• January 2021
  • Dublin

The Four
Note Opera

Update: These performances have been postponed due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions and will be re-scheduled for a future date.

The recipe. One pianist. Four singers. Four notes. Add a witty, self-aware text.

Singers revealing their innermost private thoughts. Indulging in personal rivalries. Turning the world of opera inside out. The result is Tom Johnson’s 1972 classic, The Four Note Opera, which takes the fears and foibles of opera stars as the starting point for a musical equivalent of Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. But with four singers. And four notes. And sounding as fresh as it did when new.

SUNG IN ENGLISH

“Part absurdist, part minimalist, part satiric and part simple comedy” - Tom Johnson on The Four Note Opera
“Mr Johnson’s 65-minute score sticks to four notes of the scale — A, B, D and E — but he has employed them so ingeniously that the music never gets boring” - The New York Times
“Four Notes, One Hit, No Errors . . . Tom Johnson has done a first-rate piece of work, and turned out a small gem that is like nothing else in the world” - New York Magazine

Cast and Creative Team

Cast

Kelli-Ann Masterson Soprano
Bríd Ní Ghruagáin Mezzo-soprano
Andrew Gavin Tenor
Rory Dunne Baritone
David Howes Bass-baritone

Creative Team

Richard McGrath Music Director
Sarah Baxter Director
Maree Kearns Designer

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