Singer Niall Morris’s love of operatic music began at the age of 11, when he was appointed head choirboy at his local church in Dublin.

Now, having produced sell-out shows on the lives of characters such as Maria Callas and Puccini, he says that opera is more accessible than we might think.

“A lot of people might be put off by the word opera, but loads and loads of the tunes are recognisable from films. Like Philadelphia, that incredible film, featured Maria Callas, the whole way through. So people recognise it, but they are also engaged with the story so they don’t have to sit through the long parts of opera that they are less familiar with,” he explains.

The former Celtic Tenor left the group he helped found in 2007 to devote his career to producing and directing opera.

“I took a break for a year and I landed this job with Opera Ireland, and that opened up the whole producing side to me. That’s where I realised I wanted to be: producing and directing,” he explains.

“The first one I did was about the life of Maria Callas, who was this tragic opera star who got involved with the richest man in the world, Aristotle Onassis. It was an incredible story. When I decided to tell the story for the stage, it was just one of those things that took off. I think it sold out around 15 times in the National Concert Hall,” adds Niall.

Early beginnings

Niall says “all his training” as a boy singer came from his time singing in the choir of St Bartholomew’s Church. He went on to receive a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music in London.

“For a while I thought I was going to stay in London. I kind of thought: ‘This is my new home; I’ll live here now.’ I got to an age when I was 30 and I thought: ‘I’m going back home,’” he says.

“It’s very hard to make an impression [in London]. Some of the early breaks were really, really big, like I did a Grammy-nominated recording and I had some world premieres. When I came back to live here, I remember my mother saying it was stupid, why would I come back?

“After seven or eight months of coming back here, the Celtic Tenors got signed with EMI Classics. It was around the time Riverdance was big. I don’t believe that would have happened if I was living in London,” he adds.

Niall believes that Ireland is a great place for those hoping to make a career in the creative arts.

“There are certainly a lot less opportunities [than London], this is true. But the world is a smaller place,” he says. “You can jump off from here to anywhere – and I do believe we are really creative and have a sense of humour and a way with words. For such a small little island … we are really in the top league.”

Love

Niall met his husband, Woody, while on holiday in Bangkok in 2010. He soon moved to Ireland to live with Niall, who was sharing a house with his best friends Brian Kennedy and comedian Katherine Lynch.

“It was lovely for him to come over and feel part of this family we had. He moved in with us for a couple of months and thought all Irish people are mad,” laughs Niall.

He recalls coming out to his mother when he lived in London, when he told a fib about the person he was seeing at the time.

“I said I met someone special, and then she came over [to London] with a friend,” he says.

“I thought: ‘This is not the time to say ‘Andrew’, and I said ‘her’ name was Andrea. She kept saying: ‘Are you going to bring her over?’ and ‘When are we going to see Andrea?’ I got to the point where I said: ‘Look, I changed one letter of the name.’ And that was how I came out to my mother,” he says.

“She was fine. She gets on so well with my husband. When they see each other, they throw their arms around each other and I’m just left there. No-one throws their arms around me!”

National Concert Hall

Niall’s next production, Hallelujah: an Evening of Inspirational Music takes place in the National Concert Hall on Saturday 24 June and features Mary Coughlan and The X Factor’s Melanie McCabe. It also features favourites such as Ave Maria, Panis Angelicus, Queen of the May and You Raise Me Up presented alongside classic works by Verdi, Fauré, Mozart, Schubert and Handel.

“A lot of the music featured has a meaning to people, like Hallelujah and You Raise Me Up. There are some great pieces by Mozart and Verdi too,” he concludes. CL

Hallelujah makes its debut at the National Concert Hall on Saturday 24 June. Call (01) 417 0000 for bookings and visit http://niallmorris.com/ for more.