The Hunger at Peter Jay Sharp Building

Underdog history comes to life through new music and old Irish songs in composer Donnacha Dennehy’s opera about the Great Famine of 1845-52, rooted in Asenath Nicholson’s harrowing first-person account in Annals of the Famine in Ireland. Featuring acclaimed ensemble Alarm Will Sound (Nonesuch Records at BAM, 2014 Next Wave) and celebrated Irish folk singer Iarla O? Liona?ird, The Hunger imagines soprano Katherine Manley as Nicholson and O? Liona?ird as the voice of the voiceless, with instrumentalists integrated into the staging. Old recordings of traditional sean-no?s songs dovetail seamlessly with Dennehy’s score, while video clips of interviews with Noam Chomsky, Paul Krugman, and others underscore the political roots of this tragedy that brought a nation to its knees.