On the Town: It was the night to savour great Czech tragedy and the return of Opera Ireland to the cultural landscape of the capital.
"We're back," announced a delighted David Collopy, general manager of Opera Ireland, the company which couldn't stage any productions last year due to funding cuts. At a reception in the Merrion Hotel in Dublin this week, he welcomed guests to the company's spring season.
"Isn't it time Dublin joined the rest of Europe's capital cities with the provision of a properly equipped music theatre," he added as a parting jibe before the guests dispersed and made their way to the Gaeity Theatre to enjoy the company's production of Jenufa by Leo Janácek. Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, which opened the night before had "a special atmosphere" said the show's conductor Alexander Anissimov.
All week the two operas were performed on alternate nights. Tomorrow night Opera Ireland's spring season comes to a close, with a last performance of Tosca.
Before Jenufa began, Dieter Kaegi, artistic director of Opera Ireland, said: "The whole thing goes to your heart. It's very, very touching. Tears will flow," he warned. "It's about a tragedy in a village when a mother kills her daughter's baby because she's ashamed. Janácek like no other composer was able to combine words with music so there's complete unity."
"I hope that this village's story about the position of the guilty in society will speak to people here," said Jirí Nekvasil, Jenufa director and artistic director of the National Theatre in Prague. "It's about the position we have in the community and how we can very simply lose it."
The opera is "very sad and highly emotional", according to Anne-Marie O'Sullivan, head of vocal opera and drama studies at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, who was looking forward to seeing many of her students perform in the opera's chorus.
Phelim Donlon, one of The Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Awards judges, and his wife, Pat, were both looking forward to the performance.
The ambassador of the Czech Republic, Josef Havlas, and his wife, Ivana Havlasova, explained the importance of Jenufa. "It's extremely spiritual," he said. "The stepmother's aria in the second movement, it's probably the greatest. She's recognising her sin."
Opera Ireland's winter season later this year will stage two more productions: Rigoletto by Guiseppe Verdi and Orfeo Ed Euridice by Cristoph W. Gluck.