Donnacha Dennehy’s The Hunger explores the emotional, political, and socioeconomic devastation of Ireland’s Great Famine. Performed by 20-member chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound, soprano Katherine Manley, and sean nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, the libretto principally draws from rare, first-hand accounts by Asenath Nicholson, an American humanitarian so moved by the waves of immigrants arriving in New York that she traveled to Ireland to bear witness. It "bears hearing and rehearing," says the Washington Post. "It is powerful, and it makes a statement.