RTÉ lyric fm will celebrate the life of Tralee soprano Miriam Murphy with two special programmes during the August Bank Holiday.

Miriam Murphy passed away last Friday and left her family, the opera community and the people of Tralee and beyond, shocked at the loss of such a wonderful person and talent.

Lyric FM broadcaster, Paul Herriott said; “So many wonderful memories of Miriam Murphy but we got to know her rather more personally over the years through The Lyric Concert. One of the most striking, a performance of the Wesendonck Lieder with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthias Bamert as part of an evening devoted to Wagner, music to which she was so perfectly suited.

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Inspired, professional and brilliant, Miriam was a pleasure to work with. She was the first Irish soprano to sing the role of Isolde and that Wide Open Opera production of ‘Tristan and Isolde’ conducted by Fergus Sheil and featuring the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra will be broadcast on Opera Night on Saturday 1st August at 7pm. Before that at 6pm, a lyric feature documentary from 2012, Re-Imagining Opera: Taking on Tristan, charts the birth of the new opera company and documents its production of Tristan and Isolde through rehearsals to opening night”.

On Saturday, August 1 on RTE lyric fm, from 7pm to 10.45pm,  there will be an Opera Night with Paul Herriott dedicated to Miriam’s memory.

This will feature a Wide Open Opera production of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde starring Miriam Murphy as Isolde and featuring the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fergus Sheil. Listen live or listen back www.rte.ie/lyricfm/opera-night

Preceding that programme, from 6pm to 7pm, there will be a broadcast of ‘Re-Imagining Opera: Taking on Tristan’.  This charts the birth of a new opera company, Wide Open Opera and documents its production of Tristan and Isolde from rehearsals through to opening night. Listen live or listen back www.rte.ie/lyricfm/the-lyric-feature

THE death has taken place yesterday of renowned soprano Miriam Murphy.

Tralee native Ms Murphy passed away in London, where she was based. As a child she began singing in choirs in town and attended the Kerry School of Music.

She was also taught by Veronica Dunne in Dublin before travelling to London in 1995 to further her studies.

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She went on to have a stellar career in the opera world singing roles at some of the world’s top opera houses. She sang with the Opéra national de Paris, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Seattle Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, ABAO Bilbao Opera and Opéra de Lille among others.

A post on the Kerry School of Music facebook page this morning reads; “Deeply shocked and overwhelmed with sadness to learn of the sudden death yesterday afternoon of outstanding Kerry School alumna and life-long friend Miriam Murphy. Miriam’s association with KSM goes back more than nearly forty years when she was first encouraged to take singing lessons at the school. The rest, as is said, is history. Our deepest sympathy to her mother Marie, brother John, aunts and extended family. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.”