(Photo: Ruth Medjber) Irish National Opera’s production of Janacek’s “The Cunning Little Vixen” proved to be a valid, yet commonplace, sentimental, child-centered reading, which unfortunately failed to delve below the surface narrative, although this was not the intention of its director, Sophie Motley. The Director’s Ideas Fail to Translate into Practice In her program notes, Motley explained that her aim {…}
(Photo: Pato Cassinoni) Irish National Opera‘s (INO) recent tour of Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride” took in a number of small venues across Ireland that rarely, if ever, get featured in its normal schedule. Included were towns such as Birr, Monaghan and Manorhamilton, situated in the rural hinterlands, far distant from the Dublin metropolis and the smaller urban areas of Galway, {…}
The Irish National Opera has announced its 2025-26 season. The season opens with a darkly comic new opera, “MARS,” a commissioned work from Jennifer Walshe and Mark O’Connell. The work will star sopranos Nina Guo and Jade Phoenix, and mezzo-sopranos Doreen Curran and Sarah Richmond. Performance Dates: July 25–27 & August 7–9, 2025. The company will present “Viva Verdi, Viva Wagner” with Irish soprano Sinéad Campbell Wallace, US {…}
(Photo: Patrick Redmond) Since its inception in 2018, Irish National Opera has made remarkable progress with a series of innovative and imaginative productions that have entertained audiences from both home and abroad, garnering praise from the national and international media for the variety and quality of its output. Now, in its seventh season, the company decided to stage four performances {…}
(Photo: courtesy of Giselle Allen) Later this month, Irish National Opera will be staging a new production of Wagner’s “Der Fliegende Holländer,” conducted by Fergus Sheil and directed by Rachael Hewer, with baritone Jordan Shanahan as the Dutchman. OperaWire recently met up with the Northern Irish soprano, Giselle Allen, who is currently preparing for the role of Senta, to talk {…}
(Photo: Ros Kavanagh) (WARNING: This review features explicit language.) Irish National Opera recently completed its tour of a pairing of operas by the exciting Irish composer Emma O’Halloran and librettist and playwright, Mark O’Halloran. Both works contain intimate psychological portraits of characters who find themselves in emotionally difficult situations. The first, entitled “Mary Motorhead,” focuses on a young woman jailed {…}
(Photo: Ross Kavanagh) This September, Northern Ireland Opera premieres its new production of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”, with its quality cast members directed by Cameron Menzies, and conducted by Dominic Limburg. This production looks certain to be another hit with local audiences, following its sell-out productions of “La Traviata” and “Tosca.” OperaWire met up with one of its stars, mezzo-soprano Sarah {…}
(Photo: Alex Dowling) During the pandemic, the composer, Emma O’Halloran, and librettist, Mark O’Halloran, produced a piece for Irish National Opera’s hugely successful and innovative “20 Shots of Opera.” The work, entitled “The Wait,” is an impressive opera that brilliantly showcased O’Halloran’s compositional skills, in which OperaWire drew attention to her “wonderfully evocative score, with its contrasting densities and textures, {…}
The Irish National Opera has announced its 2024-25 season. The company will open with a double bill featuring “Mary Motorhead” and “Trade.” Naomi Louisa O’Connell, Oisin O’Dalaigh, and John Molloy star in the production. Elaine Kelly conducts and Tom Creed directs. Performance Date: August 8–Oct. 23, 2024 Paula Murrihy and David Portillo lead Berlioz’s “Béatrice and Bénédict,” alongside Anna Devin, {…}
(Photo: Ros Kavanagh) Intricate and convoluted plots are not exactly rare in operas of the 17th and 18th centuries. Usually revolving around mistaken identities, complex love triangles, misunderstandings and deliberate deceptions that precipitate extreme emotions, their narratives career forward, plunging the protagonists into life-threatening and life-changing situations in which the gods, heroes and mythical characters often play their part. Vivaldi’s {…}
(Photo: Christopher Wallace) In 2021, OperaWire reviewed a splendid concert presentation of Handel’s “Ariodante” at the Göttingen Handel Festival. With a strong cast, which included star names such as Marie Lys and Emily Fons. Quality performances were certainly expected, and they did not disappoint. However, it was soprano Rachel Redmond, whom I had previously never heard sing, in the role {…}
