It's a Rose-tinted Dream

Irish National Opera presents Bruno Ravella's lush Strauss's Rosenkavalier in Dublin

The Presentation of the Silver Rose: Paula Murrihy (Octavian, centre), left to right Carolyn Holt (Annina), Peter van Hulle (Valzacchi) Andreas Bauer Kanabas (Ochs), Claudia Boyle (Sophie) Picture by Patrick Redmond

After the misery of the lockdown summer of 2020, one of brightest rays of hope on the horizon arrived the following June with the unveiling of Bruno Ravella’s exquisitely detailed production of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at Garsington Opera, sumptuously designed in neo-Jugendstil twirly flourishes by Gary McCann. It was one of those “beg-steal-or-borrow-a-ticket” shows, all the more so since the Buckinghamshire Wormesley Estate was still operating under “socially distanced” restrictions with only 60% of the tickets available for sale. Miraculously, I managed to “steal” a second pair - I was reviewing the show for two publications, so I HAD to go back to make sure I’d spotted everything - but I knew from the opening night that this Rosenkavalier, one of the most expensive operas to stage properly, would be a keeper. Ravella’s staging will have to come back “home” obviously, because so many were unable to see it, but that can’t be before 2025: this is a co-production with both Santa Fe Opera, which presents it next year, and Irish National Opera which has just completed a four-performance run in Dublin with an entirely new cast and musical forces, under the company’s founding music director, Fergus Shiel.