John O'Brien: 'Story about fate' inspires new production in Cork Opera House

Composer John O'Brien shares an insight with Cathy Desmond into his new opera with Éadaoin O'Donoghue, including his lockdown note-swapping at a grotto with Morrígan's conductor

Irish mythology inspired John O’Brien's latest work, Morrígan, at Cork Opera House. Picture: Jed Niezgoda

It’s hot and sticky on Joe Murphy Road, in Ballyphehane on a midweek afternoon and the mood is highly charged. A fierce battle is in progress; axes are wielded and there is vigorous sword action all played out to the primal growl of not one but two bass drums. A visceral, action-packed scene in a new opera is in rehearsal.

Morrígan is a new opera by composer/librettist team John O’Brien and Éadaoin O’Donoghue and the production, while not Wagnerian in scale, is more ambitious than their first opera, a setting of Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose staged by the Everyman in 2018.