Carlingford couple hitting the high notes
Opera singers Nicola Mulligan and Gavan Ring have made it to the finals of the TG4’s Realta agus Gaolta which airs on Sunday night at 8.30pm.
The couple, who live in Carlingford with their two young daughters, are hoping to win the top prize of performing two concerts with country star Nathan Carter in The Waterfront, Belfast and Vicar Street, Dublin.
They are delighted that their operatic performances have gone down so well with both the adjudicators and viewers of the show which aims to find Ireland’s most talented family, with Gavan explaining that it gives them the chance to bring opera to a different audience.
Having performed ‘Nessun Dorma’ in the first heat, they then sang the duet The Prayer, made famous by Andre Bocelli and Celine Dion, in the semi-final.
‘It’s wonderful to be able to bring something operatic to TG4,’ says Gavan, who is looking forward to returning to Glydebourne this summer to make his debut as a tenor in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites.
He explains that the couple jumped at the opportunity to sing together on stage, as they don’t often get the chance to do so.
A native of Kerry, Gavan is a fluent Irish speaker so conversing in Irish posed no problems for him. In fact, he joins pianist Louise Thomas for a recital of newly commissioned songs in the Irish language by composers Ann Cleare, John Kinsella and Raymond Deane on Thursday night in Dublin’s National Concert Hall,
Nicola admits that was a bit of a challenge but she also enjoyed the experience of taking part in the show.
‘ There was a lot of chat in Irish so I was trying to remember what I had learned in school.’
Nicola is the director and principal teacher of the Cooley Singing Academy which the couple launched last autumn. ‘ The school is going really well,’ she says, adding that she is delighted with the enthusiasm of the pupils, many of whom are studying for their Royal Irish Academy of Music exams.
There will be a big contingent of supports from Kerry and Louth going to the RTE studios on Sunday night to cheer them on, while others have been enlisted for babysitting duties, although no doubt their young daughters Clara and Ava will be allowed to sit up late to see how their Mammy and Daddy fare.