OnTheTown: Giacomo Puccini's music filled the National Concert Hall for two nights in Dublin this week. Before the baton was raised by conductor David Jones to begin Tosca, there were last-minute dashes.
John Molloy, from Birr, Co Offaly, stood dressed in a black soutane and heavy make-up. A chunky rope of wooden beads around his waist completed the look.
"I play the sacristan," whispered the young bass baritone, who is a student at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
Tosca is "fiery, artistic, flirty at times, and she's very knowledgeable about men", said the soprano who played her, Fiona O'Neill, while warming up in her dressing room.
Tosca was staged by Lyric Opera Productions as part of ongoing celebrations to mark the company's 10th anniversary.
"Passion is the secret of our success," said the company's founder, Vivian Coates. "Passion is my secret. I just adore it."
Coates was also director and designer of this week's production. "I trust the people I have," he said.
"He's got a fantastic eye for detail. He's a catalyst," O'Neill said of Coates. "It's quite phenomenal that he doesn't get any funding at all."
Out front, audience members echoed the praise for Coates.
"He is very courageous," said Fergus Sheil, who will conduct the company's next production at the National Concert Hall, of Verdi's I Due Foscari, in May. Sheil believes also that the company's secret is "passion".
"It's blood, sweat and tears," he added.
Séamas Ó Míocháin, deputy principal of Gormanston College, and his daughter, singer Treasa Meegan, were looking forward to seeing Tosca live for the first time, as were Esther McCarthy and her friend, Aideen Loftus, from Ranelagh.
Tony Finnegan, marketing co-ordinator of Lyric Opera Productions, said the company had built up a loyal following in the last 10 years. "Yes, we see the same faces in the foyers, and they tend to be younger and younger," he said.