Autumn highlights: 10 events for lovers of classical and opera
East Cork Early Music Festival directors Norah O'Leary and Caitriona O'Mahony at the Goldie Chapel, Nano Nagle Place, Cork. Picture: Clare Keogh
A free lunchtime series opens on October 5 with a recital by Cork violin and piano duo Brendan Garde and Gary Beecher playing music by Brahms and Kreisler.
The festival returns to Cork city, Midleton and Cloyne with an impressive programme. One of the highlights is likely to be a performance of Handel's Messiah at Cork School of Music, featuring the combined talents of Madrigal ‘75 and Cork Baroque Players.
In the opening concert for this year’s series at the Cork venue, brother and sister duo Kieran and Fionnuala Moynihan are joined by Ciara Glasheen-Artem for a varied programme of works for flute, oboe and piano. Chopin, John Gibson and John Field are among the composers featured.
The Georgian period Large Room at City Hall, Waterford is one of the best chamber music venues in the country with excellent acoustics in a classically proportioned space. A French duo featuring the unlikely combination of accordion and cello close out the autumn season with an eclectic programme.
What’s rare is wonderful and we don’t see a lot of ballet on Irish stages. Cork City Ballet, in association with the Cork Opera House, presents a full-length production of The Nutcracker with lots of favourite tunes by Tchaikovsky directed by Alan Foley will appeal to all ages. The run includes a matinée on Saturday, November 5.
Rossini’s final masterpiece based on a Swiss national hero with the catchiest overture returns to Dublin after a gap of a century and a half. Canadian baritone Brett Polegato sings the title role. Julian Chavez directs a five-date run including a Sunday matinée.
The ICO are joined by charismatic German violinist to play a Haydn concerto. The stop in East Cork on their 4 -date tour at St Mary’s Collegiate Church will take you inside one of Ireland’s oldest churches.
Keith Pascoe conducts the orchestra for a programme that will include Ravel’s ‘Tzigane’, plus works by Haydn, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky.
This touring production of Donizetti’s comic opera Don Pasquale opens in Letterkenny and tours to 11 other counties. There are not too many operas in the canon featuring a lead role for a bass. This production features British bass Graeme Danby in the title role.
Coming hot on the heels of NI Opera’s production of La Traviata, the National Opera Theatre Brno from the Czech Republic will be performing in Dublin for the first time accompanied by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. Claudia Boyle stars as Violetta with a cast of international star soloists.
