The Curing Line, by the Irish composer Michael Gallen, has won the €100,000 Fedora Prize, the world’s largest award for new opera.
The biennial prize, which was presented at Vienna State Opera on Saturday, was awarded by a jury that included the directors of the Paris Opera, Dutch National Opera, Danish National Theatre and Aix-en-Provence Festival. Fedora is a European circle of philanthropists who support opera and ballet.
In presenting the award to Gallen, to the American choreographer Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern – who also directed the work with Gallen – and to the producer Maura O’Keeffe, the president of Fedora, Stéphane Argyropoulos, said that The Curing Line “redefines the operatic genre by fusing tradition with multimedia innovation”.
The opera, which draws on research into the Irish tradition of “making cures”, tells the story of a woman who loses the capacity to use her life-saving ancestral healing power. It asks whether, in regarding the human and the environment as separate, we are failing to acknowledge that fundamental parts of ourselves and our culture are becoming extinct.
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The Swedish mezzo-soprano Birgitta Svendén, who chaired the jury, said, “Here and now, the world is experiencing a turbulent and rather chaotic time. The theme for The Curing Line is more relevant than ever. What can we do as individuals, as communities, what can we learn from history and inherited traditions, how can we acknowledge the change we have to go through without losing hope for the future generations?
“The Curing Line will address many of the questions that we as human beings are faced with and do not have the answers for. This project is deeply immersive and multisensorial, which gives the possibility to expand the boundaries of opera. The narrative, the musical language and the staging will resonate to the audience of tomorrow.”
Gallen, whose opera Elsewhere was nominated for the Fedora Prize in 2021, said at the ceremony that “for our independent, artist-led work to be selected as the winner of the award gives us a huge rush of affirmation that will carry us forward not just with this project but with all of our future plans and ambitions”.
[ Elsewhere review: Agitprop opera combines the serious and the comicOpens in new window ]
Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan said, “We are all very proud that Straymaker, a small company from the west of Ireland led by Michael Gallen, has been awarded this honour. I want to sincerely congratulate all involved.”
The director of the Arts Council, Maureen Kennelly, also congratulated Gallen and his collaborators. “In recent years we have been honoured to support his work in many ways, and we are delighted that this award will bring an even wider audience to his ground-breaking work. Opera in Ireland is going through a very exciting period as exemplified by Michael’s visionary work.”
Gallen, who was born in Monaghan and now lives in Co Mayo with his wife and son, wrote the libretto for The Curing Line, which is in Irish and English, with the poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin. The opera is produced by Straymaker in association with Kilkenny Arts Festival, the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris, Miroirs Étendus, Once Off Productions and Copenhagen Opera Festival.
Its development has been supported by the Arts Council and Creative Monaghan, and the premiere is planned for Kilkenny Arts Festival in August 2026.
Gallen’s other recent commissions include new work for Radio France, the National Orchestra of Brittany, the Irish National Symphony Orchestra and Ulster Orchestra. A new album of his songs, Sudden Wells, is due for release in 2026.
