The Anna Livia International Opera Festival, masterminded by Bernadette Greevy (right), opens at the Gaiety Theatre next Friday. The festival's main programme, four performances each of Massenet's Herodiade and Puccini's La rondine, seeks to create a new niche, by presenting Wexford Festival-style repertoire in Dublin (both works were done in Wexford in the 1970s) but with a strong representation of Irish singers, at least among the female roles. Greevy herself is taking the title role in Herodiade, and the creative teams for both operas will be familiar from Greevy's 1994 production of Carmen at the NCH - Roberto Oswald is the director and set designer, Anibal Lapis the costume designer and Franz-Paul Decker the conductor.
