Opera review: Stirring version of Casta Diva ensures Norma makes for a fine night out  

The Irish National Opera production of Bellini's two-act work also tours to Cork and Wexford 

A scene from INO's production of Norma at the Gaiety Theatre. Picture: Ruth Medjber 

Norma, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin ★★★★☆
 

The curtain lifts on a scrap-metal rampart, atop which sits a lookout post, a weak searchlight sweeping the dark. In Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 original, the chorus of soldiers we meet are warlike Gaulish rebels, eager to rise against Rome. In this timely and convincing production by Irish National Opera, directed by Orpha Phelan, they appear as a ragtag band of human survivors scanning the horizon for terminators, maybe, after some AI apocalypse, or in the wake of climate catastrophe.