Irish National Opera L'elisir d'amore programme book

Donizetti
The Elixir of Love

IRISH NATIONAL OPERA
PRINCIPAL FUNDER
GAETANO DONIZETTI 1797 – 1848
L’ELISIR D’AMORE
THE ELIXIR OF LOVE
1832
AN OPERA BUFFA IN TWO ACTS
Libretto by Felice Romani
First performance Teatro della Canobbiana, Milan, 12 May 1832.
First Irish performance: Theatre Royal, Dublin, 27 February 1838.
This production includes a revised version of Adina’s Act II aria Prendi per me sei
libero that Donizetti wrote for the soprano Fanny Tacchinardi for a production at the
Théâtre-Italien in Paris in 1839
SUNG IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES
SETS SUPPORTED BY
THE LAIDLAW OPERA TRUST.
THIS PRODUCTION IS SUPPORTED
BY A GENEROUS DONATION FROM
AN ANONYMOUS TRUST.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Artane School of Music and Queen’s University,
Belfast.
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes including one interval.
The performances on Tuesday 27 and Thursday 29 May are being recorded for future
broadcast on RTÉ lyric fm.
PERFORMANCES 2025
Sunday 25 May Gaiety Theatre Dublin
Tuesday 27 May Gaiety Theatre Dublin
Thursday 29 May Gaiety Theatre Dublin AUDIO DESCRIBED PERFORMANCE
Saturday 31 May Gaiety Theatre Dublin
Wedensday 4 June National Opera House Wexford
Saturday 7 June Cork Opera House Cork
#INOLelisir
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FROM L’ELISIR D’AMORE
TO L’ELISIR D’AMORE
FERGUS SHEIL
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Nearly 30 years ago, in December 1996,
I got the opportunity to conduct my
first opera.
It was Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at the Gaiety Theatre, and I was
head of music and chorus master with the then newly-renamed
Opera Ireland – formerly the Dublin Grand Opera Society, known
earlier in the 1990s as DGOS Opera Ireland. I got to replace
the conductor of that production, Mark Shanahan, for the final
performance in the run.
I was 25 years old, too inexperienced to realise what I didn’t know,
but confident enough to push through. I had been part of the entire
process of the production, but I had never conducted in the pit,
and I’d had no rehearsals with the orchestra. Like it or not, I was in
at the deep end. I recall a moment of doubt as the orchestra tuned
up while I was waiting outside the door to the pit. I was about to go
out to a full auditorium but I wasn’t quite 100 per cent sure that I
would get safely from beginning to end. I still vividly remember the
actual bar in the middle of the second half where I got a reassuring
look from Majella Cullagh singing Adina. That somehow brought
it home to me that, OK, I could do this. Since this baptism of fire,
L’elisir d’amore has been especially close to my heart.
singers, has grown substantially, both at home and abroad.
When the Irish National Opera Studio was set up in 2018
I didn’t have to think twice about the range of skills it was
there to nurture. Beyond singers, there also had to be
places for directors, répétiteurs, composers and, of course,
conductors, too.
It’s very exciting to see artists grow through and beyond their
participation in our studio, most recently Davey Kelleher, who
directed our enthusiastically-received recent production of
Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus, and Elaine Kelly, who
was nominated for a Grammy Award earlier this year and
who conducts our next production – Mars by Jennifer Walshe.
The success of our studio alumni on national and international
stages is really just the outcome of an attempt to give to others
what I got in the pit of the Gaiety all those years ago. And in
addition to the studio, for Die Fledermaus we had an assistant
designer, Ronan Duffy, through our first collaboration with the
Irish Society of Performance Designers Assistant Designer
Programme.
L’elisir d’amore is one of those works that has never lost its
sheen through nearly two centuries of changing taste. I hope
you enjoy tonight’s new production of every bit as much as
I know I will.
This formative experience affected me deeply. There’s nothing
to beat the validation you get from live exposure in a real-world
situation. Back in the 1990s, there was no opera studio in Ireland.
Since then, the support for young opera professionals, especially
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05

OPERA CHAMPIONS
DIEGO FASCIATI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
What a joy to end our 2024-25 season with the
exuberant L’elisir d’amore, Donizetti’s enduring and
endearing comedic romance.
The unlikely hero of the story, Nemorino, is at a disadvantage
from the very start: his name literally signifies “little nobody”. But
he does become somebody with the assistance of the titular and
dubious love potion, and through the intervention of fate. The plot
is dramaturgically taut with characters and their foibles that are
well observed and recognisable, and also endlessly entertaining.
The music is the epitome of the bel canto style, beautiful,
energetic and exciting. And of course L’elisir d’amore features
one of the best-known tenor arias, the always moving “Una
furtiva lagrima”.
Like Nemorino, we at Irish National Opera could not do our work
without the assistance of key partners. The Arts Council/An
Chomhairle Ealaíon is our principal funder and their investment is
paramount to our operations. Their support enables us to present
high-quality productions in Dublin and throughout Ireland. We will
present a case to the council that the level of investment in INO
should be increased to enable us to present a minimum of four
large-scale and three touring productions annually. The rationale
for this will be outlined in our forthcoming INO Strategy 2025-
2028 – A Vision for Opera in Ireland.
by the support of the John Pollard Foundation. This was our
first Wagner opera and we were enthused by the reaction of
public and critics. If you missed it, you can watch it online at
operavision.eu for the next six months. This marks the
beginning of a multi-annual partnership and we thank
Stephen Vernon and all at the John Pollard Foundation.
Our production of L’elisir d’amore is supported by a generous
donation from a US-based foundation that wishes to remain
anonymous. This is the third production supported by this
foundation. The sets of tonight’s production and also of our
forthcoming Puccini Madama Butterfly are supported by a
generous grant from the Laidlaw Opera Trust. This grant will
also allow us to launch an initiative later this year that will
enable us to tour to venues and counties new to us.
By the end of next year, we will have toured an opera
production (not counting concerts, films and other events) to
every county in the country. Our intention is to present opera
in every county every year. We thank Lord Laidlaw and all at
the Laidlaw Opera Trust for their support and assistance in
formulating this strategy and look forward to more opera for
more audiences in more places throughout Ireland.
This year we also celebrate two strategic partnerships. Our recent
production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman was made possible
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Image: Kabin Crew members performing The Sound of the Northside at Everyman, Cork
Photo: Cathal Noonan
08
09

Image: Gianluca Margheri in
rehearsals for L’elisir d’amore
Photography: Ste Murray
SYNOPSIS
ACT I
Nemorino, a shy, charming peasant
is in love with Adina, a beautiful
landowner. Despite his best efforts at
trying to win her over, he’s had no luck.
After hearing her tell the village the
story of Tristan and Isolde, Nemorino
longs for a love potion that will help
Adina fall in love with him. Enter
Dulcamara, a flashy salesman who
claims to have potions and tinctures
that cure all of life’s problems.
Nemorino falls victim to Dulcamara’s
tricks and buys from him what he
believes to be a ‘love potion’ (red wine)
that will make Adina fall in love with
him in one day’s time. His new found
confidence after drinking the ‘potion’
has no effect on Adina and she agrees
to marry Belcore, a soldier who has
arrived in town. When news is sent
that Belcore has to leave the town the
next day, the wedding is moved to that
evening leaving Nemorino thinking he
will lose Adina forever.
ACT II
Adina and Belcore’s wedding is
underway but Adina is now unsure
of her feelings. Nemorino, desperate
to stop the marriage, wants more of
Dulcamara’s “love potion,” but can’t
afford it. To get money, he agrees to
enlist in the army under Belcore. With
his payment, he buys another dose of
the elixir (more wine). Unbeknownst to
Nemorino, his wealthy uncle has just
died, leaving him a fortune. Suddenly,
all the village girls start pursuing
him – not for love, but for his money.
Unaware of his inheritance, he thinks
the potion is finally working. Adina,
seeing this, realizes she truly loves him,
buys back his enlistment contract and
confesses her feelings. Belcore shrugs
off the loss, and Dulcamara basks
in glory, believing his potion brought
about the happy ending.
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Image: Rehearsals
for L’elisir d’amore
Photography: Ste Murray
DIRECTOR’S
NOTE
CAL McCRYSTAL
DIRECTOR OF L’ELISIR
D’AMORE
I am delighted to be back in Dublin to direct this production
for Irish National Opera. L’elisir d’amore is one of
Donizetti’s most popular works and is a classic opera buffa.
There are strong farcical elements and robust characters
with a reasonably simple plot, allowing time to explore and
develop comic business. L’elisir is a romantic comedy with
would-be lovers, Adina and Nemerino, carrying the heart
of the story across the social divide to find true love.
It’s a challenge to make comedy work at its best in a production
presented in a foreign language with no dialogue! Therefore, visual
comedy is essential to bring the story alive. I have set our version in late
19th-century North America. It seemed to me that the Elisir characters
exactly matched archetypes from many Western movies – the bold,
beautiful landowner, her feisty companion, the enamoured peasant, the
snake oil salesman, the soldier etc. To create this world, I have filled the
production with American movie references. I hope you spot them all.
As an Irishman living abroad, it is a huge joy to be working again in
the country of my birth. In 2019 I had a ball directing Drama at Inish at
the Abbey Theatre and in 2023 I accompanied Sir Ian McKellen to the
Bord Gáis Energy Theatre when he played there in my production of
Mother Goose.
I have always found Irish audiences to be warm and playful. I hope you
enjoy our show as much as we enjoyed making it for you.
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DUBLIN DOES
DONIZETTI
Image: Portrait by AE Chalon
of Catone Lonati as Nemorino,
London, 1837. Lithograph by
RJ Lane at Victoria & Albert
Museum, Harry R Beard
Collection, given by Isobel Beard.
You might not think there is any reason to regard
1838 as an auspicious year in the history of opera.
It was the year in which Georges Bizet, the future composer of
Carmen, was born, and in which Lorenzo da Ponte, who wrote the
librettos for Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così
fan tutte, died in New York. Soprano Jenny Lind (“the Swedish
nightingale,” 1820-87) made her debut as Agathe in Weber’s
Der Freischütz in Stockholm in March, seven months before her
18th birthday. And the Italian tenor Giovanni Matteo de Candia
(1810-83), known professionally just as Mario (to spare the
embarrassment of his noble family), made his Paris debut in
Robert le diable by Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1865).
For this revival of the work, which had already had over 200
performances since its 1831 premiere, the singer was coached
by the composer, who also wrote him a new aria. Mario, and his
frequent opera partner (and later wife) Giulia Grisi (1811-69),
would become a power couple in the opera world of their time.
Their joint biographer, the late Elizabeth Forbes, believed the two
became lovers in 1841 while staying in Morrison’s Hotel in Dublin.
They were there for a Theatre Royal season in which Mario made
role debuts in two Bellini operas, singing Arturo in I puritani and
Elvino in La sonnambula.
In 1838 Grisi appeared with Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794-
1854), Antonio Tamburini (1800-76) and Luigi Lablache (1794-
1858) in the first production of Falstaff, the only Italian opera by
Dubliner Michael William Balfe (1808-70). The four singers had
also appeared in the premiere of Bellini’s I puritani in Paris in
1835 and were sometimes known as the Puritani quartet.
The multi-talented Austrian lawyer Johann Vesque von Püttlingen (1803-83)
completed the first of his eight operas, composed on a subject that Puccini would
later make famous, Turandot. Benvenuto Cellini by Hector Berlioz (1803-69) faced
a barrage of obstacles at the Opéra in Paris where, after 29 rehearsals, only seven
performances were given, not all of them with the original cast. And Luigi Ricci (1805-
59) composed a new Le nozze di Figaro to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi. The new Figaro
dispensed with Marcellina, Bartolo, Don Curzio and Barbarina. And it reduced the
importance of the Count, the Countess and Cherubino. It focused instead on the love
between Figaro and Susanna, whose living quarters were somehow morphed into
surroundings of real luxury. The work’s perhaps predictable failure would see the
composer abandon the composition of opera for a full seven years.
1838 was also a good year for opera in Ireland, a good year for Donizetti, and a
good year for Donizetti in Ireland. The composer had been receiving coverage in
Irish newspapers for at least a decade at this point. Excerpts from his operas were
regularly listed in concert announcements. Sheet music of arrangements of full
operas as well as selected excerpts were advertised by music shops. And reviews
of Donizetti productions in London had been reprinted verbatim in the Irish press.
A few lines from the Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier of Saturday
17 February 1838 describe the enviable career success he was enjoying. “At the
commencement of the Carnaval in the Italian States at the present season,” it
ran, “54 Theatres were performing on the same evening the operas of Donizetti,
a testimonial of the estimation of this composer’s talents.” To put this in context,
the population of the Italian states, at over 20 million, was around three times the
population of Ireland at the time, in other words, the equivalent of 18 concurrent
productions running here. Or, to broaden the context, the equivalent of around
215 in Germany today, or around 900 in the United States.
Donizetti, entering what would be the final decade of his life, was experiencing a period
of quite extraordinary success. “Between 1838 and 1848,” the musicologist Bradford
Robinson has calculated, “L’elisir d’amore was the most frequently performed opera
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Image: Gaetano Donizetti, lithograph
by Josef Kriehuber, Vienna, 1842.
in the world.” And, at the same time, the composer was also
responsible for “one out of every four operas heard in Italy.”
The first of Donizetti’s operas to be produced in Ireland, at
Dublin’s Theatre Royal on 27 February 1838 was, appropriately
enough, L’elisir d’amore. The opera season in which it featured
was so popular that its run was twice extended, first from March into April, and then into
Easter week in the middle of the month. The original offering had included two other Donizetti
operas, Betly and Il campanello, and the final, post-Easter extension added a fourth, Torquato
Tasso. The season’s other works were Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri,
Mercadante’s Elisa e Claudio, Ricci’s Un’avventura di Scaramuccia, and Coppola’s Nina, with
Bellini’s La sonnambula added after Easter.
The promoter was John Mitchell (1806-74), Bookseller and Publisher to Her Majesty, who was
also a theatrical impresario and promoter. He had a lucrative operatic sideline. He bulk-bought
opera tickets in London for a discount and sold them from his premises in Old Bond Street at face
value. He was also the man who had set up the Italian Opera Buffa in London, the company which
delivered the 1838 opera season in Dublin’s Theatre Royal “by arrangement with” John William
Calcraft (1792-1870). Calcraft was the lessee, manager of and frequent actor in the theatre.
Calcraft was his stage name, under which he was quoted as saying an actor’s life was “drudgery,
anxiety, mental and physical toil which are the inseparable attendants on professional life.”
When he wrote a two-volume biography of the Waterford-born Shakespearean actor and theatre
manager Charles Kean (1811-68), it was published under his real surname, Cole.
It seems that the promoter and manager put their all into the season. L’elisir d’amore was
reviewed in The Warder, which in 1881 would describe itself as “the only weekly conservative
journal published in Dublin, and the recognised weekly organ of the Protestant clergy, gentry and
respectable classes of Ireland for upwards of half a century.” Its reviewer highlights the high cost of
the enterprise and points out that, “The interior of the Theatre has been altered to suit their [the
Italian singers] performances. Stalls have been erected in the lower boxes, the price of admission
to which is raised, and in the upper tier several private boxes have been portioned off to meet
the wishes of parties. These arrangement are excellent, and must give satisfaction.”
The best-remembered singer in the L’elisir d’amore cast is Frederick Lablache (1815-87), son of
Luigi. When his father created the title role in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale in Paris in 1843, Frederick
took the role of the Notary and the cast also included
Grisi, Mario and Tamburini. Frederick’s career would
also see him share the stage with Jenny Lind. The
reviewer in The Warder wrote, “Signor F Lablache
(son of the immortal twenty stone of human flesh)
also made his debut as Dulcamara, and was received
with many tokens of approbation.” And a review of
the Dublin producton published in the Italian journal
Il Pirata said, “Dulcamara was represented by Mr.
Lablache (the son of the famous Lablache), whose
voice is also a baritone of delightful quality.”
Image: Part of advertisement for the opera season
from The Freeman’s Journal, 24 February 1838.
The highest praise was reserved for the Nemorino,
Catone Lonati. The Warder wrote, “The part of the
hero of the piece, Nemorino, was sustained by
Signor Catone, who is one of the most accomplished
singers we have heard for some years. His voice is
a peculiarly sweet tenor, flowing and melodious in all its tones, and he possesses a method of
gliding smoothly into falsetto, rarely found in even our best singers.” The impression was not
at all unusual. In April 1837, Vienna’s Allgemeine Theaterzeitung und Originalblatt (where he
received 38 mentions over 12 months), reviewed him in Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri, and wrote
of his “fresh, rich, and charming tenor voice, the likes of which we haven’t heard on stage for
a long time.” “It oozes, youth, fire, and power,” the writer continued, “and at the same time,
therein lies the electrifying impression that natural beauty must conjure up in all hearts, and
which brought the singer of Lindoro such an exceptionally favourable reception.”
Small surprise then that Lonati (whose name was sometimes rendered as Lonati Catone)
would go on to sing Nemorino at La Scala in Milan with that brilliant shooting star Giuseppina
Strepponi (1815-97, who would later become the second Mrs Verdi), and the great Giorgio
Ronconi (1810-90), who created the title role in Verdi’s Nabucco. Lonati also took the role
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irishnationalopera.ie
BOOKING &
INFORMATION
of Riccardo in Verdi’s Oberto in Genoa in 1841. Verdi was involved in the staging of the
production, which he described in a letter to his friend Pietro Massini as having had a “cold”
reception, apart from the overture and the introduction, which “were applauded wildly with
curtain calls for Catone and also for me.”
Richard Michael Levey and John O’Rorke’s 1880 history of the Theatre Royal recalls the only
appearance Lonati made in Dublin. “Some old opera “goers” (unfortunately not many),” they
wrote, “will remember the lovely, pure tenor of Catone. His delivery of the “Una furtiva lagrima”
really enchanted his hearers. Indeed all through the work he carried the audience by storm. It
may safely be recorded that, with the exception of Mario, Rubini, and Giuglini [Antonio Giuglini
(1827-65)] no tenor ever created such an effect as Catone on the Dublin stage. Unfortunately,
this was his first and last engagement, as he was killed some time after by a fall from a window
in Naples.”
Puccini
Lonati died in June 1842, in Marseille rather than Naples, and the Gazette privilegiata di Milano
had reported in February that he had been “gravely ill for a month” in Barcelona. His passing
was noted in the Gazzetta musicale di Milano, which described him as “a tenor who died before
reaching the age of 30. He gained acclaim in various major theatres in Italy, Germany, England,
and Spain.” In Vienna, the Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, wrote, “Catone Lonati, one of the
few good tenors Italy possessed, and fondly remembered in Vienna, died in Marseille on June
23rd in the prime of his life.”
18
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Young as he was, during the time when Lonati was working in London and Dublin, he became one
of the 114 subscribers to Maria Anfossi’s Theoretical and Practical Treatise on the Art of Singing.
He was in good company. Among the other subscribers were the singers Grisi, Lablache, Clara
Novello, Giuditta Pasta, Rubini, Tamburini and Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, the composers
Balfe, Cherubini, Meyerbeer, Pacini, Paer and Rossini, and the publishers Boosey and Chappell.
And strange as it may seem, the Dublin L’elisir d’amore cast actually has a connection to 20thcentury
Hollywood. The actor Stewart Granger, born James Lablache Stewart, was a grandson
of Frederick Lablache. A case of stage-presence passing down the generations.
MICHAEL DERVAN
19

BEING CAL McCRYSTAL
Image: Cal McCrystal at rehearsals for L’elisir d’amore.
Photography: Ste Murray
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THE
FIRST OPERA YOU WENT TO?
Oh, my goodness! I came very late to opera.
And I think I saw...was it Bluebeard [Bartók’s
Bluebeard’s Castle]? At the Royal Opera House.
I remember being astonished at what the
singers could do, but I was a bit bored. There
weren’t many laughs in that one. I’m a theatre
person and I was an actor for a long time. But
I did study singing with the head of the opera
school while I was at the Royal Conservatoire of
Scotland studying drama. That, I think, was my
first proper introduction to operatic repertoire.
And then I would go and see productions of
Scottish Opera at the Theatre Royal Glasgow.
So I saw quite a few operas then. But it’s not
something that I go to see a lot. I love working
in opera but it’s not something that I think, oh I
must get tickets for that opera. I’m more likely
to go to a ballet than an opera.
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER FROM THE
FIRST OPERA YOU DIRECTED?
That was Haydn’s Il mondo della luna at
English Touring Opera, sung in English. It was
actually a good one for me to do because it’s
very absurd. There was beautiful singing from
a great team of singers, who surprised me by
how good their stagecraft was and how willing
they were to kind of make fools of themselves
for us to get the comic effect that I wanted. It
did very well on tour and that led to me being
invited to English National Opera (ENO) where
I’ve had a couple of very big hit shows, then
Glyndebourne last year, Garsington in 2021,
and now this. Which I must say is an absolute
joy because I love being in Dublin. As I was
saying about the Il mondo della luna cast, the
stagecraft and the talent of this particular
team has bowled me over. It really has. I know
of course INO is going to get talented people
in, but this is an extremely high standard. I do
find that the singers will always find a way to
do what you want them to do.
WHAT WAS THE BEST OPERA-RELATED
ADVICE YOU EVER GOT?
Gosh. Nothing’s coming to mind. I don’t think
anyone ever gave me any general advice.
I love working with the conductors and
obviously there’s always a lot of negotiation
about when it’s time to do something. This
isn’t really advice. It was a negotiation. It
was with Tim Henty who conducted Gilbert
& Sullivan’s Iolanthe for me at ENO. There
was a duet that I thought was a bit kitsch
and I wanted to have some fun with. He said,
“Look, there are some things in this duet
that the audience will want to hear. So don’t
drown them out with laughs. Just let’s work
out a way so you can have your laughs and
we can also hear the best parts of the music.”
We went through the score and he pointed
out the bits – and I put the laughs elsewhere.
I think when people know my work and they
invite me to do an opera, they don’t want me
to be the same as the other opera directors.
They want me to be completely free to do
my own thing. As I said, because I have
some singing experience myself, I haven’t
been asking for too much advice. But it’s
all worked out well so far. Sometimes I will
push things because I’m always thinking of
the audience. But I hope I always respect
the music as well. There must be a reason
somebody wrote a comedy, and the only
reason that somebody would write a comedy
is because they want people to laugh at it.
There’s no other reason.
A good comedy is where people laugh hard
and a bad comedy is when they sit quietly
tittering. I like big loud laughs. I think it’s a real
gift for the performers to have this interactive
experience with the audience where they
can do something and they can receive the
response audibly. Obviously, there are times
within the piece when you have to allow the
audience to to sit quietly and absorb and
20
21

Image: Pauline Ashwood and John
Molloy with with Cal McCrystal at
rehearsals for L’elisir d’amore.
Photography: Ste Murray
listen and be moved or whatever. But this
particular piece is a farce. It’s got very vain
characters in it and there’s lots of pathos.
But there’s also lots of fun, and I think in the
ideal version of this piece all those things are
expressed wholeheartedly.
WHAT IS THE MOST ANNOYING
MISCONCEPTION ABOUT OPERA?
I’m sure you get this answer a lot. I think the
most annoying misconception is that it’s just for
the elite. And I feel that making comic operas
genuinely funny breaks that down because it
makes it so accessible. And certainly at ENO, I
got record numbers of opera virgins in because
they’d heard that, oh, this is funny, let’s go and
see something funny. And those people might
just come and see another opera afterwards.
Opera is for everyone.
WHAT MOMENT DO YOU MOST LOOK
FORWARD TO WHEN YOU GO TO A
PERFORMANCE OF L’ELISIR D’AMORE?
Well, I’ve actually never seen it before. But
what I’m aiming for is that the audience will
laugh a lot, and cry, and also feel a great love
for all of the characters. I’m looking forward
to the resolution of the love story very much.
But all the laughs along the way will be
what makes this a fully enjoyable evening.
Of course you can’t just have laughs. There
always has to be some pathos so when they
leave the audience feel they’ve had a big
dinner rather than just a cream tea.
WHAT’S THE MOST CHALLENGING
ASPECT OF DIRECTING L’ELISIR D’AMORE?
Learning the names of all the chorus. Which
I still haven’t done because it’s big chorus
here with 32 singers. I always think the
chorus make a production. So I’ve got them
all in cameos. I like to blur the lines between
principals and chorus. It’s a big challenge
for any director to move a chorus around
on the stage in an organic way, in a natural
way, especially when the music will dictate
that they come on during these few bars and
leave during these few bars. That’s hard. I like
to try to find ways for the chorus to enter into
it without being just big clumps of people. I
enjoy that kind of spatial aspect of directing.
That’s probably the biggest challenge of this,
because when you’ve just got the principals
in, it’s a doddle. Every day I’m working a bit
on trying to get more names. I’ve asked them
all to wear name badges.
WHAT WOULD YOUR DREAM OPERATIC
PROJECT BE?
I tend not to go, “I’d love to do this.” I’m just
always so delighted if somebody calls and
says, “Would you like to do such and such?”
I did Rossini’s Le comte Ory at Garsington in
French. I find working in a foreign language
very challenging. I find it hard to keep
everything in my head. I’m always asking the
singers, “Sorry, what’s the thought of what
you’re singing here?” I would love to do an
English version of it. It suited me very well.
It’s a very bawdy piece. It’s got a lot of men
dressed as nuns and a lot of stuff that’s very,
very right up my street.
IF YOU WEREN’T A DIRECTOR, WHAT
MIGHT YOU HAVE BECOME?
This is a cheating answer. But I was an actor,
and I’d probably still be an actor if I had to
stop being a director. Isn’t it funny? I’m 65
and I’ve never really thought about that. I’ve
never had to. But I think I’d like to be a party
organiser. I do. I love it when there are lots
of people who come together and have fun.
And that’s what working in an opera house
or a theatre means to me. My motto really
for rehearsing is to make a big party during
rehearsals and just when it gets to the best
bit, invite the audience in to join us.
IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL DERVAN
22
23

CAST IN ORDER OF VOCAL APPEARANCE
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA CHORUS
Gianetta Deirdre Higgins Soprano
Nemorino Duke Kim Tenor
Adina Claudia Boyle Soprano
Belcore Gianluca Margheri Bass
Dr. Dulcamara John Molloy Bass-baritone
Truffaldino, assistant to Dr. Dulcamara Ian O’Reilly Actor
Sopranos
Laura Aherne
Caroline Behan*
Rheanne Breen
Eiméar Harper
Deirdre Higgins*
Maria Matthews
Megan O’Neill*
Niamh St John*
Mezzo-sopranos
Anna Carney
Olha Doroshchuk
Leanne Fitzgerald*
Sarah Kilcoyne*
Sarah Luttrell*
Bríd Ní Ghruagáin
Olha Palazhchenko
Emma Power
Tenors
David Corr
Ben Escorcio*
Luke Horner
Andrew Masterson*
Cathal McCabe
Patrick McGinley
Oisín Ó Dálaigh*
William Pearson*
Basses
Adam Cahill
William Costello
Michael Ferguson*
Ryan Garnham
David Kennedy*
Maksym Lozovyi*
Matthew Mannion*
Dylan Rooney
CREATIVE TEAM
Conductor
Director
Set & Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Répétiteur
Chorus Director
Chorus Répétiteur
Choreographer
Assistant Conductor
Assistant Director
Associate Designer
Studio Répétiteur
Language Coach
Erina Yashima
Cal McCrystal
Sarah Bacon
Sarah Jane Sheils
Aoife O’Sullivan
Richard McGrath
Aoife Moran
Paula O’Reilly
Peter Joyce
Grace Morgan
LaurA Fajardo Castro
Ella Nagy
Annalisa Monticelli
* INO Company Chorus
PARTICIPATING INO STUDIO MEMBERS
Assistant Conductor
Peter Joyce
Assistant Director
Grace Morgan
Studio Répétiteur
Ella Nagy
Gianetta Deirdre Higgins Soprano
Chorus Leanne Fitzgerald Mezzo-soprano
Cover Nemorino Cathal McCabe Tenor
Cover Belcore David Kennedy Bass
24
25

IRISH NATIONAL OPERA ORCHESTRA
PRODUCTION TEAM
First Volin
Sarah Sew* LEADER
David O’Doherty
Hugh Murray
Anita Vedres
Jennifer Murphy
Mollie Wrafter
Jacqueline Lambart^
Maria Ryan^
Second Violin
Siobhán Doyle*
Aoife Dowdall
Cillian Ó Breacháin
Christine Kenny
Justyna Dabek^
Sarah Perricone^
Viola
Giammaria Tesei*
Abi Hammett
Aoise O’Dwyer
Karen Dervan^
Cello
David Edmonds*
Aoife Burke
Yseult Cooper-Stockdale^
Paul Grennan
Double Bass
Dominic Dudley*
Maeve Sheil^
Harp
Dianne Marshall*
Flute
Lina Andonovska*
Marie Comiskey
Piccolo
Marie Comiskey
Oboe
Aoife McCambridge*
Jenny Magee
Clarinet
Conor Sheil*
Suzanne Brennan
Bassoon
Sinéad Frost*
Clíona Warren
Horn
Dewi Jones*
Peter Mullen
Trumpet
Colm Byrne*
Glen Carr
Trombone
Ross Lyness*
Colm O’Hara
Bass Trombone
Paul Frost*
Timpani
Noel Eccles*
Percussion
Caitríona Frost*
Richard O’Donnell
Banda & Off-stage Musicians
Percussion
Brian Dungan
Clarinet
Deirdre O’Leary
Trumpet & Cornet
Erick Castillo Mora
Accordion
Dermot Dunne
Double Bass
Camin Gilmore
*Section Principal
^Dublin & Wexford only
Production Manager
Michael Lonergan
Company Stage Manager
Paula Tierney
Stage Manager
Anne Kyle
Assistant Stage Managers
Oliver Kampman
Grace Woulfe (LIR placement)
Technical Crew
Abraham Allen
Danny Hones
Joey Maguire
Pawel Nierowaj
Jim McConnell
Fergus McDonagh
Martin Wallace
Chief LX
Donal McNinch
LX Programmer
Eoin McNinch
LX Crew
June Gonzalez Iriarte
Paul Hyland
Ais Flattery (Lir placement)
Costume Supervisor
Sinéad Lawlor
Costume Assistants
Maeve Smith
Roisín Ní Ghabhann
Costume Makers
Denise Assas Tynan
Anne O’Mahony
Tailors
Caroline Butler
Gillian Carew
Denis Darcy
Costume Technicians
Veronika Romanova
Pauline McCaul
Dressers/Maintenance Crew
Shelby Cullen
Darragh Gill
Alison Meehan
Roisín Ní Ghabhann
Breakdown and Dye Artists
Molly Brown
Oona McFarland
Wigs, Hair & Makeup Supervisor
Carole Dunne
Wigs, hair, Make-up Assistants
Tee Elliott
Sharon Hersee
Linda Mullan
Katie Durney (Lir placement)
Set Construction
Theatre Production Services
Props Makers
Andrew Clancy
Wicklow Willow
Scenic Artist
Sandra Butler
Scenic Printing
Horizon Digital
Surtitle Creation
Maeve Sheil
Surtitle Operator
Mairead Hurley
Chris Kelly
Lighting Provider
QLK
Photography
Ros Kavanagh
Ste Murray
Behind the scenes video
Charlie Joe Doherty
Promotional video
Gansee Films
Graphic Design
Detail
Transport
Trevor Price
Owen Sherwin
26
27

BIOGRAPHIES
ERINA YASHIMA
CONDUCTOR
CAL McCRYSTAL
DIRECTOR
SARAH BACON
SET & COSTUME DESIGNER
SARAH JANE SHIELS
LIGHTING DESIGNER
German-born conductor Erina
Yashima was First Kapellmeister at
Komische Oper Berlin from 2022
to 2024 and has worked with many
renowned ensembles, orchestras
and opera companies worldwide.
This is her first appearance with Irish National
Opera. In the 24/25 season, she makes her debut
with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie
Nürnberg, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Münchner
Symphoniker and in Japan with Nagoya Philharmonic
Orchestra and Kobe City Chamber Orchestra.
She also returns to the Civic Orchestra of Chicago
and Orchestra della Toscana. On the opera stage,
Yashima will debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago
with a production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro,
and Opera Australia with a production of Puccini’s
La bohème. Recent seasons saw Yashima debut
at English National Opera with Mozart’s The Magic
Flute and at the Bregenz Festival with Weber’s Der
Freischütz. As First Kapellmeister of the Komische
Oper Berlin, she conducted Dvořák’s Rusalka,
Thomas’s Hamlet, Mozart’s Così fan tutte and
Die Zauberflöte as well as the world premiere of
Elena Kats-Chernin’s Nils Holgersson. In 2022, she
made her debut with a new production of Mozart’s
Così fan tutte by the Washington National Opera.
Recent highlights also include performances with
the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR
Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco
Symphony, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre
Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Seoul Philharmonic
Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover.
Cal McCrystal is a leading director
who continues to transform the face
of opera as we know it, recognising
his creative vision as one of the
most playful and dynamic currently
seen worldwide. This is his first
production for Irish National Opera. Originally from
Ireland, his work spans opera, theatre, circus and
film across the globe, with his productions described
as ‘laugh-out-loud funny’ (The Guardian). McCrystal
created the critically-acclaimed production of
Rossini’s Le comte Ory for Garsington Opera, and
two Gilbert and Sullivan productions for English
National Opera: H.M.S. Pinafore and the Olivier
Award-winning Iolanthe, which returned in the ENO
2023/24 season. McCrystal was Comedy Director
for the Royal National Theatre’s award-winning West
End and Broadway show One Man, Two Guvnors and
for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Don Quixote.
McCrystal directed the original Mighty Boosh stage
shows, winning a Perrier Award, and works regularly
for British repertory theatres including Peepolykus,
the Comedians Theatre Company, Garry Starr and
British clown troupe Spymonkey. He spent many
years as Comedy Director for Cirque du Soleil, most
notably for their touring show, Varekai, and their
erotic cabaret, Zumanity: Another Side of Cirque
du Soleil, which ran for 15 successful years in Las
Vegas. He recently returned to Las Vegas to direct
OPIUM at the Cosmopolitan Hotel and created a new
resident show for the Venetian Hotel, Atomic Saloon
Show. McCrystal is a leading Comedy Consultant
for the movie industry where recent work includes:
The Dictator, Matilda, The Worlds End, Man Up, The
Nice Guys, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Cats and the
Paddington films.
Sarah is a Dublin-based set and
costume designer for the stage. Her
previous designs for Irish National
Opera include set and costume
design for Massenet’s Werther,
Mozart’s Abduction from the
Seraglio, and production design for 20 Shots of Opera
(filmed during the pandemic in 2020). She trained on
the Motley Theatre Design Course in London, having
previously studied architecture and design in Dublin
and Brighton. She started out designing for opera with
the ShortWorks at Wexford Festival Opera in 2007
including, that year, Peter Brook’s La tragédie de
Carmen. Recent theatre work includes designs for The
Children of The Sun by Hilary Fannin (set only) (Rough
Magic/Abbey Theatre), set and costume for The
Loved Ones by Erica Murray (Rough Magic/The Gate
Theatre), The Weir (Abbey Theatre), Luck Just Kissed
You Hello, Drama at Inish (Winner 2019 Irish Times
Theatre Award, Best Set Design, also nominated
Best Costume Design), City Song, The Shadow of a
Gunman (Winner 2016 Irish Times Theatre Award
Best Set Design, also nominated Best Costume
Design), Beginning /The Children, ASSASSINS (Gate
Theatre), Conversations After Sex (THISISPOPBABY).
In 2010 she was a Linbury Prize Finalist. She has
exhibited her work at the National Theatre in London.
Sarah is currently studying for a master’s degree in
Art in the Contemporary World at NCAD, Dublin.
Sarah Jane previously worked
with Irish National Opera in
Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel,
Evangelia Rigaki’s This Hostel Life,
Massenet’s Werther, and Gounod’s
Faust. She began designing lighting
in Dublin Youth Theatre, completing an MSc in
Interactive Digital Media in 2021, a BA in Drama and
Theatre Studies in 2006 (Trinity College Dublin), and
the Rough Magic SEEDS programme in 2006-8. From
2010 to 2017, she was co-artistic director of WillFredd
Theatre. Other recent lighting designs include This
Shit Happens All The Time (Lyric Theatre Belfast),
SHIT, Conversations After Sex (THISISPOPBABY), All
the Angels (Rough Magic Theatre Company), Book
of Names (ANU Productions), The Veiled Ones (Junk
Ensemble), After Love (Stephanie Dufresne, Galway
Dance Project, Galway International Arts Festival),
One Good Turn (Abbey Theatre) and A Very Old Man
with Enormous Wings (Collapsing Horse).
28
29

BIOGRAPHIES
RICHARD McGRATH
CHORUS DIRECTOR
PETER JOYCE
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
GRACE MORGAN
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
LAURA FAJARDO CASTRO
ASSOCIATE DESIGNER
Richard studied at Maynooth
University, the Royal Irish Academy
of Music, and the Guildhall School
of Music and Drama, London.
He was a trainee répétiteur at
English National Opera and since
then he has worked with companies including Irish
National Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, Wide
Open Opera, Opera Theatre Company, and Lyric
Opera Productions. Previous productions with these
companies include Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman,
Verdi’s Rigoletto, Verdi’s La traviata (INO, ENO and
Lyric Opera Productions), Puccini’s La bohème
(INO, Opera Theatre Company, ENO and Lyric
Opera), Berlioz’s Beatrice & Benedict, Gounod’s
Faust, Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Donizetti’s Don
Pasquale, Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Mozart’s The
Magic Flute, Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under
Ground (INO), Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s
The First Child and The Second Violinist (Landmark
Productions/INO), Beethoven’s Fidelio, Puccini’s
Madama Butterfly and Bizet’s Carmen (Lyric Opera
Productions), Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (Lyric
Opera Productions, Wide Open Opera and ENO),
Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s The Last
Hotel (Landmark Productions/Wide Open Opera),
Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (Opera Theatre Company
and NI Opera) and John Adams’s Nixon in China
(Wide Open Opera). Richard is a répétiteur in the
vocal department at the TU Dublin Conservatoire and
a coach for the INO Studio.
Peter Joyce is a member of the
Irish National Opera Studio and
was assistant conductor in Verdi’s
Rigoletto and Wagner’s The Flying
Dutchman for INO. After initial
musical studies in Ireland, Peter
went on to study conducting and composition at
the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna,
where he graduated with honours in June 2024.
Winner of both the First Prize and Orchestra Prize of
the 2023 Feis Ceoil Conducting Competition, Peter
has worked in symphonic, musical theatre, opera
and choral settings including with the ORF Radio
Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Vienna Symphony
Orchestra, the Sofia National Philharmonic Orchestra,
the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Szolnok Symphony
Orchestra, Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic, Max
Brand Ensemble, Ensemble Ars Nova and the
Webern Chamber Choir, performing in concert halls
including the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein,
the Vienna Konzerthaus and the National Concert
Hall Dublin. Peter is the founder and conductor
of the Esker Festival Orchestra which celebrated
its tenth anniversary in 2023 with performances
of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony. As well as
performing and conducting many world premieres
by emerging composers, Peter’s own compositions
have been performed by groups such as the Arditti
Quartet, Platypus Ensemble and at festivals including
Wien Modern. In 2020 he won the Feis Ceoil IMRO
Composition Award and in 2025 was a finalist in the
Maurico Kagel Composition Competition.
Grace Morgan is a theatre and
opera maker and director. She is a
member of the Irish National Opera
Studio, and was assistant director
in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Johann
Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus for INO.
She is also co-artistic director of theatre company
tasteinyourmouth (Dublin Fringe Artists in Residence
2024). Her recent directing credits include: Aran
O’Grady’s Hysterically Shopping! to some sort of end...
a new opera with Glasshouse Ensemble as part of
Dublin Theatre Festival+ in October 2024, Landmark
and Octopus Theatricals Theatre for One (Cork
Midsummer Festival), Puccini’s Suor Angelica as part
of Wexford Festival Opera 2023, the award-winning
You’re Needy (sounds frustrating) (Gothenburg Fringe,
Summerhall, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024, Dublin
Fringe Festival, nominated for best production 2023
and First Fortnight award), Narcissus (Dublin Fringe
2021 and The Chiswick Playhouse), The Sudden
(Associate Director, Dublin Dance Festival, Pan Pan),
MESPIL IN THE DARK LIVE (co-director, Pan Pan).
She also directed Drop in 2023 as part of the Druid
Debuts in Galway International Arts Festival. Grace
has worked as an Assistant and Associate Director
for leading Irish companies such as Pan Pan, Dead
Centre and OneTwoOneTwo. She has toured with
shows to international venues including Lincoln
Center New York, Centquatre-Paris, Skirball Center
New York, FFT Düsseldorf and BAM New York. Grace
was previously the Associate Artistic Director of Pan
Pan Theatre.
LaurA Fajardo Castro is a Colombian
costume and set designer based in
Dublin. This is her first production
for Irish National Opera. She
has worked for theatre, dance,
opera and tv. Her main interest is
approaching theatre design in a sustainable way.
LaurA graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts from Los
Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia. In 2018 she
moved to Ireland and graduated with an MFA in Stage
Design from The Lir Academy, Trinity College Dublin.
Her recent design works in theatre include: Amelia
(Dublin Theatre Festival, 2024), Afterwards (Dublin
Fringe Festival, 2024), You Belong to Me (Rough
Magic), The Visit, Bulrusher and Three Sisters at The
Lir Academy. Work in dance productions includes:
IÓMHÁ and Glasshouse by Roisín Whelan, and The
Ireland we dreamed of by Sinead McCann. LaurA has
worked as Assistant/Associate Designer for leading
Irish designers Katie Davenport, Sarah Bacon, Francis
O’Connor and Aedín Cosgrove on a wide variety of
productions. In Bogotá, LaurA worked for four years
with the theatre company Teatro Estudio Uniandes.
LaurA is currently Secretary of the Irish Society of
Performance Designers (ISPD) and Associate Artist
with Pan Pan Theatre for 2024/2025.
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31

BIOGRAPHIES
AOIFE O’SULLIVAN
RÉPÉTITEUR
ANNALISA MONTICELLI
LANGUAGE COACH
DEIRDRE HIGGINS
SOPRANO
GIANNETTA
DUKE KIM
TENOR
NEMORINO
Aoife O’Sullivan was répétiteur for
Irish National Opera productions of
Mozart’s Così fan tutte (for which
she also performed with the INO
Orchestra), Gounod’s Faust, and
Verdi’s La traviata. She was born
in Dublin and studied with Frank Heneghan and
later with John O’Conor, and graduated from Trinity
College Dublin with an honours degree in Music. In
September 1999 she began her studies at the Curtis
Institute of Music (Philadelphia) as a Fulbright Scholar
and joined the staff there for her final two years in
2001. She was awarded the Geoffrey Parsons Trust
Award for accompaniment of singers in 2005. She has
worked at Wexford Festival Opera, for Opera Theatre
Company on three Handel operas (Orlando, Xerxes,
and Alcina), and for Opera Ireland on Jake Heggie’s
Dead Man Walking and Britten’s A Midsummer
Night’s Dream. She also worked at the National Opera
Studio in London and was on the deputy coach list
for the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the
Royal Opera House. She has played for masterclasses
given by Malcolm Martineau, Ann Murray, Thomas
Allen, Thomas Hampson and Anna Moffo. She worked
on Mozart’s Zaide at the Britten Pears Young Artist
Programme and on Britten’s The Turn of the Screw
for the Cheltenham Festival with Paul Kildea. She
has appeared at the Wigmore Hall in concerts with
Ann Murray, Gweneth Ann Jeffers, Wendy Dawn
Thompson, and Sinéad Campbell Wallace. She is now
based in Dublin where she works as a répétiteur and
vocal coach at TU Dublin Conservatoire.
Annalisa Monticelli has performed
and recorded in Europe, Asia,
North and South America as
a piano soloist, with vocal and
instrumental ensembles, and with
various orchestras. She studied
piano, voice, conducting, chamber music, jazz
and education in Italy and the USA with musicians
including Bruno Canino, Daniel Rivera, Eugenia
Rozental, Cinzia Gizzi and Douglas Weeks. She gave
her first solo recital at the age of 10 and gained her
first piano degree aged 16 with maximum marks. She
started her professional coaching career working for
the Montalto Opera programme in Montalto Ligure
in Italy under the guidance of tenor Ugo Benelli and
accompanying masterclasses by Wagnerian soprano
Rebecca Turner and others. After three years in
the USA, she moved to Ireland in 2014 to work as a
répétiteur at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, where
she later became Italian and vocal coach. Since
then, she has performed in all Irish major venues,
released CDs, worked as Italian coach, accompanied
masterclasses for the Institut StimmKünst in Zürich
and performed and taught in Italy, England, Poland,
France, Lithuania, Malaysia and North America. She is
currently undertaking a PhD at TU Dublin, focusing on
Michele Esposito and his piano school in Dublin in the
late nineteenth century. She is currently programme
director/répétiteur at Dundalk Institute of Technology,
conductor of Anam Chamber Choir, and executive
director/chief accompanist/Italian coach for the Bassi
Brugnatelli International Symposium.
Soprano Deirdre Higgins has been
a member of the Irish National
Opera Studio since 2023. For INO,
she performed Mimì in Puccini’s
La bohème at the production’s
dress rehearsal, and she also
covered Margeurite in Gounod’s Faust and Rosalinda
in Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus. Deirdre has
also worked with Wexford Festival Opera, making
her debut at the 2024 festival as Eileen O’Doherty in
Alberto Caruso’s Lady Gregory in America. Deirdre
won the coveted Bernadette Greevy Bursary in 2024,
the Gervase Elwes Memorial Cup at the 2023 Feis
Ceoil, and the Birr Lions Club Bursary at Birr Festival
of Music in 2023. A keen recitalist and concert
performer, Deirdre has given recitals as part of the
Stanford Festival 2024 and Boyle Arts Festival 2023.
Following her success in the Feis Ceoil, she was
invited to perform a series of recitals at the Centre
Culturel Irlandais, Paris. She was also honoured to
be invited to sing at Dame Anne Murray’s Lifetime
Achievement Award Gala Concert at the National
Concert Hall. Deirdre made her concert debut with
the National Symphony Orchestra as a soloist as a
part of the 2024 Summer Lunchtime Concert series.
She returned to the National Concert Hall in February
2025 for the Valentine’s Day Opera Gala as part of
Celebrating the Voice, where she performed duets
with acclaimed mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught.
Duke Kim made his Irish National
Opera debut in 2023, singing the title
role in Gounod’s Faust. A graduate of
the Cafritz Young Artist Program at
the Washington National Opera, Duke
won prizes at Operalia 2022, the
inaugural Juan Pons International Singing Competition
(2022), and The Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique
Laffont Competition (2021). This season, Duke makes
house debuts at The Metropolitan Opera as Tamino in
Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Los Angeles Opera as
Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. He also returns
to Santa Fe Opera for his role debut as Duke in Verdi’s
Rigoletto. Recent highlights include appearances with
Pittsburgh Opera to sing Alfredo in Verdi’s La traviata,
Washington National Opera for Roméo in Roméo et
Juliette and Seattle Opera and Des Moines Metro Opera
for Il Conte d’Almaviva in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia.
On the concert stage he made his South American debut
at Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, in Handel’s Messiah,
gave a solo recital at the Korean Music Association
and a duet recital with mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven
at Seattle Opera. Other previous opera engagements
include Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Atlanta
Opera, Le Remendado in Bizet’s Carmen at Washington
National Opera, Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and
Count Camille de Rosillon in Lehár’s The Merry Widow
at Palm Beach Opera, and Lysander in Britten’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream at Santa Fe Opera. On the
concert stage he debuted with the National Symphony
Orchestra Washington conducted by Gianandrea
Noseda for Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and
Little Masonic Cantata, and Bach’s Magnificat, with the
Santa Fe Symphony for A Night at the Opera, Milwaukee
Symphony Orchestra in Messiah, and Grant Park Music
Festival in Haydn’s The Creation.
32
33

BIOGRAPHIES
CLAUDIA BOYLE
SOPRANO
ADINA
GIANLUCA MARGHERI
BASS
BELCORE
JOHN MOLLOY
BASS-BARITONE
DR DULCAMARA
IAN O’REILLY
ACTOR
TRUFFALDINO ASSISTANT TO DULCAMARA
For Irish National Opera, Claudia
Boyle has performed the roles of
Sophie in Richard Strauss’s Der
Rosenkavalier, and Olympia, Antonia,
Giulietta and Stella in Offenbach’s
The Tales of Hoffmann, together
with the title role in the film version of Gerald Barry’s
Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. Other recent career
highlights have included singing the role of Dede in
Bernstein’s A Quiet Place (conducted by Kent Nagano
and directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski) and the role
of Silvia de Avila in Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating
Angel, both for Opéra national de Paris, Cunegonde in
Bernstein’s Candide for Welsh National Opera, the title
role in Donizetti’s Zoraida di Granata for Wexford Festival
Opera, Konstanze in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus
dem Serail at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Komische
Oper Berlin, Alice in Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures
Under Ground at the Royal Ballet and Opera Covent
Garden under Thomas Adès, Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir
d’amore at Semperoper Dresden and Den Norske
Opera, Leila in Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers for English
National Opera and Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer
Night’s Dream conducted by James Conlon at Teatro
dell’Opera di Roma. Previous to this, she created the
role of May-Shan in Christian Jost’s opera Rote Laterne
under Alain Altinoglu for Opernhaus Zürich, and sang
the role of Cecily Cardew in the New York premiere of
Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest at the
Lincoln Center’s Rose Theatre. Future engagements
include concert debuts with the Grange Festival and
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, a role debut with
Ensemble intercontemporain, Paris, and a house debut
singing in The Exterminating Angel for Gran Teatre del
Liceu Barcelona.
Gianluca is an Italian bass-baritone
born in Florence. He made his Irish
National Opera debut in the title
role of the Olivier Award-winning
production of Vivaldi’s Bajazet and
returned as Guglielmo in Mozart’s
Così fan tutte. He began his operatic career in 2004
as Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s
Dream and soon moved his focus to the bel canto
and Mozartian repertoire. In 2009, he won the Toti
Dal Monte International Competition, debuting as
Villotto in Haydn’s La vera costanza at Teatro Real
in Madrid, with subsequent performances in Liège,
Saint-Étienne, Rouen, and Reggio Emilia. He has
collaborated with prominent conductors and directors
including Zubin Mehta, James Conlon, Jesús López-
Cobos, Graham Vick, Robert Carsen, Ottavio Dantone,
and George Petrou. His major roles include Don
Giovanni in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Budapest, France,
Belgium), Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Figaro
and Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro,
Raimondo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Talbot
in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, Escamillo in Bizet’s
Carmen, and Banco in Verdi’s Macbeth. He has
appeared at leading international venues such as the
Royal Ballet and Opera, Covent Garden, Gran Teatre
del Liceu in Barcelona, the Rossini Opera Festival, and
Opera di Firenze. Recent and upcoming engagements
include Don Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia
at Opéra de Montréal, the title role in Verdi’s Attila in
İzmir, Handel’s Semele in Lübeck, and Leucippo in
Rossini’s Zelmira at the Rossini Opera Festival.
John Molloy studied at TU Dublin
Conservatoire, the Royal Northern
College of Music in Manchester,
and the National Opera Studio in
London. His roles for Irish National
Opera include Older Man in the
European premiere of Emma O’Halloran and Mark
O’Halloran’s Trade as part of Dublin Theatre Festival
and on tour in 2024, Arthur in Peter Maxwell Davies’s
The Lighthouse, Colline in Puccini’s La bohème,
Angelotti in Puccini’s Tosca, Don Alfonso in Mozart’s
Così fan tutte, and Antonio in Mozart’s The Marriage
of Figaro. Roles for Opera Theatre Company include
Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Trinity Moses in Weill’s
Mahagonny, the title role in Mozart’s The Marriage
of Figaro, and Zuniga in Bizet’s Carmen. Other roles
include Alidoro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Scottish
Opera), Guccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (Royal
Ballet and Opera House, London), Masetto in Mozart’s
Don Giovanni (English National Opera), Arthur in Peter
Maxwell Davies’s The Lighthouse and the title role in
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (Nationale Reisopera,
Netherlands), Le Commandeur in Thomas’s La cour
de Célimène (Wexford Festival Opera), Angelotti in
Puccini’s Tosca, Luka in Walton’s The Bear, Banco in
Verdi’s Macbeth and Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’elisir
d’amore (OTC and NI Opera), Raimondo in Donizetti’s
Lucia di Lammermoor (Opera Holland Park), Leporello
in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Sarastro in Mozart’s Die
Zauberflöte, Bonze in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Lyric
Opera Productions), Snug in Britten’s A Midsummer
Night’s Dream (Opera Ireland) and Henry Kissinger in
John Adams’s Nixon in China (Wide Open Opera).
This is Ian’s first time working
with Irish National Opera.
Previous theatre credits include
The Beauty Queen of Leenane
(Rapture Theatre), Drama at Inish
(Abbey Theatre) and The Cripple
of Inishmaan (Gaiety Theatre). On screen Ian has
appeared in Moone Boy, Dating Amber, and Small
Things Like These and can be seen later this year
as Fortunato Contestabile in his newest feature film
Death Do Us Part.
34 35

MORE DATES
TO BE ANNOUNCED
WED 28 MAY
BIOGRAPHIES
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA
ORCHESTRA
IRISH NATIONAL OPERA
CHORUS
A CO-PRODUCTION WITH OPÉRA DE LILLE
The Irish National Opera Orchestra performs in most
of INO’s productions and is made up of leading Irish
freelance musicians. Members of the orchestra
have a broad range of experience playing operatic,
symphonic, chamber and new music repertoire. The
orchestra’s work includes Richard Strauss’s Elektra
in 2021, Der Rosenkavalier in 2023 (“delivers all the
swelling romanticism and range of tone and colour
you could ask for,” Irish Examiner) and Salome in 2024
(“a thumping triumph” Irish Examiner). It is equally at
home in music by Donizetti and Rossini (“wonderful
energy and musical vision,” Bachtrack in 2022 on
Rossini’s William Tell) and Puccini (“the INO Orchestra
handled the sweeping moods in masterly fashion,”
Business Post in 2023 on La bohème). The orchestra
also performs chamber reductions for touring
productions, including Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (2022)
and Massenet’s Werther (2023). The orchestra’s
contemporary repertoire has included Thomas Adès’s
Powder Her Face (2018), Peter Maxwell Davies’s The
Lighthouse (2021), and Brian Irvine and Netia Jones’s
Least Like The Other, Searching for Rosemary Kennedy,
in which it made its international debut at the Royal
Opera House in London in 2023. The orchestra
can be heard on the INO recording of Puccini’s La
bohème on Signum Classics.
The Irish National Opera Chorus is a dynamic
ensemble of leading professional singers that has
ranged in number from four, in Gluck’s Orfeo ed
Euridice, to 60, in Verdi’s Aida. The INO Chorus has
been heard in venues large and small throughout
Ireland as well as internationally. There is a core of
16 members of the INO Company Chorus who are
engaged to perform in all of the company’s mainscale
productions requiring chorus. Additional singers are
engaged in the Extra Chorus for each individual opera
as required. In 2022 the chorus appeared in Rossini’s
William Tell, one of the most chorally demanding
operas. INO Company Chorus members are regularly
featured in solo roles and have most recently been
heard in INO’s productions of Richard Strauss’s
Der Rosenkavalier, Puccini’s La bohème and Verdi’s
La traviata. During the 2024/25 Season, chorus
members will also feature in solo roles Donizetti’s
L’elisir d’amore and in a touring production of
Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus.
25 -27 JULY JULY 2025
LEISURELAND
GALWAY INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL
COMMISSIONED BY IRISH NATIONAL OPERA, MUZIEKGEBOUW AMSTERDAM,
KLANGFORUM WIEN AND OPÉRA DE LILLE.
37

IRISH NATIONAL OPERA
STUDIO – NURTURING THE FUTURE OF IRISH OPERA
FOUNDERS CIRCLE
Anonymous
Desmond Barry & John Redmill
Valerie Beatty & Dennis Jennings
Mark & Nicola Beddy
Carina & Ali Ben Lmadani
Mary Brennan
Angie Brown
Breffni & Jean Byrne
Jennifer Caldwell
Seán Caldwell & Richard Caldwell
Caroline Classon, in memoriam
David Warren, Gorey
Audrey Conlon
Gerardine Connolly
Jackie Connolly
Gabrielle Croke
Sarah Daniel
Maureen de Forge
Doreen Delahunty & Michael Moriarty
Joseph Denny
Kate Donaghy
Marcus Dowling
Mareta & Conor Doyle
Noel Doyle & Brigid McManus
Michael Duggan
Catherine & William Earley
Jim & Moira Flavin
Ian & Jean Flitcroft
Anne Fogarty
Maire & Maurice Foley
Roy & Aisling Foster
Howard Gatiss
Genesis
Hugh & Mary Geoghegan
Diarmuid Hegarty
M Hely Hutchinson
Gemma Hussey
Kathy Hutton & David McGrath
Nuala Johnson
Susan Kiely
Timothy King & Mary Canning
J & N Kingston
Kate & Ross Kingston
Silvia & Jay Krehbiel
Karlin Lillington & Chris Horn
Stella Litchfield
Jane Loughman
Rev Bernárd Lynch & Billy Desmond
Lyndon MacCann S.C.
Phyllis Mac Namara
Tony & Joan Manning
R. John McBratney
Ruth McCarthy, in memoriam Niall
& Barbara McCarthy
Petria McDonnell
Jim McKiernan
Tyree & Jim McLeod
Jean Moorhead
Sara Moorhead
Joe & Mary Murphy
Ann Nolan & Paul Burns
F.X. & Pat O’Brien
James & Sylvia O’Connor
John & Viola O’Connor
Joseph O’Dea
Dr J R O’Donnell
Deirdre O’Donovan & Daniel Collins
Diarmuid O’Dwyer
Patricia O’Hara
Annmaree O’Keefe & Chris Greene
Carmel & Denis O’Sullivan
Líosa O’Sullivan & Mandy Fogarty
Hilary Pratt
Sue Price
Landmark Productions
Riverdream Productions
Nik Quaife & Emerson Bruns
Margaret Quigley
Patricia Reilly
Dr Frances Ruane
Catherine Santoro
Dermot & Sue Scott
Yvonne Shields
Fergus Sheil Sr
Gaby Smyth
Matthew Patrick Smyth
Bruce Stanley
Sara Stewart
The Wagner Society of Ireland
Julian & Beryl Stracey
Michael Wall & Simon Nugent
Brian Walsh & Barry Doocey
Judy Woodworth
The Irish National Opera Studio is at the heart
of our mission to nurture the next generation
of Irish opera talent. This programme offers
a unique opportunity for emerging artists to
develop their skills and build their careers.
Highlights include:
Performance Opportunities: Members
participate in Irish National Opera productions,
learning from seasoned artists, performing
onstage, singing in the chorus, understudying
lead roles or assisting in rehearsals.
Professional Mentoring: Participants receive
individual coaching, attend masterclasses and
benefit from the expertise of renowned Irish
and international artists and coaches including
Brenda Hurley, Elīna Garanča, Danielle de
Niese, Joseph Calleja and Tara Erraught.
Skill Development: Support on all aspects
of the industry is a key feature of the
programme including advice on performance,
presentation, language skills, personal musical
growth and professional career guidance.
For information contact Studio
& Outreach Producer James Bingham at
james@irishnationalopera.ie
STUDIO SPOTLIGHT
Mezzo-soprano Aebh Kelly was
a member of the INO Studio in
the company’s 20/21 season. In
February 2026, Aebh will make
her debut for Opéra national de
Paris, playing the role of Nancy
Tang in Nixon in China, performing
alongside Thomas Hampson and
Renée Fleming.
Image: Aebh Kelly at Teatro la Fenice, Mascarade
Showcase 2023 Photography: Marco Borrelli
38
39

WELCOMING NEW
AUDIENCES WITH
TECHNOLOGY
REIMAGINING THE BOUNDARIES OF OPERA IN THE DIGITAL AGE
At Irish National Opera, we believe opera is for everyone.
By infusing our work with a pioneering spirit and cuttingedge
technology, we invite an ever-growing audience to
access the dynamism of opera.
Our innovative ‘Isolde’ project offers a ground-breaking
platform for synchronising visuals and audio on personal
devices, allowing audiences to use their mobile phones with
projected or screened performances in public or site-specific
locations. Isolde’s user-friendly interface replaces amplified
audio equipment, with potential applications for museums,
galleries, and audio descriptions for the visually impaired in
theatre settings.
INO is part of an exciting new project funded by Horizon
Europe, titled Hybrid Extended reAliTy, or HEAT, exploring
the impact of hologram technology on the opera experience.
HEAT paves the way for next-generation multi-sensory, hyperrealistic,
immersive experiences. We look forward to this latest
journey in the opera-meets-innovation space.
Our award-winning virtual reality community opera, Out of the
Ordinary/As an nGnách, was created by communities from
Inis Meáin to Tallaght in collaboration with composer Finola
Merivale, librettist Jody O’Neill, and director Jo Mangan.
Images: Clockwise from top,
Photos 1 & 2, Screening of
Brian Irvine’s Scorched Earth
Trilogy at Trinity College Dublin,
photos: Dumbworld; Screening
of Peter Maxwell Davies’s The
Lighthouse at Hook Head,
photo: Pádraig Grant; Audience
member at Finola Merivale’s
virtual reality opera, Out of
the Ordinary/As an nGnách, at
Dublin Fridge Festival, photo:
Simon Lazewski.
40
47 41

WATCH WAGNER’S
THE THE
THE FLYING
FLYING DUTCHMAN
DUTCHMAN
ON ON
ON OPERAVISION
OPERAVISION
AVAILABLE UNTIL 25 OCTOBER 2025
AVAILABLE UNTIL 25 2025
AVAILABLE UNTIL 25 OCTOBER 2025
Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman © Pat Redmond
Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman © Pat Redmond
Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman © Pat Redmond
INO FUTURE LEADERS
NETWORK
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA IS A GREAT
WAY TO MEET PEOPLE AND EXPAND
YOUR NETWORK.
This new initiative is tailored to young
professionals across a variety of industries
looking for an enjoyable way to expand
their professional network.
INO is a vibrant, dynamic company and our operas
attract a broad and varied audience. Developing a
robust network is crucial to a successful career and
we have created a unique opportunity for professionals
to meet and connect before an opera performance.
With this network, we want to create a space for you to
connect with individuals across a range of sectors, who
have the potential to be your future colleagues, clients,
customers or collaborators. We aim for this network to
empower you to forge meaningful connections that can
open doors to new opportunities, enhance your skill
set, and broaden your perspective – all while enjoying
a world-class opera performance!
Photo: participants at an INO Future Leaders
Network event
Photographer: Mark Stedman
This initiative is proudly supported by a partnership
with Spencer Lennox.
The next Future Leaders event will take place
in Autumn. To sign up to this network, or if your
company is interested in hosting an event for the
INO Future Leaders Network, please contact us on
development@irishnationalopera.ie
or +353 1 6794962
A new opera every week
to watch for free from home
operavision.eu
43

MUSIC, MAGIC
& MISCHIEF
A guide to falling in love in opera
INSPIRATIONAL
INNOVATIVE IMPACTFUL
SHARING OUR PASSION FOR OPERA
WITH AUDIENCES AROUND IRELAND AND BEYOND
INO OPEN FOYER
Our Open Foyer initiative unites communities through opera.
During our recent tour of Emma O’Halloran’s Trade and Mary
Motorhead we worked with local community groups in Cork,
Tralee and Ennis to produce creative responses to the opera,
which were showcased in the theatre foyers before each
show. They included art exhibitions, poetry recitals and music
performances by singer songwriters. All participants received
free tickets to our performances. The INO Open Foyer Series is
generously supported by INO Member, William Earley.
INO ON OPERAVISION
Through OperaVision, select INO productions have reached
over 210,000 viewers worldwide, with our recent production
of Salome attracting over 50,000 views. We look forward to
sharing more in 2025 including our 2024 Studio Gala and
The Flying Dutchman.
SUN 29 JUNE - WED 9 JULY 2025
Pavilion Theatre Dún Laoghaire 29 June
The Desmond Complex Newcastle West 3 July
Nenagh Arts Centre Nenagh 4 July
STAC Chapel Clonmel Junction Arts Festival 6 July
The Lark Balbriggan 9 July
INO SCHOOLS PROGRAMME
This season we will welcome over 400 school students to
productions at the Gaiety and Board Gáis Energy Theatre with
subsidised tickets. Our outreach team will provide resource
packs and school workshops with opera professionals
including directors, singers and dancers. The INO Schools
Programme is generously supported by Mary Canning in
memory of Timothy King.
“I didn’t know there were so many components that go
together in an opera. There’s so much work that goes
into it. It’s really amazing.”
“Outstanding performance, outstanding orchestra,
wonderful production. Thoroughly engrossing, and
the finale was spellbinding.”
irishnationalopera.ie
45

INO TEAM
Pauline Ashwood
Head of Planning
James Bingham
Studio & Outreach Producer
Janaina Caldeira
Bookkeeper
Sorcha Carroll
Communications Manager
Aoife Daly
Development Manager
Diego Fasciati
Executive Director
Lea Försterling
Digital Communications
Executive
Ciarán Gallagher
Marketing Executive
Cate Kelliher
Business & Finance Manager
Lauren Kelly Maternity cover
Studio & Outreach Executive
Anne Kyle
Stage Manager
Amy O’Dwyer Maternity cover
Digital Producer
Gavin O’Sullivan
Head of Production
Renata Rîmbu
Development Administrator
Muireann Sheahan
Orchestra & Chorus Manager
Fergus Sheil
Artistic Director
David Smith
Accountant part time
Paula Tierney
Company Stage Manager
Lilly Timme
Marketing Intern
RJ Walters-Dorchak
Artistic Administrator
Board of Directors
Jennifer Caldwell Chair
Howard Gatiss
Gerard Howlin
Dennis Jennings
Paula Murrihy
Suzanne Nance
Davina Saint
Imelda Shine
Bruce Stanley
Jonathan Friend
Artistic Advisor
Irish National Opera
69 Dame Street
Dublin 2 | Ireland
T: 01–679 4962
E: info@irishnationalopera.ie
irishnationalopera.ie
@irishnationalopera
@irishnatopera
@irishnationalopera
Company Reg No.: 601853
Registered Charity: 22403
(RCN) 20204547
46

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