Ulster Youth Opera presents: Finn McCool

Presentation

INSPIRATION

Northern Ireland (NI) is the only UK nation without a conservatoire, and its national opera company runs no sustained education programme comparable to Welsh National Youth Opera. Northern Ireland contains some of the most deprived areas in the UK — with Belfast and Derry/Strabane home to more deprived neighbourhoods than any other UK local authority (Queen's University Belfast, 2025) — limiting young people's access to opera. Since 2023, Ulster Touring Opera has addressed this through Youth Opera: in 2025-26, 95% of parents saw a change in their child's confidence and 100% wanted more opportunities like it.

ARTISTIC VISION

Building on UTO's programme of commissioning family operas, most recently Aesop's Fables, Finn McCool is a new 20 minute children's opera with music and libretto by Ivor Novello Award-winning composer Brian Irvine, inviting young people to become active participants in creating and performing new opera.

The production brings together seven professional singers, the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble and a youth chorus of 50+ young people aged 8-18. From September 2027, participants in Belfast and Enniskillen take part in free weekly creative workshops, with the Allegri Junior and Youth Choirs in Derry joining from January 2028 to form one combined chorus for the staged premiere at Belfast Children's Festival in March 2028, sharing the stage with professional artists. The work will then be adapted into a flexible touring version with an educational resource pack, enabling performances in Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools across NI, where participation can be tailored to each school.

THE STORY

Finn McCool, the giant of Irish legend, built the Giant's Causeway to confront his Scottish rival Benandonner — until his quick-thinking wife Oonagh disguised him as a baby, sending the terrified giant fleeing home. As with all fables, the narrative layer reveals deeper psychological and social questions around place, identity and community.

Artistic Team

Brian Irvine (Composer, Northern Ireland). 4 time Ivor Novello Award-winning composer whose eclectic, joyful and immediate musical language is ideally suited to young performers and first-time opera audiences. Selected for his standing as one of the UK's leading contemporary composers and his deep roots in Northern Ireland's musical life, Brian will also write the libretto himself, giving the work a single unified creative voice that combines adventure, humour and local storytelling to make Finn McCool's legend vivid for children. Tom Deazley (Director, Northern Ireland). An emerging director at an early and formative stage of his career, Tom directs the production, building on his role as a facilitator on UTO's 2025-26 Youth Opera programme and bringing direct experience of creating staged work with the young people at the centre of this project. Jonathan Mann (Conductor, United Kingdom). Conducts the premiere performances and company rehearsals, leading professional singers, ensemble and youth chorus as one. Diana Ennis (Designer and Mask Maker, Northern Ireland). Designs the production and its masks, built for reuse across both the festival and touring versions. Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble (Northern Ireland). NI's leading contemporary music ensemble provides five instrumentalists, continuing a partnership proven on Aesop's Fables. Allegri Junior and Youth Choirs (Derry, Northern Ireland). A 32-strong community choir founded in 2017, forming the Derry cohort of the youth chorus. Seven professional singers (three principals, four cover/chorus support) will be cast through open auditions in 2027, prioritising emerging artists from the island of Ireland — supporting FEDORA's commitment to under-recognised talent. The team is completed by production manager Ross McDade, a producer, repetiteur, education specialist and trained artistic facilitators, alongside the 50+ young people of the youth chorus — the project's true emerging artists.

Partners