TRISTAN UND ISOLDE – WAGNER
Presented on Apr 20, 22[Act 3], 24, 29 May 3 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin by soloists from the Munich State Opera as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Paula Baumann / Erna Schluter[Apr 20] – Isolde
August Seider – Tristan
Hans Hermann-Nissen – Marke
Ira Malaniuk – Brangäene
Rudolf Grossmann – Kurwenal
Albrecht Peter – Melot
Rudolf Wunzer – Steersman
Paul Kuen – Sailor / Shepherd
Robert Heger / Hans Gierster[Apr 29] – Conductor
Ulrich Reinhardt – Producer
MADAMA BUTTERFLY – PUCCINI
Presented on Apr 21, 25, 28 May 2m at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Elena Rizzieri – Cio-Cio San
Alvinio Misciano – Pinkerton
Gianella Borelli – Suzuki
Giuseppe Forgione – Sharpless
Joseph Flood – Goro
Umberto Frisaldi – Bonze / Yamadori
Maureen Ryan – Kate
Giuseppe Morelli – Conductor
Bruno Nofri – Producer
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA – ROSSINI
Presented on Apr 23, 30, May 5, 7 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Giuseppe Forgione – Figaro
Erina Valli – Rosina
Rodolfo Moraro – Almaviva
Umberto Frisaldi – Bartolo
Plinio Clabassi – Basilio
Sam Mooney – Fiorello
Giannella Borelli – Berta
Giuseppe Morelli – Conductor
Bruno Nofri – Producer
LA BOHÈME – PUCCINI
Presented on Apr 25m, 27 May 1, 4 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin by soloists from the Munich State Opera as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Gerda Sommerschuh – Mimi
Hans Hopf / Josef Traxel[Apr 25m] – Rodolfo
Kathe Nentwig – Musetta
Albrecht Peter – Marcello
Rudolf Wunzer – Colline
Benno Kusche – Schaunard
Adolf Kiel – Benoit / Alcindoro
Karl Tutein – Conductor
Oscar Arnold-Paur – Producer
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO – MOZART
Presented on May 2, 6, 8, 11 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin by soloists from the Munich State Opera as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Benno Kusche – Figaro
Kathe Nentwig – Susanna
Cäcilie Reich – Countess
Karl Schmitt-Walter – Count
Herta Topper – Cherubino
Ruolf Wunzer – Bartolo
Ian Gerhein- Marcellina
Paul Kuen – Basilio
Adolf Keil – Antonio
Hildegard Limmer – Barbarina
Emile Graf – Curzio
Rudolf Kempe / Hans Gierster[May 2] – Conductor
Heinz Arnold – Producer
LA TRAVIATA – VERDI
Presented on May 9m, 13, 15, 16 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin by soloists from the Munich State Opera as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Sari Barabas – Violetta
Richard Holm – Alfredo
Karl Schmitt-Walter – Giorgio
Antonie Fahberg – Flora
Emile Graf – Gastone
Josef Knapp – Baron
Robert Hager – Marchese
Rudolf Wunzer – Dr Grenvil
Ian Gerhein – Annina
Hans Gierster – Conductor
Heinz Arnold – Producer
RIGOLETTO – VERDI
Presented on May 9, 12, 14, 16m at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Paolo Silveri – Rigoletto
Erina Valli – Gilda
Alvinio Misciano – Duke
Plinio Clabassi – Sparafucile
Umberto Frisaldi – Monterone
Giannella Borelli – Maddalena
Brendan Cavanagh – Borsa
Joseph Flood – Marullo
Lt-Col J M Doyle – Conductor
Powell Lloyd – Producer
GRAND FAREWELL CONCERT BY VISITING OPERATIC STARS
Presented at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin on Sunday May 10th at 8pm
In addition to the Theatre Programme, an illustrated Souvenir Brochure was issued to commemorate the season
Opera connoisseurs could not have hoped for better news. The announcement early in 1953 that the Munich State Opera had accepted the DGOS’s invitation to perform in the spring season of that year was almost too good to be true, although everyone agreed that after the success of the Hamburg visits anything was possible. Perhaps Maestro Morelli was correct after all – the chairman Comdt. O’Kelly was indeed some kind of miracle man. The German company could look back on a three-hundred-year-old tradition, dating to 1653 when the first performance of an opera took place in the Bavarian capital. There followed performances of new works by the great Amadeus Mozart, including “Idomeneo”, which were composed especially for the Munich stage. When in 1945, all cultural life seemed to have come to an end at the same time as the military and economic collapse, no one could have guessed that within a short time the nucleus of a new company would be in place. Fortune had played a part in the recovery. With their own opera house destroyed in the Allied bombing campaigns they were lucky to be able to find a home in the Prinzregent Theatre which had only suffered slight damage. As early as November 1945 the company was able to present Beethoven’s opera “Fidelio” and by the early 1950s it was again one of the strongest in Germany. Persuading the company to visit Dublin took some time. The society found a genuine friend in Dr. Alfred Koll, secretary of the German Legation in Dublin and he opened doors for them in Bonn and Munich. Comdt. O’Kelly, Bertie Timlin and Fachtna O’Hannrach.iin, music director in Radio Eireann, travelled to Munich in the late autumn of 1952 for talks with the opera company’s director Prof. Rudolf Hartmann, Prof. Robert Heger, the distinguished conductor, and stage director Ulrich Reinhardt. The Germans quickly outlined the guarantees they wanted. ‘I was invited along by Bill O’Kelly to answer questions about the Radio Eireann Svmphony Orchestra and to satisfy them that musically it was up to requirements,’ recalled O’Hannrachain. It was plain that they didn’t want a scratch orchestra accompanying their singers and I agreed with that. I was able to tell them the orchestra had played for the principals of Opera Comique as well as the visiting Hamburg State Company and that eased their worries. Prof. Hartmann was the hardest to satisfy and though friendly, he was a tough negotiator. I remember we were brought to an opera performance for the purpose I suspected of showing us the high musical standards of the Munich company.’ O’Kelly was in turn quizzed about the Gaiety Theatre, the size of its stage, the backstage amenities and the staff. Bertie Timlin was able to assure the Germans that the company would be well supported by the Irish public and that their productions would probably be a sell-out at the box office. It was left to O’Kelly and Timlin to finalise the financial arrangements and the fees involved. It was a package deal with the Munich company bringing with them the principal singers, stage sets and costumes. ‘The deal was clinched before we left Munich,’ says Fachtna O’Hannrachain. ‘I’ve no doubt it helped a lot that the Hamburg people had been so well treated on their visits to Dublin and Munich knew about this. Nevertheless, it took some hard bargaining on Bill O’Kelly’s part but I could see they respected his determination and enthusiasm. He was a realist and knew what was needed and how to achieve it. He impressed people by his sincerity and obvious organising skills. Although we begged to differ on occasions, I got on well with him for behind his somewhat abrasive exterior there was a good-natured man.’ During their visit it struck him forcibly that the chairman was running the society his way but he himself believed it was the only way it could be done in opera. He was able to inspire and cajole pcople and though they might argue he was autocratic few could deny his leadership skills which undoubtedly helped to hold the DGOS together. He made a good impression on the Munich people who were pragmatists and in no way swayed by Irish blarney. Meeting the expenses of the Munich company posed problems, but they were overcome by aid from the German government in Bonn, the Arts Council of Ireland and from the society’s own contribution, which came from patrons’ subscriptions and box-office takings. The Italian subvention took care of the operas featuring that country’s artists. Around this time James J O’Connor, chairman of the society’s patron membership, was ensuring that numbers increased annually and he made repeated appeals for new members, emphasising strongly that visits from German companies especially could not be possible without financial guarantees. The response he got was usually very good. It promised to be a momentous season comprising seven operas, two of which had already caught the public’s imagination and there was a clamour for tickets. These were “Tristan and Isolde”, being staged by the Munich company, and the DGOS’s presentation of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” with Paolo Silveri in the title role.
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
Opera in Ireland 