Anna Livia Opera Company. (Opera in Review).

The new Anna Livia Opera Company gave its second season at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre in June, with artistic director Bernadette Greevy assembling an excellent team again. The production of Faust was splendid, but Puccini's Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicci were a real triumph. The production team from Argentina--Roberto Oswald (direction, sets and lighting) and Anibal Lapis (costumes)--returned to demonstrate the remarkable range of their presentation skills, while the Catalan/Swiss conductor Jacques Bodmer showed a fine sensitivity for all three works and drew imaginative singing from the casts and excellent playing from the orchestra.

By the large, the casting for Faust worked well. American Bradley Williams is rather small-voiced, but he is such a sensitive and well-controlled singer that this did not matter. Nicola Sharkey made an excellent Marguerite, with imaginative acting as well as splendid singing. English bass Keel Watson created a delightful Mephistopheles, with a wicked sense of humor and an excellent voice. However, Canadian baritone Emilio Roman was disappointing, with a flaccid voice, thin top and dull presence.

Roberto Oswald framed Il Tabarro as a psycho-drama. The three principals were most effective: English baritone Simon Neal, Irish soprano Elizabeth Woods and English tenor Anthony Garfield-Henry. The company then delivered a delightfully zany and high-spirited Gianni Schicci. Simon Neal was a youthful but totally convincing Schicci, and the eight Donati relations were superb.

Opera Theatre Company has already established an international reputation for its productions of the operas of Handel, and in September, it tackled Cavalli's Erismena (1655). Director James Conway chose four Georgian churches as the venues in Dublin, Galway, Waterford and Belfast. The production was imaginatively designed by Rodney Grant, and Cavalli's stately music was stylishly played by an eight-member orchestra of period instruments under the direction of David Adams. Andrew Slater was a splendidly despotic King, the golden-voiced Charlotte Page was a delectable slave girl and Emer Galloway was a commanding Orimeno. Lynda Lee took the title role of Erismena, lavishing her rich tones on the colorful score, and countertenor Jonathan Peter Kelly was an elegant Idraspe. Robert Burt's nursemaid was hilarious, and James Bierney, as Orimeno's servant, completed this remarkable cast.

Opera Ireland's artistic director Dieter Kaegi has devised marvellous productions in the past, but his November production of Don Carlo was a mess. The whole second half, for example, was staged in a forest clearing, representing the King's Bedroom, the Prison and the Church Cloisters. The floor was thickly strewn with real dead leaves that crunched and rustled, and to maximize the noise, Kaegi added six irrelevant dancers. A team of Russian singers demonstrated how poorly they could sing Italian, adding to the meltdown.

Fortunately, the second opera, Handel's Julius Caesar, was far better. Elaine Padmore, now head of opera at Covent Garden, made her debut as a director and displayed a steady hand at the tiller. Bruno Schwengl provided the simple but splendid abstract sets, and Noel Davies drew sparkling playing from the pit English mezzo Anna Burford was a rich-voiced Caesar, with Regina Nathan as a sumptuous Cleopatra Polish countertenor Artur Stefanowicz dazzled with his effortless coloratura as Tolomeo. The rest of the cast rose splendidly to the occasion.