A new opera partially based on the life of Savita Halappanavar will premier in Kilkenny this summer.
Custom of the Coast, with lyrics by Irish poet Paul Muldoon and based on his book of the same name, will be performed during the Kilkenny Arts Festival in August. Music for the work is by Indian-American composer Kamala Sankaram and combines Irish and Indian traditional music.
Muldoon’s book and opera tells the story of the 18th-century Cork-born pirate Anne Bonny, one of the very few female pirates in recorded history, who spent her career terrorising the Caribbean. Bonny is believed to have escaped death by hanging — the mandatory sentence for piracy at the time — by ‘pleading her belly’, or asking for clemency on the grounds that she was pregnant.
He links and contrasts Bonny’s story with that of Savita Halappanavar, whose death in 2012, due in part to the restrictive anti-abortion regime in Ireland at the time, ignited the campaign which led to the repeal of the 8th Amendment.
Custom of the Coast will premiere at St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, on August 8. The performance will feature soprano Anchal Dhir and mezzo-soprano Michelle O’Rourke, with music by Crash Ensemble and accordionist Danny O’Mahony.
