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.
PAGE 16 THE FIRST CHILD CAIA LESEURE JOHN SHEEHY NIAMH O’SULLIVAN Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and holds a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from University of Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music. CAIA LESEURE Dancer Caia Leseure was born in Berlin in 2008 to an Irish mother and French father so she has grown up speaking English, German and French. She spent a few years doing ballet classes and for the last few years, attends Berlin’s Sasha Waltz dance school. She has performed in their shows in the Berliner Festspiele and Radial V. She sings on two of Nina Hynes’ albums, ZAP! and Dancing Suns. She has a younger brother and spends her time between her home in Berlin and her father’s home in Brussels. JOAN SHEEHY Older Woman Joan Sheehy is from Granagh, Co. Limerick and has performed with all the leading Irish theatre companies and toured extensively, both nationally and internationally. Her most recent appearances have been in The Mai for Decadent Theatre Company, Wringer in Bewley’s Cafe Theatre, Bailegangaire for Livin’Dred Theatre Company, Sacrifice at Easter for Corcadorca, Big Maggie for Druid, John Gabriel Borkman for the Abbey Theatre and Woman and Scarecrow for Blood in the Alley Theatre Company. She appeared in the Abbey Theatre’s online initiatives, Dear Ireland and Home. Joan has directed some acclaimed productions, most recently, In the Middle of the Fields in Kilmallock, Co. Limerick , #Maura Laverty-This Was Your Life with Viking Theatre, Whitby in the Bram Stoker Festival, The Match Box in Galway
THE FIRST CHILD PAGE 17 International Arts Festival, The Colleen Bawn Trials for Limerick City of Culture, Anything But Love in Belltable Arts Centre and Buck Jones and the Body Snatchers in Georgian House, Limerick and Dublin Theatre Festival. Recent film and T.V appearances include As Luck Would Have It, Fanacht, Harry Wildand End of Sentence. NIAMH O’SULLIVAN Alva 26-year-old Irish mezzo-soprano Niamh O’Sullivan, praised for her “bewitchingly beautiful, dark vibrant voice” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin under Veronica Dunne. She followed her studies by joining the Opera Studio at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich from 2016 to 2018. Operatic engagements in Munich include Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Kate Pinkerton Madama Butterfly, the Secretary in Menotti’s The Consul and Flora in Verdi’s La Traviata and a concert performance of Der Rosenkavalier by Bayerische Staatsoper at Carnegie Hall conducted by Kirill Petrenko. Appearances for Irish National Opera include Tisbe La Cenerentola [2019], Third Maid Elektra [2021] and in Cousser’s The Applause of Mount Parnassus at the Wigmore Hall with Ensemble Marsyas under the musical direction of Peter Whelan. In concert, Niamh has performed Elgar’s Sea Pictures at the Prinzregententheater as part of the Munich Festspiele in July 2019 and has sang both Mozart’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah with the Müncher Hofkantorei. She also performed the main role of ‘Cain’ in Scarlatti’s Oratorio Il Primo Omicidio with The Jakobsplatz Orchester conducted by Daniel Grossmann. In the 2021-22 season, Niamh will make her Zurich Opera debut as Wellgunde Das Rheingold and for INO will appear as Asteria Bajazet at both the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, and across Ireland and as Mercédès Carmen. She will also make her Wexford Festival Opera debut as Paulina Ein Wintermarchen before making her debut with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra as Ghiva in Wallace’s Lurline. DEAN POWER Gary Irish tenor Dean Power is currently a member of the ensemble at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, where he has been resident since graduating from the company’s Opera Studio at the end of the 2011- 12 season. After ten years as an ensemble member, 20-21 will be his final season as he begins to expand upon his already growing career as an international solo guest artist. Dean is from Clarecastle, Ireland. He studied in Dublin with Mary Brennan and répétiteur Mairead Hurley at the
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PAGE 16<br />
THE FIRST CHILD<br />
CAIA LESEURE JOHN SHEEHY NIAMH O’SULLIVAN<br />
Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of<br />
Chicago, and holds a Master of Music<br />
degree from the Juilliard School of<br />
Music and a Bachelor of Music degree<br />
from University of Cincinnati College-<br />
Conservatory of Music.<br />
CAIA LESEURE<br />
Dancer<br />
Caia Leseure was born in Berlin in 2008<br />
to an Irish mother and French father<br />
so she has grown up speaking English,<br />
German and French. She spent a few<br />
years doing ballet classes and for the<br />
last few years, attends Berlin’s Sasha<br />
Waltz dance school. She has performed<br />
in their shows in the Berliner Festspiele<br />
and Radial V. She sings on two of Nina<br />
Hynes’ albums, ZAP! and Dancing<br />
Suns. She has a younger brother and<br />
spends her time between her home<br />
in Berlin and her father’s home in<br />
Brussels.<br />
JOAN SHEEHY<br />
Older Woman<br />
Joan Sheehy is from Granagh, Co.<br />
Limerick and has performed with all<br />
the leading Irish theatre companies<br />
and toured extensively, both nationally<br />
and internationally. Her most recent<br />
appearances have been in <strong>The</strong> Mai for<br />
Decadent <strong>The</strong>atre Company, Wringer in<br />
Bewley’s Cafe <strong>The</strong>atre, Bailegangaire<br />
for Livin’Dred <strong>The</strong>atre Company,<br />
Sacrifice at Easter for Corcadorca, Big<br />
Maggie for Druid, John Gabriel Borkman<br />
for the Abbey <strong>The</strong>atre and Woman<br />
and Scarecrow for Blood in the Alley<br />
<strong>The</strong>atre Company. She appeared in the<br />
Abbey <strong>The</strong>atre’s online initiatives, Dear<br />
Ireland and Home. Joan has directed<br />
some acclaimed productions, most<br />
recently, In the Middle of the Fields<br />
in Kilmallock, Co. Limerick , #Maura<br />
Laverty-This Was Your Life with Viking<br />
<strong>The</strong>atre, Whitby in the Bram Stoker<br />
Festival, <strong>The</strong> Match Box in Galway
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