Jennifer Davis 
Pat O’Kelly
Enthusiastic reviews greeted Co. Tipperary soprano Jennifer Davis following her recent Covent Garden debut as Elsa of Brabant in Wagner’s Lohengrin. Latvian diva Kristine Opolais was the scheduled Elsa in this new production that opened in June, but she withdrew from the staging relatively close to opening night.
Jennifer Davis, who is a member of the Royal Opera company, stepped into the breach with The Guardian critic commenting: “Davis is a lyric soprano with a bit of extra steel and [is] more than a plausible actor.”
Interestingly, Jennifer Davis graduated in English literature from UCD but taking the part of Yum-Yum in The Mikado in Clonmel turned her considered career in another direction. Guided by Colette McGahon at the DIT Conservatory, she graduated with first honours in her Masters of Vocal Performance degree.
A multiple Feis Ceoil winner in 2012, Jennifer received the National Concert Hall’s Bernadette Greevy Bursary and Wexford Festival’s Gerard Arnhold Prize for the most promising young singer in 2013. Further study in London led her into Opera Theatre Company’s Associate Artists’ programme and in 2015 to Covent Garden’s Jette Parker Young Artists’ Project.
Debut
Since then, Jennifer Davis has appeared in smaller roles at the Royal Opera House as well as making her debut with San Francisco Opera, English and Welsh National Operas and at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse.
Back home Jennifer Davis has been heard at Wexford, where she returns later this year, and has sung the Countess in Lyric Opera’s The Marriage of Figaro at the NCH.
There is a chance to hear Jennifer Davis again at the NCH on Tuesday, August 28 as part of the RTÉCO’s lunchtime concert. In arias by Mozart, Massenet, Delibes and Wagner, impressive young Dublin conductor Killian Farrell is joining her on the platform.
With an increasing number of our singers working abroad, it is marvellous to find two of them – mezzo Paula Murrihy and bass-baritone Padraic Rowan – engaged by this year’s prestigious Salzburg Festival.
Rostered for Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Co. Kerry-born Paula Murrihy studied with Anne Marie O’Sullivan at the DIT Conservatory before moving to the New England Conservatory. She was also an apprentice at Santa Fe and part of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Project.
While taking part in Frankfurt Opera’s Young Voices Competition, Paula was immediately invited to join the ensemble, with which she has undertaken an extensive number of roles. Paula has also returned to the US with opera appearances at Boston, San Francisco, St Louis and Los Angeles.
She made her Met debut as Stephano in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and Tebaldo in Verdi’s Don Carlo brought her Covent Garden debut.
Dubliner Padraic Rowan has been a member of Stuttgart Opera for some time. He studied with Mary Brennan and Brenda Hurley at the RIAM and took various Feis Ceoil awards, including the Dramatic Cup/Tony Quigley prize.
Padraic made his Glyndebourne Opera debut in 2013 and, following Jennifer Davis’ footsteps, received the NCH Bernadette Greevy Bursary in 2016. In Salzburg he is being heard in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea.
