The Curing Line, Winner of the FEDORA Opera Prize 2025, Premieres in Kilkenny this August

Back to News

Details

23 June 2026

Kilkenny / Ireland

FEDORA Prizes

We are proud to celebrate the upcoming world premiere of The Curing Line, winner of the FEDORA Opera Prize 2025, supported by The Silver Company, at the Kilkenny Arts Festival on 6 August 2026.


Led by Straymaker, created by Michael Gallen and co-directed by Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern, The Curing Line is a bold new opera that explores healing, cultural memory, inheritance and environmental change through a story rooted in Ireland’s ancient tradition of “making cures”. Blending opera, traditional music, electronic soundscapes and immersive storytelling, the work offers a distinctive artistic experience that reimagines the possibilities of contemporary opera.

The opera is preparing to meet audiences across Europe:


📍 Performance Dates

  • 6–9 August 2026 – Kilkenny Arts Festival (Kilkenny, Ireland) Buy Tickets

  • 26–27 September 2026 – Opéra national du Rhin – Cité de la Musique et de la Danse (CMD) (Strasbourg, France) Buy Tickets

  • 27–28 November 2026 – Théâtre de la Ville (Paris, France) Buy Tickets


Through its unique fusion of tradition and experimentation, the project invites audiences to reflect on the relationship between heritage, community and the challenges of our time.

We warmly congratulate Straymaker, the artistic team and all the partners as well as supporters involved in bringing this visionary project to the stage, and we look forward to following its journey across Europe.

The FEDORA Prizes Biennale competition is funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Commission.

With the support of

"The Curing Line", led by Straymaker - Winner of the FEDORA Opera Prize 2025

Peering through the prism of Ireland’s indigenous traditions of “making cures”, The Curing Line considers whether, in thinking of the human and the environment as separate, we are failing to acknowledge that fundamental parts of ourselves and our culture are becoming extinct...

Winner Interviews - The Curing Line - Winner of the FEDORA Opera Prize 2025

We congratulate “The Curing Line”, led by Straymaker on winning the FEDORA Opera Prize 2025!                                         


  

Hand_with_heart_-_white

Support sustainable innovation in opera and dance

Outdated browser

For a better experience,
keep your browser up to date.

Learn more