Trade/Mary Motorhead

Naomi Louisa O'Connell in Mary Motorhead. Photo by Ros Kavanagh

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Two issues inform much of opera’s history; its tense relationship with realism and how best to marry a museum past with works speaking to a modern future. Both questions front and centre in Irish National Opera’s brave double bill Trade and Mary Motorhead. In which life’s gritty realism enjoys an uneasy relationship with realism as artistic convention. Composed by Emma O’Halloran, with libretti by her uncle, Mark O’Halloran, based on two of his plays, both short operas enjoyed critical acclaim when first performed Stateside in 2019 (Mary Motorhead) and 2022 (Trade). Receiving their Irish premiere as part of Kilkenny Arts Festival 2024, the O’Halloran double act certainly serves up something unique. Opening cracks in verismo that allows light stream through. Even as many might be left operatically underwhelmed.

Naomi Louisa O'Connell in Mary Motorhead. Photo by Ros Kavanagh

To some, the O’Halloran’s make for an odd choice, with neither particularly experienced in opera. Yet from the mouths of these opera babes spring truths and challenges. Beginning with Mary Motorhead, a modest character sketch about a woman incarcerated in Mountjoy prison for murder. A soliloquy in which a Midlands Mary moves to Dublin, makes a friend and marries a man named Red. Lyrics serving up retro exposition about her sex, drugs and a rock ’n’ roll lifestyle. Emotional resonance achieved by way of powerful singing from mezzo soprano Naomi Louisa O’Connell, whose voice as expressive instrument and interpreter of lyrics proves breathtaking. O’Connell transforming Mary from bad girl with a half baked backstory into something exciting. But only up to a point. Like Emma O’Halloran’s eclectic score, informed by Alex Dowling’s electronic sound design and David Sheppard’s sound design, it all leans into safety. Utilising everything from tribal rhythms to goth styled, synth-pop, there’s little suggestive of that dirty, sexy danger of a magisterial Motorhead, be that Lemmy or Mary. O’Connell strutting like Joan Jett rather than Courtney Love. Dressed in Montana Levi Blanco’s leather trousered, goth queen black showing a flicker of prison blue chic. The result less Bad Girls so much as Jailhouse Rock. A wild tale in which wildness is constantly tamed. Director Tom Creed reining in what might have been better released, or allowed be a little louder, madder and badder. Creed never looking entirely comfortable in the heart of darkness as O’Connell’s rage rises to a threatening growl but rarely a roar. Yet another prison drama not seeming to agree with Creed. As with The Quare Fellow, set design by Jim Findlay and lighting by Christopher Kuhl escapes into cabaret sketch with kaleidoscopic lights, dry ice and comic book, crayon colours. Undermining realism’s physical and psychological potency. Flights of kitsch fancy sapping much of its power. O’Connell’s stunning singing and performance forgiving a multitude of such venial and mortal sins. Even so, if it came to a prison yard showdown, you’d still bet your cigarette ration on Electra.

Oisín Ó Dálaigh and John Molloy in Trade. Photo by Ros Kavanagh

If realism is again foregrounded in Trade, it struggles even as its conventions gain a more successful foothold. Often scored like a film soundtrack, Trade’s character study of an older man and younger rent boy meeting for sex sees talk of economy and silence proving somewhat exaggerated. Some judicious pruning of the libretto likely to have given music and singing greater impact at certain moments for letting the silence speak. Silence amounting to a lack of text and singing, but rarely, if ever, music. Emma O’Halloran’s score doing the emotional heavy lifting early on. Frequently coming in over the top of recitative-like singing as it reports a ton load of exposition. Establishing a hierarchy of music above text, with both towering over singing. A tension resolved by Creed who, as with Mark O’Halloran’s classic Conversations After Sex, excels with scenes of intimacy. Allowing sexual swaggering give way to uncomfortable honesty and connection. Creed frequently weaving music, lyric and voice into something sublime. Navigating the journey from recitative understatement to voices reclaiming full emotional expressiveness as efforts to talk it all better open old wounds. Delivering a bittersweet, gut punch of an ending having earlier landed several solid blows. Tenor Oisín Ó Dálaigh and bass-baritone John Molloy simply astonishing throughout. Their shy, understated moments more powerful for being contrasted with genuine snarls. Findlay’s design and  Kuhl’s lights hugely successful for adhering closer to the tenets of realism and finding its poetry.

John Molloy and Oisín Ó Dálaigh in Trade. Photo by Ros Kavanagh

If, structurally, Emma O’Halloran leans into soundtrack and musical theatre territory at times, especially in Trade, conductor Elaine Kelly is again extraordinary at plumbing musical depths with directness and subtlety. Ensuring Irish National Opera Orchestra’s amplified chamber ensemble unleash the full power of O’Halloran’s music. Never more so than during Ó Dálaigh and Molloy’s monologue styled solos which, musically and vocally, achieve that sought after frisson of music, text and voice in perfect accord. Yet, in both pieces, dramatic time and musical time don’t always play well together. Creating a weighted, ponderous feeling of motionlessness. Of going nowhere. Nothing much happening, in which recognised colloquialisms make for a surprise source of laughter. Trade and Mary Motorhead less musical stories so much as postcards from the operatic edge. Character or scene studies delivering gut punches after lots of standing around unlikely to win everyone over. As an operatic experiment, they yield much of worth, much to learn from, and some glorious, gorgeous moments. But do they speak enough to opera’s future? Is Mark O’Halloran’s trademark realism a good fit or too limiting? Is Emma O’Halloran music, which achieves moments of perfection with its loops, electronica and classical arrangements, capable of meeting the musical, emotional and lyrical demands of a full scale, modern opera?

Right back where we started. Dogged by the same old questions. Though a betting person would put their mortgage on Emma O’Halloran making waves in the future.

Trade/Mary Motorhead by Emma O’Halloran, libretti by Mark O’Halloran, presented by Irish National Opera, runs at Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny as part of Kilkenny Arts Festival until August 11 before undertaking a national tour

Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, as part of Dublin Theatre Festival, Oct 11-13

Cork Opera House, Oct 16

Siamsa Tíre, Tralee, Oct 19

Glór, Ennis, Oct 23

Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Oct 26

For more information visit Irish National Opera or Kilkenny Arts Festival 2024