Vivaldi’s Olympics with a difference
There’s been a great revival of interest in the operas of Vivaldi following the successful productions of Griselda (2019) and the Olivier award-winning Bajazet (2022). The Irish National Opera’s latest Vivaldi production (in conjunction with the Royal Opera House and Nouvel Opéra Fribourg) is L’Olimpiade, an Olympics with a difference, from 1734, that continues its international tour this week in The Everyman Cork, before moving to eight further venues.
Among the seven performers are sporting suitors competing for the hand of a princess. There’s forbidden love, an attempted assassination and a father who has to accept his children’s wishes.
Other venues are Waterford, Limerick, Letterkenny, Navan, Dún Laoghaire, Maynooth (concert version) and Royal Opera House, London (where there has been great demand for tickets for the eight performances), before moving to Fribourg (Switzerland) until first of June. Details at irishnationalopera.ie
■ Slippery When Wet by Leanne Devlin, described as a sad and hilarious onewoman show, continues its run at Bewley’s Cafe Theatre (until April 27). It tells the story of an actor who runs out of work and money and has to move back in with her parents; of staying afloat by taking on a job at a local supermarket, of embarrassing encounters and drunken nights as she thinks of abandoning her vision of big-time Love. It explores young passions, cynicism, the expectations of young people and the tensions between fantasy and real life.
The show was a big success at last year’s Fringe Festival, and has an advisory agelimit of 15+.