back to
Cantaloupe Music
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Last Hotel

by Donnacha Dennehy

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Six panel double-gatefold CD package designed by Denise Burt and including the full libretto and featuring photography by Sky Arts/Landmark Productions/Wide Open Opera/Blink Films.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Last Hotel via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 USD or more 

     

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
It's me 00:48
6.
Breathe deep 07:24
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
It may pass 02:57
17.
18.
19.
Let me leave 02:40
20.
21.

about

Reviewing the world premiere in Edinburgh of composer Donnacha Dennehy and playwright Enda Walsh’s opera The Last Hotel, The Guardian’s Kate Molleson was smitten by “a dark drama in which death hangs over every move – the titular hotel is a shabby establishment where guests go to kill themselves.”

That description alone is all the listener needs to appreciate the visceral energy of the performances captured here by Claudia Boyle, Robin Adams, Katherine Manley and actor Mikel Murfi (whose presence as the silent Porter is more implied than directly felt), all ably supported by the agile, dynamic sound of Ireland’s renowned Crash Ensemble, conducted by Alan Pierson.

“It’s great to work with someone like Enda, who’s a genius in his own field,” Dennehy observed in an interview shortly before the premiere. “The opera is about an English couple who arrive in Ireland to meet this Irish woman, and basically as it goes on, you realize that the Irish woman wants to kill herself, with their assistance. But it’s incredibly funny in places, despite the tragic subject matter.”

In the true spirit of modern musical theater, which has consistently pushed against the boundaries of what constitutes “opera” in the traditional Western classical sense, The Last Hotel merges the grit and gall of experimental theater and independent arthouse films with the crackling trajectory of post-classical chamber music. It’s a multivalent work that reunites Dennehy and Walsh, two of Ireland’s leading creative lights, in a collaborative triumph that recalls the poignancy and power of their work together on Walsh’s Misterman, which starred actor Cillian Murphy and garnered rave reviews in Galway, London and New York.

Ultimately, The Last Hotel is the first in a trilogy of operas planned between Dennehy and Walsh. The Second Violinist (2017), their second opera together, won the Fedora-Generali Prize for Opera in Salzburg, and has received critically acclaimed productions in Ireland and the UK already. It travels to the Netherlands in March 2019 as part of Dutch National Opera’s Opera Forward Festival in Amsterdam. Dennehy and Walsh are now collaborating on the final opera of their trilogy, The First Child.

credits

released March 15, 2019

This recording of The Last Hotel is culled from a 2017 live performance at Les Théâtres de la Ville in Luxembourg, with additional recording and mixing done at Teldex Studio Berlin.

Claudia Boyle, woman
Robin Adams, husband
Katherine Manley, wife
Mikel Murfi, porter

Donnacha Dennehy, composer
Enda Walsh, writer & director

Alan Pierson, conductor (recording)
André de Ridder, conductor (premiere)
Sophie Motley, associate director

Crash Ensemble
Alan Pierson, conductor
Cora Venus Lunny, violin
Courtney Orlando, violin
Lisa Dowdall, viola
Kate Ellis, cello
Malachy Robinson, double bass
Lina Andonovska, flute, piccolo, tenor recorder
Deirdre O’Leary, clarinet, bass clarinet
Roderick O’Keeffe, trombone
Owen Gunnell, percussion
Andrew Zolinsky, piano
John Godfrey, electric guitar, sampler
Dermot Dunne, accordion

Commissioned and produced by Landmark Productions and Irish National Opera

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Donnacha Dennehy Princeton, New Jersey

Donnacha Dennehy’s music has been featured in festivals and venues around the world. Returning to Ireland after studies abroad, principally at the University of Illinois, Dennehy founded Crash Ensemble, Ireland’s now-renowned new music group. He joined the music faculty at Princeton University in 2014. In recent years, Dennehy has concentrated especially on large-scale musico-dramatic works. ... more

contact / help

Contact Donnacha Dennehy

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Donnacha Dennehy, you may also like: