RIGOLETTO – VERDI
Presented on Dec 3, 5, 8, 11 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Winter Season
Peter McBrien – Rigoletto
Ilena Vink – Gilda
Ingus Peterson – Duke
Curtis Watson – Sparafucile
Frank O’Brien – Monterone
Deirdre Cooling-Nolan – Maddalena
Albert Rosen – Conductor
Jan Bouws – Director
DON PASQUALE – DONIZETTI
Presented on Dec 4, 6, 10 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Winter Season
Enrico Fissore – Pasquale
Nuccia Focile – Norina
Giuseppe Costanzo – Ernesto
Russell Smythe – Malatesta
Ciaran Rocks / Duncan MacKenzie[Dec 6] – Notary
David Parry – Conductor
Michael McCaffery – Director
LES PÊCHEURS DE PERLES – BIZET
Presented on Dec 7, 9, 12 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Winter Season
Virginia Kerr – Leila
Gines Sirera – Nadir
Peter Coleman Wright – Zurga
Jack O’Kelly – Nourabad
Valentin Reymond – Conductor
Mike Ashman – Director
Michael McCaffery decided to direct his first opera for the society in the ’87 winter season, Donizetti’s comic masterpiece “Don Pasquale” and travelled to Milan to audition singers for the principal roles. He counted himself fortunate to be able to engage the brilliant young lyric soprano Nuccia Focile for Norina, a poor widow in love with Ernesto, who would be sung by her fellow Italian Giuseppe Costanzo. And he signed up the experienced Enrico Fissore, a buffo singer of note, for the title role with Russell Smythe singing Doctor Malatesta. As far as I can recall, there was a sparkle about the production and some wonderfully comic moments. There could be no complaints that Irish artists were being ignored, for there were ten of them alone in “Rigoletto”, including Peter McBrien who made a brave shot at the taxing role of the jester. The third production that season, Bizet’s tuneful “Les Pecheurs de Perles”, was to prove a lively talking point because of director Mike Ashman’s odd demands on soprano Virginia Kerr, who was singing Leila, the priestess. In the first act, for instance, she was raised some ten feet above the stage in an iron swing and remained swaying there until the curtain fell. Later, she was obliged to skip over a stage-full of prone bodies in a full-length strait-jacket that curtailed her use of arms and balance. I remember asking myself how relevant it all was and could only conclude that the director was trying to be unconventional. Mary MacGoris in her review for the Irish Independent also questioned its relevance. Virginia Kerr told me later she thought Mike Ashman was being daring and she had no complaints. ‘I’ll try anything as long as it doesn’t affect my voice.’
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
Opera in Ireland 