Baroque punch to Agrippina’s power

OPERA has to be the unicorn of Irish arts. Rarely sighted, it is massively expensive to stage singers and orchestra and then it is a music form – when delivered in 2 to 4 hour chunks – that has ‘minority’ appeal.

Irish Youth Opera is a professional platform for young artists “on the threshold of their careers”. This year its sole project is Handel’s ‘Agrippina’ and the production will premier in Limerick on September Tuesday 8, 8pm at Lime Tree Theatre. This venue is a stakeholder  this year along with Irish Chamber Orchestra and Northern Ireland Opera.

IYO was set up a couple of years back by three Irish singers who rank internationally with the best: Limerick’s Suzanne Murphy, Paul McNamara and Colette McGahon-Tosh. Funding is by the Arts Council according to annual project “and we have been very lucky to get it the last two years. It’s very difficult to plan ahead,” admits McGahon-Tosh, “but hopefully we will be making noises in the future.

“Last year we did a wonderful, wonderful inaugural production, ‘The Rape of Lucretia’ which is not an easy opera and not a popular opera”.

Collaborating with the Wexford festival, it won plaudits and secured an Irish Times Theatre Award nomination. Not bad for first time out by IYO.

Invoking the “multi-faceted discipline” that opera is, “pulling it all together is quite a feat”. So this company has looked to the best, securing her old pal Gerry Keenan’s orchestra here at UL with Jonathan Cohen to conduct, Oliver Mears to direct the opera and herself as AD. Why ‘Aggrippina’?

“We had to look at operas that are appropriate to the singers whom we want to attract. They are on the young side and by that I mean late twenties, early thirties, so we won’t be doing Wagner anytime. We also need something appropriate for the orchestra as it is our ethic to work to a full professional orchestra and orchestra is extremely expensive, accounting for a huge amount of our budget”.

Expect an ensemble of 20 from the ICO which is how Handel wrote this piece, “plus two harpsichords” and yes, we will have the pleasure of looking at them. Agrippina the bold will be sung by Máire Flavin, love object Poppea by Anna Devin and the pulpy aspirant emperor Nereone, by Rachel Kelly.

Of the cast of a dozen “we have three trouser roles sung by three girls which is normal for baroque or Mozart”.

Annemarie Woods has led set and costume design to a focus worthy of the finance world of strokes pulled, people pushed: think “high end Italian suits and expensive handbags”.

Visually hot, aurally splendid and fuelled by corrupt power play, ‘Agrippina’ is set to thrill.

Book at www.limetreetheatre.ie