Listen Again - Irish National Opera's Marriage of Figaro by Mozart

One of the greatest comic operas ever written, Mozart’s fast-paced masterpiece The Marriage of Figaro is a highlight of Irish National Opera’s 2018 programme and draws together an outstanding cast and creative team to bring Irish opera right back into the heart of Dublin city, to the Gaiety Theatre stage. This comic tale of mayhem and mischief boasts some of the most beautiful and familiar music ever written including the famous overture. Mozart’s superb score drives the drama with unforgettable solos and hilarious ensemble numbers and the energetic story of servants outwitting their masters and the quick-witted Susanna rejecting her employer’s advances has thrilled and delighted audiences for 250 years.  

With a dream-team ensemble cast, Irish National Opera’s first main-stage opera features Irish celebrity mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, fresh from the Met Opera New York, who sings Susanna and is joined by internationally acclaimed Irish singers Máire Flavin (pictured - Scottish Opera & Glyndebourne Opera Festival),  Aoife Miskelly (Welsh National Opera & Opera North), veteran star Suzanne Murphy (English National Opera, WNO & Opera North), Ben McAteer (English National Opera & WNO), up-and-coming soprano Amy Ní Fhearraigh, and critically acclaimed New Zealand bass Jonathan Lemalu singing the title role. 

(Recorded in the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin in April 2018)

Saturday August 18th - Vivaldi's Giustino RV 717 from the Beaune International Baroque Festival

With tremendous scenes (sea storm, battles and a sumptuous scene of coronation) Giustino is one of Vivaldi’s most ambitious operas, also considered as his masterpiece of maturity. The plot took historical figures and facts from classical sources and added fictional love intrigues, allegorical figures, deities, and a ghost. It tells the story of modest ploughman Giustino becoming co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire (with Anastasio). Vivaldi’s writing reveals his talent as dramatist, esp. in Act 2 and the beginning of Act 3. Protagonists will be given a large number of astonishing arias, like famous arias Vedro` con mio diletto (Act 1) and Sento in seno (Act 2) both sung by Anastasio, Ho nel petto with solo psaltry sung by Giustino in Act 2 or Or che cinto il crin d’alloro sung by Amanzio, Sventurata navicella and Senti l’aura performed by Leocasta and last but not least Per noi soave e bella full of repeated notes sung by Arianna 
Valer Sabadus (countertenor) 
Emoke Barath (soprano) 
Ana Maria Labin (soprano) 
Arianna Vendittell (soprano) 
Emiliano Gonzalez-Toro (tenor) 
Alessandro Giangrande (tenor) 
Accademia Bizantina 
Ottavio Dantone (conductor) 

(PIctured Valer Sabadus (c) Christine Schneider)