Opera in the summertime….

Kilkenny Castle

It seems perverse to be thinking of summer just as we’re tentatively daring to enjoy this chilly spring, but plans for the Irish summer festivals are already appearing… and showing inevitable signs of recession fever.  While the enjoyable late winter offerings from OTC and OI had already been budgeted for, and so were safe from the moneymen, now we begin to see signs of the cutbacks already well-reported from opera companies overseas (especially in Italy and the US).  And the result is that we’re seeing a mix of some fairly shrewd moves, along with a bit of retrenchment – so nothing to worry about just yet, perhaps (apart from Cork’s Opera 2005, which had all its funding cut this year).  Opera Ireland is keeping tight-lipped and not announcing anything, so its autumn season remains a mystery, while Wexford Festival Opera has recently announced a reduction in its upcoming season.

In the more delicately-poised world of country-house opera, survival by adaptation seems to be the order of the day.  The Arts Council always likes it when production companies make ’strategic partnerships’, and in the southeast Blackstairs Opera, after its coup last year in linking with Opera Fringe, is this year teaming up with Opera Theatre Company and the Office of Public Works (along with support from Fáilte Ireland and Kilkenny 400) to present a double-bill of OTC’s touring productions of Handel’s Acis & Galatea and Mozart’s early hit Bastien und Bastienne, in Kilkenny Castle on July 3 & 4.  Blackstairs Opera are even promising a second summer offering at Russborough House in early September, but details are still to be announced, apart from the dates (Sept 4-6).

In previous years, Blackstairs would share the touring productions of the UK-based Opera à la Carte with Loughcrew House in Co. Meath, but with the move to Irish-based production companies they are going their separate ways.  This year sees Loughcrew teaming up with Opera Ireland to create a new company, Loughcrew Opera.  Managed by the ex-Celtic Tenor Niall Morris, they are offering more standard fare in the shape of Puccini’s La Bohème on May 30 & 31, with a cast that includes Irish singers Michelle Sheridan, Claudia Boyle and Simon Morgan.  As part of a new departure for opera funding, they are saying that “a percentage of box office income from this production will be donated to the Opera Ireland Foundation, securing the future of Opera in Ireland through access, education and development initiatives.”

Back in Co. Dublin, Glasthule Opera is yet to announce its upcoming season, but from what I can gather it will be taking place at the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire during the last week of June, with Puccini’s La Bohème alternating with an intriguing double bill of Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea and Gustav Holst’s rarely-produced work The Wandering Scholar.  Nothing of this has been confirmed as yet, though, so best to wait before bombarding the Pavilion with enquiries.