Great Music in Irish Houses had plans to celebrate its golden jubilee last year but these were scuppered in Covid-19’s unrelentingly treacherous seas. With Government restrictions on gatherings continuing, the commemorative programme could not be revisited meaning headaches for the festival’s artistic director, Ciara Higgins, and her assiduous team. However, Ms Higgins is nothing if…
Despite current restrictions on public gatherings, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra has been battling on at the National Concert Hall with Friday evening broadcasts on Lyric FM repeated on Sunday mornings on RTÉ television. These take place without an audience, which is less than satisfactory for the dedicated musicians but, at least, they are employed.…
Following their honeymoon in Italy Veronica Dunne and Peter McCarthy settled into their home on Dublin’s Bushy Park Road. However, Ronnie’s commuting between Dublin and London to fulfil her Covent Garden contract became more difficult with the arrivals of son Peter in 1954 and daughter Veronica (Judy) in 1956. Ronnie’s farewell to the Royal Opera…
Last time round we left the late Veronica Dunne about to audition at Covent Garden. She was accepted at once. Interestingly around the same time, Australian soprano Joan Sutherland (1926-2010), who would have a brilliant international career, had four auditions before being accepted as a ‘utility soprano’. She and Ronnie became lifelong friends. Ronnie made…
A phone call from my good friend and pianist, Alison Young, on Easter Monday evening told me of the death of the doyenne of our musicians, Veronica Dunne, some hours previously. The news was unexpected as despite her 93 years Ronnie, as she was affectionately known, was still teaching until relatively recently. Her passing brought…
While googling for something recently the name Mirella Freni popped up on screen. It rang a bell immediately as it recalled Wexford 1962. She was making her festival debut as Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani. I was attending my first Wexford production. Getting there was not without difficulty. A car had to be borrowed. A…
Among artistic ventures falling victim to Covid-19 last year were Feis Ceoil and Music for Galway’s Cellissimo festival – a celebration of the cello in one form or another. Happy to relate both events have been reconstituted with Feis Ceoil, supported by the RDS and celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2021, already under way and…
Last time round I may have implied that soprano May Devitt made her Dublin Operatic Society debut as Philine in Mignon in 1937. In fact, her first DOS appearance came on April 30, 1935 as Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore. The following year she was heard as Violetta in La traviata and Marguerite in Faust…
While I knew she had been ill, news of Cork-born soprano Cara O’Sullivan’s death on January 26 – aged 59 – came as a shock. Cara possessed a wonderfully vibrant voice to match her vivacious personality and had a natural artistry in a wide-ranging repertoire from the baroque through the classical and romantic to the…
A good friend of mine, opera buff extraordinaire Paddy Brennan, recently sent me an email with an attachment – www.operainireland.wordpress.com/. It came with a ‘work in progress’ warning but, even so, the file contains a vast amount of information relating to opera in Dublin from 1928 to virtually the present day. The content is absolutely…