MY CULTURAL LIFE
Sarah Power, soprano
Bray-born soprano Sarah Power studied at the DIT Conservatory of Music & Drama in Dublin and the National Opera Studio in London before moving to Glasgow to work for Scottish Opera as an emerging artist. She has been awarded many prizes, including the RDS €10,000 Bursary and second prize in the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Competition at the Wigmore Hall in London. She has sung for and with Kiri Te Kanawa, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo and was also a soloist in a song cycle which was nominated for the Turner Prize for Art. She lives in Glasgow with her husband Rob (from Greystones) and their toddler James. She is currently performing the role of Euridice for Irish National Opera in a national tour of Ireland with the Gluck opera about love, Orfeo ed Euridice. irishnationalopera.ie
Film: Hidden Figures
Based on a true story, it’s about three brilliant female mathematicians who overcame racial and gender discrimination at Nasa in the 1960s. They went on to play vital roles in the US space programme which launched astronaut John Glenn into orbit.
Band: Postmodern Jukebox
One of my favourite bands is Postmodern Jukebox and I was lucky enough to see them perform in Glasgow last year. They call themselves a rotating musical collective, by which they mean that they feature different singers each time they perform. They take popular modern songs and give them a vintage twist, for example Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance sung with a 1920s Great Gatsby flavour or Rihanna’s Umbrella performed as if it were a number from Singin’ in the Rain, complete with tap dancers.
Artwork: The House Builders
The two little girls in this picture appear to have all the time in the world to play with their cards, and their lives are untouched by modern technology and the stresses of adult life. I didn’t know much about the artist, Walter Osborne, until recently. He was born in Rathmines in 1859 and was highly regarded for his paintings, but tragically died in his early 40s before he could achieve his full potential. The House Builders currently hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland for anyone who would like to go and see it.
Design: National Opera House
The National Opera House in Wexford is a fantastic building. I sang in the old opera house when I was very young and, atmospheric though it was, it was also dark and cramped with pretty poor backstage facilities. In contrast the new building is bright, modern, spacious and bold and has every amenity a performer might need, including a
stunning auditorium.
Book: The Century Trilogy
I enjoyed The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett so much I’ve read them all twice. My Dad was a history teacher and he and I are both fascinated by books about war. The first book, Fall of Giants, introduces us to five fictional families living through World War I, and in the following two books we follow their progress and that of their descendents as they cope with the horrors and challenges of World War II and the Cold War.