When east meets west

Opera buffs should be well pleased this week with Ellen Kent’s Opera & Ballet International staging two legendary Verdi productions plus a Puccini from the Chisinau in Moldova.

Kent has been bringing the finest operatic and ballet companies from Eastern Europe for 17 years.

They are certainly grateful in Eastern Europe, since the break-up of the Soviet Union meant that formerly generously-supported opera and ballet companies were suddenly left penniless, not knowing where to turn. Kent’s offer of touring to the West must have seemed like divine intervention, and she has been awarded medals by both the Ukraine and Moldova in recognition of her work.

This is a woman who always aims high. At the grand opening of the Channel Tunnel, for example, she arranged the Romanian National Opera to travel in Ceaucescu’s private plane. Or the summer when she was invited to bring a production of Carmen to Qatar, to entertain the Emir and 4,500 guests. The ballroom of the spacious Sheraton hotel in Doha was converted into a vast theatre; sound technicians were imported from Germany, lights from America. Carved wooden dressing rooms were provided, with full length mirrors, gilt furniture, linen drapes and air conditioning. A cargo plane for the costumes and sets, a private passenger jet for the company. Kent’s eyes take on a faraway look. “What you can do when money is no object ...”

When, at the 11th hour, the Emir stipulated there should be no sexual innuendo, no touching, no bare flesh — and that Carmen should run no longer than two and a half hours — Kent, unfazed, re-rehearsed the entire production. The opera received a standing ovation and Opera International had scored the very first Carmen in the Gulf.

Now she brings Verdi’s Aida and Nabucco to Irish audiences, the gigantic touring trucks unloading at Cork Opera House today, UCH Limerick on Thursday, and Dublin’s Helix on Saturday. Dublin audiences will in fact get the Chisinau’s La Boheme as the second production, rather than Nabucco.

In every case, though, we can expect spectacle, drama, beauty, and quite a few special effects along with singing of stellar quality. Aida, perhaps the grandest of all Verdi’s operas, includes spectacular ballet sequences, stunning sets inspired by the Valley of the Kings and costumes based on tomb paintings. During the classic Triumphal March we are promised an actual wall of fire.

Nabucco, likewise, is a superb, traditionally-staged production featuring magnificent sets, costumes, lighting and stage effects to enhance the powerful tale of jealousy, revenge and destruction. With Kent’s keen sense of dramatic staging and the sheer quality of the Chisinau National Opera, National Philharmonic, National Ballet, and international guest soloists, these performances are likely to convert many to the splendour and beauty of the genre.

* Cork Opera House: Aida Oct 22, Nabucco Oct 23. 021-4270022.

University Concert Hall Limerick: Aida Oct 24, Nabucco Oct 25. 061-331549. Helix Dublin: Aida Oct 26, La Boheme Oct 27. 01-7007000. Sung in Italian with English surtitles.