Michael McCaffery – Artistic Director
TOSCA – PUCCINI
Presented on Apr 6, 8, 11, 14 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Margareta Havarinen – Tosca
Giorgio Tieppo – Cavaradossi
Anthony Baldwin – Scarpia
Jean-Jacques Cubaynes – Angelotti
Peter McBrien – Sacristan
Marc Thomson – Spoletta
Nigel Williams – Sciarrone
Albert Rosen – Conductor
Susan Todd – Director
IL TROVATORE – VERDI
Presented on Apr 7, 9, 13, 16 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Fabio Armiliato – Manrico
Francesca Arnone – Leonora
Luis Giron May – Di Luna
Evghenia Dundekhova – Azucena
Alistair Miles – Ferrando
David Parry – Conductor
Michael McCaffery – Director
DON GIOVANNI – MOZART
Presented on Apr 10, 12, 15 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Maarten Flipse – Giovanni
Tiziana Ducati – Anna
Tom Haenen – Leporello
Virginia Kerr – Elvira
Christian Papis – Ottavio
Kathleen Tynan – Zerlina
Jean-Jacques Cubaynes – Commendatore
Jack O’Kelly – Masetto
Janos Furst – Conductor
Patrick Mason – Director
By now the problem of inconsistency was puzzling even the most loyal of the DGOS’s followers. And it was sadly noticeable during the spring season of 1988 with ‘Il Trovatore” being gloomily lit and “Tosca” proving in the words of one newspaper critic, ‘dark and dull’ saved only by some ardent singing by the principals. Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” was an altogether different matter and showed how on occasions the society could rise remarkably above the mediocre. Michael McCaffery had asked Patrick Mason, the brilliant theatrical director, to produce the opera, his first for the society, and he proved an inspired choice as indeed was designer Joe Vanek. Mason set the work in the Rome of 1960, reflecting an atmosphere evoking Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” – stills from the film were exhibited later in the programme book. He had two years previously begun directing opera at the Wexford Festival with considerable success and as a Mozartian always wanted to direct “Giovanni” which he saw as a sophisticated, playful opera with an ironic view of life. Setting it in 1960 was a way, he felt, of getting a fresh look at it and he was determined to bring out its humour. As he said, ‘Whatever about its tragic undertones, if you can’t get a laugh out of “Giovanni” there’s something wrong with the production, for it’s one of the most witty librettos in all opera.’ He saw advantages in updating it to the sixties; it was a period of moral change and society itself was changing, so in a way it was traditional morality versus a new kind of liberalism. Audiences in the eighties could readily identify with the references and see for themselves how modern an opera it was. As for the Don, he was suave and lecherous as he moved around in his tie and dinner jacket and he had echoes of Marcello Mastroianni and even James Bond. He was pleased by Michael McCaffery’s casting and they had a great double act in Maarten Flipse’s Don and Tom Haenen’s Leporello and a striking Commendatore in Jean-Jacques Cubaynes. It owed its musical strengths, Mason said, to Janos Furst’s superb conducting of the RTE Symphony Orchestra. He also paid tribute to the chorus, a mixture of imported professional choristers singing alongside the DGOS members. For Virginia Kerr, who was singing Donna Elvira, the production was a milestone in the society’s development and updating the piece was a master stroke. ‘It worked brilliantly,’ she said, ‘and I don’t think this is always true when one takes operas out of their time.’
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
The Winter 1988 season was cancelled: here’s how RTE reported the announcement
The DGOS Chorus did participate in “An Evening with Verdi” at the National Concert Hall on 11 December 1988 – here is a programme for the occasion and a recording of the concert:
Opera in Ireland 