Dance Limerick presents John Scott’s Divine Madness this March 15

Dance Limerick presents John Scott’s Divine Madness a special dance-opera piece this Friday, March 15. Picture: Ewa Figaszewska

Dance Limerick presents John Scott’s Divine Madness a special dance-opera piece this Friday, March 15

After its success at Project Arts Centre, Five Lamps Festival and Clonmel Junction Arts Festival, this special dance-opera piece comes to Dance Limerick for the first time.

Divine Madness is a dance-opera study of grief, revenge and love built around a soprano, three dancers and a live pianist. Divine Madness explores the physicality of the soprano in the context of dance; the singer explores her practice beyond the concert recital.

The sound score centres on using fragmented operatic extracts from arias in a context of exile, loss and revenge, including Ave Maria from Verdi’s Otello, Vissi d’Arte from Puccini’s Tosca, Morgen by Richard Strauss, O Mio Babbino Caro from Gianni Schicchi by Puccini, and None but the Lonely Heart (Op 6 No 6) by Tchaikovsky, among others.

We are performing Divine Madness at ⁦@DanceLimerick⁩ on March 15th with Limerick born soprano Mairead Buicke. One performance only. | Divine Madness – Dance Limerick https://t.co/1gaJ7MQBfY— John Scott (@johnscottdance) February 22, 2024

The piece is choreographed by Founder and Director of Irish Modern Dance Theatre John Scott. The Dublin-born choreographer, dancer and singer trained with the Irish National College of Dance / Dublin City Ballet, later studying with Pablo Vela, Meredith Monk and Susan Buirge.

Some of his key choreographic works include ‘Othello-maybe a dance’, ‘Cloud Study’, ‘Lear’, ‘Fall and Recover’ and ‘Actions’. He is the founder and curator of Dancer from the Dance Festival of Irish Choreography in New York and Dublin.

In Divine Madness, Scott brings together soprano Mairéad Buicke, dancers Magdalena Hylak, Hannah Rogerson, Mufutau Yusuf and pianist Aoife O’Sullivan.

Born in Limerick, Mairéad Buicke is an award-winning Irish operatic soprano. She has performed major roles with English National Opera, Grange Park Opera, Opera Theatre Company, and Mid Whales Opera. She has performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Orchestra of St Cecilia, the Ulster Chamber Orchestra, the English National Opera Orchestra, and the English Northern Philharmonia.

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