Opera Theatre Company take Handel to the Irish countryside

OPERA Theatre Company brings its production of Handel’s Acis and Galatea, conducted by renowned Baroque specialist Peter Whelan and featuring the dazzling Irish Baroque Orchestra to the An Táin Arts Centre Dundalk on Sunday April 9

Sung in English, Acis & Galatea features tenor Eamonn Mulhall and soprano Susanna Fairbairn as the thwarted lovers, with bass baritone Edward Grint as Polyphemus and tenor Andrew Gavin as Damon. The Acis and Galatea chorus includes Cormac Lawlor, Fearghal Curtis, Peter O’Reilly and Sinead O’Kelly.

Written in 1717 Acis and Galatea is a high point of baroque repertoire and one of Handel’s most treasured works, and as first performed in Dublin at Crow Street Music Hall in May 1734.

Director Tom Creed presents Acis and Galatea as a modern day rural Irish episode, where love cannot last and where close relationships fray when resentment unexpectedly boils over. Opera Theatre Company, Ireland’s national touring opera company, celebrated thirty years of touring opera last year and its anniversary programme enjoyed both record audiences and critical acclaim. The company has been noted for innovative productions of Handel with baroque specialists but it has also presented nineteen operas by living composers and a great deal of repertoire in between.

Tickets, €30, concessions €27, are available at the Box Office, tel 042 9332332 or www. antain.ie