Find out more about Baroque opera's most exquisite tragic heroines at Kildare's Castletown House
Sharon Carty, David Adams and Norah O'Leary honour Baroque opera’s heroines at Kildare’s Castletown Hosue
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
This concert is presented by the OPW as part of the 2026 Cultural Programme at Castletown. Doors open at 7.30pm and the performance runs from 8pm to 9.30pm. Tickets (€20 including booking fee) are available from www.eventbrite.ie