EARLIER this year, for the third time in a decade, artistic differences contributed to DGOS Opera Ireland's parting company, earlier than scheduled, with an artistic director.

Yet, although the departure of Dorothea Glatt was signalled in advance of the company's spring season, it took until August for the post to be advertised in Opera magazine. Interviews for the job took place near the beginning of October and the company is expecting to make an announcement early next month.

Also due for announcement is the belated change of name from DGOS Opera Ireland to the rather simpler Opera Ireland, though in the company's idiosyncratic time scaling, the new name and its associated logo are already in use.

The forthcoming winter season (the company's first to use subtitles) will feature productions of Puccini's Lo boheme (a revival of an Elijah Moshinsky production by Daniel Slater on November 27th, 29th, December 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th), and Donizetti's L'Elisir d'amore (a new Mike Ashman production designed by Bernard Culshaw on December 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th). The operas for next spring will be Mozart's Noze di Figaro and Verdi's Macbeth, this latter marking the Dublin operatic debut of the NSO's principal guest conductor, Alexander Anissimov.