The Wire

Dublin-based soprano Elizabeth Hilliard delivers an astonishing performance of Gráinne Mulvey’s intense and impassioned song of praise for Irish women, who have led a struggle against the manifold oppressions of patriarchy. While the libretto celebrates, through their own words, figures ranging from dedicated revolutionary Constance Markievicz to former President Mary Robinson, Hilliard draws on a startling range of sung, spoken and otherwise uttered vocal sounds to communicate the concentrated energies, persistent risks and inherent tensions of their struggle.

Great Women also incorporates a tape with multiple layers where Hilliard’s wonderfully adaptable voice is spatialised and also appears in processed form, its convulsions and contortions heightening the pervasive air of urgency that Mulvey’s piece so effectively conveys.

—Julain Cowley