Ballymore: Winners

Richard Wargo, composer
Dorothy Danner, stage director
Susan Shiplett Ashbaker, music director

Based on Lovers, the play by renowned Irish playwright Brian Friel, Richard Wargo’s opera Ballymore: Winners is the first of the opera’s two acts.  Located in the fictional town of Ballymore in Northern Ireland in the 1960’s, Winners follows teenagers Mag and Joe as their harrowing love story unfolds.

“Jubilant allegros and an Irish-tinged lyricism accompany and portray the young lovers of Winners, while the fateful narration employs a starker music (including offstage uilleann pipes), reminiscent of the sean-nos, the traditional Irish ballad-singers.”
-- Opera America

VIEW or DOWNLOAD a PDF of the program

Please stay after the performance for a talk-back with Richard Wargo and the cast and creative team.

PLEASE NOTE: The Main Entrance to the Rider University campus will be closed the evening of April 2.  Please use the South Entrance on Route 206 to enter the campus for the Bart Luedeke Center Theater. 

CLICK HERE to view a campus map.


In light of new guidance from the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) and CDC, Rider is lifting its indoor mask mandate for all, regardless of vaccination status, beginning Saturday, March 5.  Anyone who wishes to wear a mask should always feel free to do so.