Giving voice to one of Munster’s greatest singers

Sarah Dolan was raised in her family’s music venue in Limerick, and is intent on reviving the memory of the ‘Hibernian Prima Donna’, writes Cathy Desmond

In a Californian mining town, there is a ‘Katy Hayes Street’, a reminder of the furore Irish woman Catherine Hayes created when she sang for gold rush miners in 1851. Grass Valley, Nevada, was a stop on her American tour sponsored by the ‘greatest showman’ himself, PT Barnum.

It is just one episode in the extraordinary rags-to-riches life story of Hayes, known as the Hibernian Prima Donna. The singing sensation of the Victorian era sang all over the world for royalty and presidents and was celebrated in the great opera houses such as Covent Garden and La Scala, Milan. Although she was as famous in her day as the “Swedish Nightingale” Jenny Lind, her name has all but disappeared from Ireland’s known history.

Almost two centuries later, soprano Sarah Dolan has plans to change that. The young Limerick lady, who herself enjoys a growing international reputation and divides her time between her home town and Seattle, has joined forces with the Hunt Museum to plan a series of events to reintroduce the Catherine Hayes story.

“I first came across Catherine Hayes even before I began studying singing at college,” says Dolan. “I was asked to sing some of her repertoire at a Civic Trust lecture. I was enthralled by this woman who travelled all over the world to Europe, Canada,

America, Australia and India with her mother at a time when it would take a week to travel from Limerick to Dublin.

She was inspirational to me. She is such an important part of our heritage and I didn’t want to let the 200th anniversary pass without giving her the recognition she deserves. She was just 42 when she died — a short but incredible life

The Hunt Museum came on board as a partner and a new commercial development in the city near Hayes’s birthplace is to be named the Opera Centre in her memory.

Born into impoverished circumstances in Limerick City in 1818, Hayes’s remarkable singing voice was noticed at an early age and with the help of a local clergyman, she began studying in Dublin eventually making her way to teachers in Paris and Milan before launching her globe-trotting career.

Central to the celebrations is a gala concert which will take place in St Mary’s Cathedral. Joining Dolan are tenor Patrick Hyland, the Voices of Limerick Choir and a 30-piece orchestra under the baton of Sinead Hayes.

The programme includes selections from operas by Donizetti and Verdi, and Irish songs by Thomas Moore and George Osborne, who was organist in St Mary’s Cathedral during Hayes’s lifetime.

It will also include Hayes’s party piece, ‘Kathleen Mavourneen’, a Rebellion song which she cheekily sang as an encore in a royal command performance for Queen Victoria.

This Irish repertoire is one that Dolan says is ingrained in her.

Anytime I sing this Irish classical repertoire in the States, whether they have Irish connections or not the poetry really seems to touch people

The daughter of Mick and Valerie Dolan, the flame-haired soprano grew up surrounded by music in the family’s popular live music in Limerick, cutting her performing teeth at a young age.

“I’ve been singing since I was a kid. I started my craft in Dolans where I’d get up and sing an auld song at the sessions . I was lucky to meet so many musicians and grow as a musician by listening to other people.”

Other events to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Catherine Hayes include; an exhibition on her life and career at the Hunt Museum; a video installation documenting Hayes’s life projected onto the façade of her birthplace at 4 Patrick St, playing snippets from her repertoire (the video-installation will also be available on line); and a pre-concert supper at the Hunt Museum.

Details of the Catherine Hayes 200 events: www.huntmuseum.ie