• Finola Merivale
  • February 2024
  • Nationwide Tour

Out of the Ordinary
As an nGnách

LOOK BEHIND YOU

A virtual reality community opera about winning/losing society’s battle for survival. Your in-the-moment reactions decide what ending you will see.

Winner of Fedora Digital Prize 2021.

Sung in Irish and English with subtitles for both.

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“Experienced through a virtual-reality headset, this is opera like you’ve never encountered it before . . . Finola Merivale composed her spare, eighteen-minute score for two singers, small chamber ensemble and two amateur choirs. Its haunting power is as unforgiving as the story, a myth-like allegory of the relationship between humanity and the environment it endangers.” - Michael Dungan, The Irish Times
“… the real draw is the VR animation, which works very effectively in tandem with Merivale’s music.” - Adrian Smith, The Journal of Music

Cast & Creative Team

Performers

Soprano Daire Halpin
Mezzo-soprano Naomi Louisa O'Connell
Tallaght Choral Society and Community Choir
Inis Meáin Community Choir
Violin Larissa O'Grady
Viola Gawain Usher
Cello Yseult Cooper Stockdale
Double Bass Aura Stone
Flute Susan Doyle
Clarinet Seamus Wylie
Out of the Ordinary Community Musicians

Creative Team

Community participants from Inis Meáin, Tallaght and south county Dublin and students living in rural Ireland
Composer Finola Merivale
Conductor Nil Venditti
Director Jo Mangan
Librettist Jody O'Neill
VR Producers Virtual Reality Ireland
VR Creative Producers Algorithm
Chorus Masters Lynsey Callaghan, Molly de Búrca, Mary Claire Ryan
Répétiteurs Patrice Keegan, Edward Holly

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