When this double bill of new Irish operas premiered in the US last year it met with instant acclaim. Now Irish National Opera and Kilkenny Arts Festival are thrilled to bring these two extraordinary works to Kilkenny for their European premiere.

Experimental composer Emma O’Halloran adapts two of her uncle Mark O’Halloran’s plays about damaged and compelling characters. In Mary Motorhead, a woman serving a sentence for murder explores the disappointments and betrayals that shaped her life; while in Trade, two men meet for sex in a Dublin hotel room but find themselves drawn into the most unexpected encounter of their lives. 

Directed by Tom Creed and combining dramatic text with live orchestral score and electronic sounds, Trade/Mary Motorhead is a pair of must-see works that redefine what opera can be.

Librettist Mark O'Halloran
Composer Emma O'Halloran