Opera Ireland spring season- Tosca & Jenufa

dod

Opera Irelands spring season is imminent, and the two (fully staged) operas they are performing are Tosca by Puccini and Jenufa by Janacek

For anyone potentially interested, I include a brief description below. Full details are available on the Opera Ireland website.

Tickets cost approx €52.

Tosca 17, 19, 21, 23, 25 April 2004
Tosca is one of the most popular of operas . Its success rests on both the beautiful music and well known arias such as "E lucevan le stelle" and "Vissi d'arte" but also on the very effective plot. Puccini's heroines come in two varieties - frail , sad women such as Mimi and Madam Butterfly and strong willed fighters such as Tosca. The story of Tosca concerns an opera signer who is ends up in the clutches of the head of the secret police and has to promise him sex so as to save her lover. In the end she stabs Scarpia to death but finds he has cheated her in that he never ordered her lover saved and what she thinks will be a mock execution turns out to be real.

This melodramatic plot ( that is nevertheless less quite believable) has some wonderful lines as when Tosca stabs Scarpia. Her lines are " die, die damn you (he dies ) ( pause ) Now I forgive you " In the hands of a great singing actress this is quite a role and hence very much associated with Maria Callas.

Unfortunately, as those of you who went will remember, the last production by Opera Ireland was truly awful. This one looks much more promising as it is an import from Klagenfort with big realistic sets. Furthermore it is being conducted by Alexander Annisimov who can be guaranteed to give us a great account of the score.

For those who have not come to an opera before and have often thought of doing so this is a good place to start.


Jenufa 18, 20, 22, 24 April 2004
Tosca is an opera which is full of melodramatic incident while Jenufa is much more subdued and therefore does not have such an immediate impact. But in the end Jenufa is for me the more moving and enriching work. Jenufa is close to the original meaning of opera which is a play with music. The music does not jump at you but works with the words to make a powerful cumulative effect. The plot of Jenufa is also more human in its scale. It concerns Jenufa who finds herself pregnant. Her stepmother is horrified by the position of Jenufa and tries to persuade the father (who she despises) to marry Jenufa but he refuses. To save Jenufa from a miserable life the stepmother drowns the baby but then her conscience starts at her ....

This may not sound like a barrel of laughs, and is not, but nor is it as depressing as that short outline suggests as in the end the opera is about forgiveness and the triumph of the human spirit. Though the role of Jenufa is important the gift of the role is that of the step-mother. It is again a role for a great singing actress but in this case it can take a singer in their declining years.

This is the third attempt of Opera Ireland to stage this work over the last two years and the original plan was for the role of the step-mother to be sung by Suzanne Murphy given she is acclaimed internationally in this role( and having seen her I can confirm she is fabulous ). Unfortunately she is signing elsewhere at present and therefore the role had go elsewhere. Luckily we are getting R Plowright who has sung the role at the Met. in New York last year and who is also singing it in Paris this year. She is a powerful stage actress and should be very good.

sionnach

don't suppose there are student discounts? 52 euro is far too steep for me

dod

I don't know what their arrangements in respect of discounts or concessions are, but if you click on their online booking, it does say that concessions are only available from the central box office. The best thing might be to ask them at the Gaiety, but personally I don't know any of the details or the extent of the discounts they might give.

Avril2010

I have been organizing a group outing to Tosca and have a few tickets for tonights (nov 17th) left over. They are only €10 each in the upper circle, I used the same seats last week and we could see everything perfectly. If you want to buy a few let me know!!