The First Child
Landmark Productions in association with Irish National Opera, Ireland It all began with the child. Following the sensational success of their first two operas, The Last Hotel and The Second Violinist, Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh join forces once again on the final instalment in their explosive trilogy of suburban horror. The production brings together a world-class creative team with a cast of five singers, an actor, a dancer, a small children’s choir and Crash Ensemble, to imagine a terrifying story of lost innocence—a baby on a beach—and the sea.
Landmark Productions in association with Irish National Opera, Ireland
It all began with the child.
Following the sensational success of their first two operas, The Last Hotel and The Second Violinist, Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh join forces once again on the final instalment in their explosive trilogy of suburban horror.
The production brings together a world-class creative team with a cast of five singers, an actor, a dancer, a small children’s choir and Crash Ensemble, to imagine a terrifying story of lost innocence—a baby on a beach—and the sea.
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PAGE 12<br />
CREATORS<br />
DONNACHA DENNEHY<br />
Composer<br />
Donnacha Dennehy’s music is marked by a sonic<br />
and rhythmic intensity and a kind of volatile tonality<br />
that travels in and out of an overtone-based focus.<br />
His music has featured in festivals and venues such<br />
as the Edinburgh International Festival; Carnegie<br />
Hall, New York; Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam;<br />
Barbican, London; and BAM, New York, among<br />
many others. In addition to two previous operas<br />
with Enda Walsh, <strong>The</strong> Last Hotel and <strong>The</strong> Second<br />
Violinist (Landmark Productions and Irish National<br />
Opera), recent large-scale commissions include <strong>The</strong> Hunger, a<br />
docu-cantata for Alarm Will Sound (presented by BAM, New York<br />
and Opera <strong>The</strong>atre St. Louis), Broken Unison for Sō Percussion<br />
(co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Cork Opera House);<br />
Overcasting (commissioned by the LA Phil); Tessellatum for Nadia<br />
Sirota, Liam Byrne and microtonal viol consort; and pieces for Dawn<br />
Upshaw, Third Coast Percussion, Kronos Quartet, and the Doric<br />
Quartet. He continues to maintain a close artistic connection with<br />
the group he founded, Crash Ensemble, and they feature in <strong>The</strong> <strong>First</strong><br />
<strong>Child</strong> and in his opera, <strong>The</strong> Second Violinist, which won the 2017<br />
FEDORA-Generali Prize for Opera. Portrait albums of his music have<br />
been released by Nonesuch, New Amsterdam, Cantaloupe, NMC<br />
and Bedroom Community. His new violin concerto for Augustin<br />
Hadelich will be premiered in the Netherlands in October 2021,<br />
and he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship earlier this year.<br />
Dennehy is also a professor at Princeton University and his music is<br />
published by G. Schirmer, New York.
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