Heroines

Featuring Sharon Carty (mezzo-soprano), David Adams (harpsichord) & Norah O’Leary (cello) Dido, Lucretia, Euridice. Just a few of the formidable women immortalised in music by master composers such as Handel, Purcell, Cavalli, and Rossi. Don't miss this beautiful exploration of some of Baroque opera's most exquisite tragic heroines, performed by three of Ireland's leading Baroque artists. Sharon Carty (mezzo-soprano) Irish mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty is a singer who has firmly 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 is currently an Artistic Partner to Irish National Opera as well as the Artist in Association to the Irish Chamber Orchestra for the 2023-2024 season. Regularly praised for her musicality and intelligence, her integrity as an artist and the warmth, clarity and agility of her voice, her opera repertoire includes many of the important lyric and coloratura mezzo-soprano roles, such as Hänsel, Dido, Ruggiero, Dorabella, Cherubino, Ariodante, Orfeo and Sesto. On the concert platform her repertoire spans most of the major sacred concert works, including all the principal works by J. S Bach as well as Messiah, Mozart's Great Mass in C minor and a broad song repertoire in addition to numerous chamber music works. She is also a dedicated song recitalist, most recently appearing in performances with pianists Finghin Collins, Jonathan Ware and Graham Johnson. Career highlights to date include her London and Amsterdam opera debuts with The Second Violinist at the Barbican Theatre, and the 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 debut at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, where she premiered a new opera, Proserpine by Silvia Colasanti, to critical acclaim. Current and recent projects include Dorabella for Irish National Opera, Sesto (Handel) for Blackwater opera, as well as song, oratorio and chamber music concerts in Ireland, France, Germany and Switzerland. A regular collaborator with orchestras across Europe, her discography includes La Traviata on Naxos DVD with the NDR Radiophilharmonie alongside Thomas Hampson and Marina Rebeka as well as The Mountebanks (Gilbert/Cellier) on CD with the BBC Concert Orchestra, as well as a critically-acclaimed disc of Schubert songs with pianist Jonathan Ware, was released in May 2020. 2024 will see the release of two discs of the songs of C.V.Stanford to commemorate the centenary of the composer. Norah O’Leary (cello) Norah Catherine O'Leary is an Irish cellist and viol player specialising in period instrument performance. She holds a first-class Master’s degree in Performance of Early Music from the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, where she studied under Louna Hosia and Markku Luolajan-Mikkola. During her studies, she also participated in mentoring projects with the Nordic Baroque Orchestra and Concerto Copenhagen. Norah has since performed and recorded with several distinguished ensembles, including London Early Opera and Signum Records, featuring in their 2019 release Handel’s Queens. She has also regularly performed with the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Camerata Kilkenny, Sestina Music, Cork Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Scania Barock, and Ensemble OrQuestra, collaborating with renowned soloists and conductors such as Bridget Cunningham, Peter Spissky, Peter Whelan, Dame Emma Kirkby, Mark Chambers, Laurence Cummings, and Lars Ulrik Mortensen. As a founding member of Ensemble Dagda, Norah has performed at prestigious festivals, including the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, East Cork Early Music Festival, Sligo Festival of Baroque Music, and the Encanto Festival in Helsinki. In recent months, Norah co-founded The Earls of Ormond alongside Laoise O'Brien, Siobhan Armstrong, Malcolm Proud, Caoimhe de Paor, and Sarah Groser. This ensemble, Ireland's newest Renaissance group, focuses on performing historically relevant music in historical venues across the country. While living in London, she worked with several music services and gained valuable experience in Wider Group Teaching, running workshops for large groups of children. She currently enjoys teaching at the County Wexford School of Music, and Cork Academy of Strings. David Adams (harpsichord) A former organ scholar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Trinity College Dublin, David Adams studied in Freiburg (with Ludwig Doerr) and Amsterdam (with Piet Kee and Ewald Kooiman), winning prizes at international competitions in Speyer, Lüneburg, Dublin and Bruges. Since his début recital at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, at the age of 16, he has performed throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe, and is a regular guest at major international festivals. He regularly appears with all the Irish orchestras and is much in demand as an ensemble player in the fields of early and contemporary music. As a conductor he has worked with the Ulster Orchestra, English Touring Opera, Opera Theatre Company, the Orchestra of St Cecilia and the Irish Baroque Orchestra. He has premièred many new works including numerous compositions written specially for him. In addition to solo organ CDs recorded on the organs of Trinity College and the National Concert Hall Dublin, he has recorded for Naxos, Black Box and Wergo. David Adams has taught at conservatories in Freiburg, Berlin and The Hague, and at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama and Trinity College Dublin, and now lectures at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He gives masterclasses and lectures at home and abroad, and has been a juror for many national and international competitions. In 2007 he was awarded a PhD from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam for his work on Max Reger and Karl Straube. David is organist of Christ Church Taney and St. Nahi’s in Dublin. This concert is presented by the OPW as part of the 2026 Cultural Programme at Castletown House. Doors open at 7.30pm and the performance runs from 8pm to 9.30pm. Tickets are €20, including booking fee. www.sharoncarty.com www.noraholearycello.com www.riam.ie/about/our-people/dr-david-adams www.castletown.ie For further details contact Michelle Wyse at [email protected]