<img src='' title='Event Category: Opera' alt='' id='templ_icon_' width='' height='' /> Event Category: Opera

Can the humble Nemorino win the heart of the sophisticated Adina? He is taken in by the dubious Dr Dulcamara and swallows the elixir of love. Adina, meanwhile, discovers the only true elixir.

Irish National Opera’s new production of L’elisir d’amore has all the ingredients of a perfect romantic comedy, a young man in love, a dubious elixir, heartache, and plenty of obstacles. Donizetti’s score takes audiences from tender heartfelt serenades like “Una furtiva lagrima” to exuberant energetic ensembles. All brought to life by star soprano Claudia Boyle as Adina, US tenor Duke Kim (Faust 2023) as Nemorino and John Molloy as the outlandish rogue “doctor” Dulcamara. Baritone Gianluca Margheri (Bajazet 2022) is Belcore and soprano Deirdre Higgins is Adina’s friend Giannetta.

L’elisir d’amore is conducted by Erina Yashima and directed by Cal McCrystal with set and costume design by Sarah Bacon and features the Irish National Opera orchestra and chorus.

Running time is 2 hours 30 mins including one interval.

Sung in Italian with English surtitles.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: This production may contain Strobe Lighting, Flashing Lights, Smoke and Haze.

AGE GUIDANCE: Under 16’s must be accompanied by and seated next to a parent/guardian aged 18+

*Performance schedule and times are subject to change and may be affected by illness or events beyond the producers’ or venues’ control. Performers, dates, times, prices, and fees are subject to change without notice.

Man-about-town Eisenstein is supposed to report to jail, his wife Rosalinde will stay home for the night and their maid Adele needs to visit a sick aunt. Yet all three turn up in disguise at Count Orlofsky’s masked ball.

Famous for his “The Blue Danube” waltz,  Fledermaus is Johann Strauss’ most popular opera. Best-known for its tunefulness, upbeat musicality and Viennese lilt, the story has hilarious twists and turns, with disguises, double crossings and rivers of champagne.

Fledermaus  showcases outstanding Irish vocal talent with sopranos  Jade Phoenix  and  Sarah Shine  as Rosalinde and her maid Adele, and mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty as Prince Orlofsky. American tenor  Alex McKissick  sings Eisenstein and baritone  Ben McAteer (Don Pasquale 2023)  is Dr Falke. The ensemble cast also includes soprano  Megan O’Neill and tenors  Aaron O’Hare  and  William Pearson.  Fledermaus  is conducted by  Richard Peirson  and directed Davey Kelleher,  with set design by  Paul O’Mahony,  costume design by  Catherine Fay  and lighting design by Sinead McKenna.

Running time is 2 hours 30 mins including one interval.

Sung in English.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: This production may contain Strobe Lighting, Flashing Lights, Smoke and Haze.

AGE GUIDANCE: Under 16’s must be accompanied by and seated next to a parent/guardian aged 18+

*Performance schedule and times are subject to change and may be affected by illness or events beyond the producers’ or venues’ control. Performers, dates, times, prices, and fees are subject to change without notice.

The Paris of love and art. A poet, a painter, a musician and a philosopher. The tragedies of love and poverty.

Gavan Ring in association with The Cahersiveen Music and Arts Festival presents the Cork Opera House production of La bohème on Sunday 4th August 2024.

This semi–staged concert performance is conducted by John O’Brien and directed by Conor Hanratty. Brendan Collins joins three of the inaugural cohort of the Cara O Sullivan Associate Artists, Gavan Ring, Rachel Croash and Emma Nash to perform this reimagined classic opera, with narration by actor Éadaoin O’Donoghue. The ensemble are accompanied by the Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra, with Director Conor Hanratty and costumes by Valentina Gambardella

The opera follows a love story between a poet named Rodolfo (performed by Tenor, Gavan Ring) and Mimi, a seamstress, as they are forced to face the challenges of Mimi’s declining health and the realities of living in Paris’ Latin Quarter during the 1830s. The cast also includes Rory Dunne, Malachy Frame and David Howes.

Elsewhere is an extraordinary, shocking, funny, and, ultimately, moving piece of contemporary theatre – The Irish Times

Following its hugely successful run on the Abbey Theatre stage in 2021, this bold new opera by Michael Gallen, based on the true story of the radical “Monaghan Asylum Soviet” of 1919”, goes on tour.  Highlighted as one of the Irish Times’s Best of 2021, Elsewhere was also nominated for two Irish Times Theatre Awards, including Best Opera.

In 1919, the staff of the Monaghan Asylum barricaded the hospital gates and declared themselves an independent Soviet commune. Their strike brought asylum workers and patients together in collective action, presenting a revolutionary vision of what a care-centred society could look like.

The moment of the Soviet is in constellation with our own, occurring during the 1918 Flu pandemic, and at a time when social and geographical borders were being redrawn. Marked by death and hardship, the strikers overcame sectarian divides to demand humane conditions and equal pay for women and men.

In Elsewhere, these events unfold through the visions of Celine, a patient who decades later remains ‘locked in’ to the moment of the Soviet, believing herself to be its leader. Through her interactions with the charismatic ‘Inspector of Lunatics’ we tread the borders between fantasy and incarceration.

Drawing upon the hum of murmured rosaries, the eccentric lilt of the border dialect and the glitched ornamentation of Oriel sean nós song, Elsewhere’s score melds a delicate, introspective complexity with the raucous energy of revolt.

The libretto is co-written by Michael Gallen with poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin and playwright Carys D Coburn, and the production brings together a team of renowned Irish artists and rising international stars led by director Tom Creed and conductor Fiona Monbet. Singers and instrumentalists play a range of characters from patients and strikers to Marx and Jehovah, shape-shifting between work routines, football matches, negotiations, dances – in a dynamic that is both playful and uncanny. Over time we discover how Celine’s fate and that of the Soviet are entwined.

Dealing with themes of freedom, care and mental illness, Elsewhere explores the imagined future of a forgotten past.

Funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, Creative Monaghan, L’Institut Français Paris and La Région Hauts-de-France and supported by Monaghan Arts Office, Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris. With the support of l’Institut français à Paris et la Métropole Européenne de Lille.

Based on the opera Carmen (1875) the tragic tale is relived through the music of George Bizet and Marius Constant in this adaptation from Peter Brook and Jean-Claude Carriére.

Conducted by Peter Shannon and directed by John O’Brien, La tragédie de Carmen features the Cara O’Sullivan Associate Artists making their role debut performances in this reimagined classic opera – Cork mezzo-soprano Niamh O’Sullivan as Carmen, Clare tenor Dean Power as Don José, Kildare bass-baritone Rory Dunne as Escamillo, and Wexford soprano Kelli-Ann Masterson as Micaela.

The highly charged music of Bizet is brought to life in this dark and emotional retelling live at Cork Opera House on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 2024. The performers will be accompanied on the evening by an ensemble of 15 players.

The performance is sung in French with English surtitles and spoken word.

Cork Opera House introduces the second cohort of Cara O’Sullivan Associate Artists through a series of free recitals in The Blue Angel Hospitality Suite, opening our 2023/24 Opera Season on Culture Night.

Curated and performed by Clare Tenor Dean Power, this 45-minute aria recital showcases the lyrical nuances of the tenor voice with glorious music from the operatic canon.

The Vanbrugh and Marja Gaynor will join Cara O’Sullivan Associate Artist Dean Power under the musical direction of Ciara Moroney for Culture Night 2023 at Cork Opera House

Join us in The Blue Angel Hospitality Suite for music, insight and a post-recital cup of tea with the artist.