Cavalleria rusticana - Mascagni

I Pagliacci - Leoncavallo

Opera Ireland's new Cav & Pag, directed by the company's artistic director, Dieter Kaegi, is one of those evenings that could well be remembered for all the wrong reasons. Want to hear a corpse sing an aria? (Turiddu does this, rising up from the dead at the opening of Cavalleria rusticana.) Want to hear "Vesti la giubba" sung in the front seat of a Fiat 500? Want to find the Prologue to Pagliacci tacked on to Mascagni's opera instead of Leoncavallo's? The list of Kaegi's work-distrustful fussiness could go on. Designer Bruno Schwengl accommodates this treatment of the verismo double-bill of deadly jealousy in a wideopen, yellow-walled set with black murals. The largely monochrome treatment of Cav almost promises there will be an exception to the rule (it turns out to be the mauve skirt and peppermint top of Lola), and as well as those post-war Italian icons of the Fiat and a Vespa (this latter in Cav), there's a large bank of flashing light-bulbs for circus atmosphere in Pag.

Directorial disruptions apart, in Cav there's a thrillingly strong if uneven Santuzza from the passionately open-hearted Sylvie Brunet, and a coarser Turiddu from Ivan Choupenitch, who strives for a more Italianate style. Joyce Campana flounces colourfully as Lola, Deirdre Cooling Nolan is a grave if very Irish-vowelled Mamma Lucia, and Anatoly Lochak an Alfio who sounds unexpectedly underpowered. Alexander Anissimov conducts the RTECO with force but not much idiomatic subtlety, and the feeling of stylistic mismatch was even stronger in the second work, where the orchestra's playing also became less reliable. The main problem in Pag, however, was the generally under-resourced singing of Daniella Lojarro as Nedda. Quite simply, she was hard to hear a lot of the time.

Patrick Power was an altogether more stylish if still light presence as the murderously provoked Canio, though Martin Higgins registered only grayly as his rival Silvio. Jonathan Veira painted a vivid picture of the vengeful Tonio, and Declan Kelly played his vocally sweet'n'sour Beppe in a manner that was strangely camp.

Runs until Sunday.