Irish mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty has 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 has been an Artistic Partner to Irish National Opera since the company began in 2018. She was 2023/2024 Artist in residence for the Irish Chamber Orchestra and is Director of the Sligo Baroque Festival.  

Her opera repertoire includes important lyric and coloratura mezzosoprano roles, such as Hänsel, Dido, Ruggiero, Dorabella, Cherubino, Ariodante, Orfeo (Gluck) and Sesto (Handel).  Career highlights to date include London and Amsterdam opera debuts with The Second Violinist at the Barbican Theatre, and 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 Italian debut at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, where she premiered a new opera, Proserpine by Silvia Colasanti, to critical acclaim.

Recent highlights included a Northern Irish tour of Boccherini’s Stabat Mater with the FewsEnsemble, a recital with Fiachra Garvey in the Walled City Music Festival Derry, and Dorabella in INO’s production of Cosi fan tutte; a concert tour of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the opening concert of the Sligo Baroque Festival, Mozart and George Benjamin in Nîmes, and Sesto for Blackwater Valley Opera. In 2024 she released a CD of songs of C.V.Stanford with pianist Finghin Collins for the SOMM label, to celebrate the centenary of the composer’s death, as well as concerts in Ireland, Germany and Switzerland.  

www.sharoncarty.com

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Conor Hanratty is a theatre and opera director from Dublin. He trained with Rough Magic’s SEEDS programme and at UCLA, and spent two years in Tokyo studying with the director Ninagawa Yukio. Recent productions include Die Fledermaus (Florida Grand Opera), Once (reviving John Tiffany's Broadway production in Seoul, South Korea), The Critic (Wexford Festival Opera), La Boheme (Cork Opera House, Caherciveen). Last summer he played Oscar Wilde in In Extremis at Bewleys Cafe Theatre. For Classics Now he conceived and directed Persians - The Podcast Unplugged (Abbey Theatre, on the Peacock Stage) and directed Eurydice and Orpheus at the National Concert Hall.