Alastair McGuckian's fast-moving musical The Ha'penny Bridge belongs to, and is influenced by, that genre of social issue productions which ranges from West Side Story to Les Miserables. Here the setting is Dublin in the Civil War and the drama concerns a hunt for an escaped Republican, a greyhound and an Englishman who falls in love with the daughter of the dog's owner.
No technical effort has been spared to rescue this story from a verdict of complete nonsense (but what opera script isn't?) but if McGuckian had some ruthless friends they might have warned him not to confuse his own originality by cribs from Sean O'Casey.
Visually brilliant, Cathal MacCabe's direction imposes coherence without losing urgency and allows Kenn Oldfield's impressive choreography to emerge with the clarity it deserves. The scope of the acutely detailed sets by Patrick Murray and the impact of Mark Jonathan's lighting (at its most daring for the final scene) have panoramic intensity and deserve their ecstatic reception.
These excitements are slightly dulled by unconvincing costuming but otherwise enhance the sweep of McGuckian's score, provided here by a pre-recording of the Irish Theatre Orchestra conducted by Brian Byrne with the Tallaght Choral Society and the Irish Chamber Choir.
Music director Gearoid Grant has ensured that the big numbers work well; all the singers are up to their work, although the melodic themes are either over-extended or over-embellished.
But the love story does not survive the clamour of this production despite the efforts of Brenda Brooks and Ian Pirie.
And Barbara Brennan and Tony Mulholland can't rescue Dublin itself from the welter of accents and styles which surround them, even though at times they could be forgiven for thinking they were in a musical version of Juno and the Paycock.
The Ha'penny Bridge continues at the Opera House until Saturday