Danielle de Niese Pat O’Kelly
A recent report, commissioned by RTÉ and undertaken by the BBC’s Helen Boaden in conjunction with consulting firm Mediatique, has recommended that, while the RTÉ Concert Orchestra should remain within the fold of the broadcaster, the National Symphony Orchestra should become an entity in its own, outside of RTÉ.
The April report suggested bringing the NSO under the umbrella of the National Concert Hall, which has been the orchestra’s base since the NCH opened in 1981. This is now the preferred option, with the Government giving its approval to the proposal.
The timing of the transfer remains an open question with considerable implications requiring close examination and resolution. It is to be hoped the orchestra’s permanent staffing will be restored to the levels at which it stood over 20 years ago and indeed be increased to full symphonic strength – something also promised in the 1990s but never implemented.
Retirements
The NSO has seen a number of retirements and resignations over the past year, including its leader Helena Woods, and these and a number of other rank and file vacancies remained unfilled. It should also be remembered the NSO has not had a principal conductor since Alan Buribayev’s contract ended in 2016.
But before any move, the NSO needs to be placed on a sound financial footing with its musicians enjoying positions with safe and secure terms of employment. Besides, performances outside the capital together with a reappraisal of its educational programmes also need to be carefully examined and, if necessary, expanded.
How the NCH and NSO management teams will coalesce will, no doubt, present its own difficulties but hopefully these will be resolved in the best interests of the staffs of both bodies as well as that of the cultural life of the country as a whole.
Although the NSO’s ‘subscription season’ concluded at the end of May, the orchestra continues at the NCH with a series of Tuesday lunchtime and Friday evening concerts. These offer an eclectic mix of programmes including celebrations of Nat King Cole, Hollywood’s leading ladies, and Swingin’ with the Symphony.
These ‘letting one’s hair down events’ will conclude on Friday, July 27, after which the NSO begins its well-earned holiday, with a return to Dublin of ‘opera’s coolest soprano’ – Danielle de Niese.
Melbourne-born to Sri Lankan immigrant parents, the precociously talented Danielle had her first triumph at the age of nine singing a Whitney Houston medley in a TV competition. Her winner’s prize included a Yamaha piano that she still owns.
Moving to Los Angeles brought further TV appearances but more importantly found her at the Colburn School of the Performing Arts and securing a scholarship to New York’s Mannes College of Music.
The youngest ever singer to participate in the Metropolitan Opera’s Young Artists’ Studio, Danielle made her Met debut aged 19 in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in 1998. Love blossomed following her sensational 2005 debut as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare at the Glyndebourne Festival.
Four years later, Diva de Niese married Glyndebourne’s owner and director, Gus Christie. The rest is history.