Very little information has been forthcoming about screenings of opera simulcasts in Ireland (NI & ROI) for the coming year. Part of this is due to the fact that the last function of the late, lamented Opera Ireland was to act as distribution agent for the Met in HD, and with it gone I can imagine there has been a bit of scrambling behind the scenes. Anyway, out of this uncertainty has emerged a new programming/promotional non-profit enterprise called Classical Arts Ireland which, among other worthy aims, including promoting classical music, ballet and opera in Ireland, will be the job of managing the distribution of not one but two simulcast programmes – the Met (Opera) in HD and Bolshoi (Ballet) in HD. They have 12 venues (listed here) across the island of Ireland – one in Belfast (Dundonald Omniplex) and the rest in the Republic, covering Athlone, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Letterkenny, Limerick, Portlaoise and Sligo.
One thing that has begun to be noticed — though not, as yet, widely commented on — is that the NY Met actively discourages its cinema venues from showing opera simulcasts from other networks, which, in terms of building audiences for opera in cinema, seems unfortunate (some would use stronger words!) for those of us on this side of the Atlantic. It means that if you want to see productions from closer-to-home European houses also doing simulcasts — such as the Royal Opera House in London, La Scala Milan and Glyndebourne — you have seek them in other venues. As a result screens are divided between those (given above) exclusively offering the Met productions, and venues showing a small selection of everything else, which in Ireland is limited to two in Greater Dublin (Dundrum and Swords) and two further south (Gorey and Dungarvan) — please drop me a note if there are any others. Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast presented the three Glyndebourne on Screen simulcasts over the summer (including a wonderful production of Wagner’s Meistersinger), but don’t seem to have plans for any more opera in the meantime.
So what’s on the menu? The Met listing is as follows (all screenings on Saturdays; times local in UK/Ireland):
- Anna Bolena (Donizetti): Oct 15 (6pm) — Director: David McVicar; Conductor: Marco Armiliato; Cast includes: Anna Netrebko, Ekaterina Gubanova, Ildar Abdrazakov
- Don Giovanni (Mozart): Oct 29 (6pm) — Director: Michael Grandage; Conductor: James Levine; Cast includes: Mariusz Kwiecien, Barbara Frittoli, Ramón Vargas
- Siegfried (Wagner): Nov 5 (4pm) — Director: Robert Lepage; Conductor: James Levine; Cast includes: Gary Lehman, Deborah Voigt, Bryn Terfel
- Satyagraha (Philip Glass): Nov 19 (6pm) — Director: Phelim McDermott; Conductor: Dante Anzolini; Cast includes: Richard Croft, Rachelle Durkin, Kim Josephson
- Rodelinda (Handel): Dec 3 (5.30pm) — Director: Stephen Wadsworth; Conductor: Harry Bicket; Cast includes: Renee Fleming, Andreas Scholl, Iestyn Davies
- Faust (Gounod): Dec 10 (6pm) — Director: Des McAnuff; Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Cast includes: Jonas Kaufmann, René Pape, Marina Poplavskaya
- The Enchanted Island (Vivaldi, Rameau, Handel…): Jan 21 (6pm) — Director: Phelim McDermott; Conductor: William Christie; Cast includes: Danielle De Niese, Joyce DiDonato, David Daniels, Plácido Domingo — NB: This is a pasticcio made up of excerpts from different operas assembled and adapted specially by William Christie
- Götterdämmerung (Wagner): Feb 11 (5pm) — Director: Robert Lepage; Conductor: James Levine; Cast includes: Waltraud Meier, Deborah Voigt, Hans-Peter König
- Ernani (Verdi): Feb 25 (6pm) — Director: Pier Luigi Samaritani; Conductor: Marco Armiliato; Cast includes: Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Angela Meade
- Manon (Massenet): April 7 (5pm) — Director: Laurent Pelly; Conductor: Fabio Luisi; Cast includes: Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczala
- La Traviata (Verdi): April 14 (6pm) — Director: Willy Decker; Conductor: Fabio Luisi; Cast includes: Natalie Dessay, Dmitri Hvorostovsky
The “non-Met” listing, on the other hand, is looking like this:
- Faust (Gounod) from Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Weds Sept 28 (7pm) — Director: David McVicar; Conductor: Evelino Pidò; Cast includes: Angela Gheorghiu, René Pape, Vittorio Grigolo, Dmitri Hvorostovsky
- The Mikado (Sullivan) from Opera Australia; Thurs Oct 13 (8.30pm) — Director: Stewart Maunder; Conductor: Brian Castles-Onion; Cast includes: Richard Alexander, Mitchell Butel, Samuel Dundas
- Don Giovanni (Mozart) from Teatro alla Scala, Milano; Weds Dec 7 (6pm) — Director: Robert Carsen; Conductor: Daniel Barenboim; Cast includes: Peter Mattei, Anna Netrebko, Bryn Terfel, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo
- Rigoletto (Verdi) from Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Tues April 17 (time TBA) — Director: David McVicar; Conductor: John Eliot Gardiner; Cast includes: Dimitri Platanias, Ekaterina Siurina, Vittorio Grigolo, Christine Rice
Note that any of the cast or conductors listed are subject to change…
Happy viewing!


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