World-class ballet, opera and classical music live at the Eye

Live high definition screenings of the world’s finest opera, ballet and classical music performances will return to the Eye Cinema, starting this Saturday night when Irish actress and director Fiona Shaw makes her New York Met debut directing the great Anna Netrebko in Tchaikowsky’s romantic tragedy, Eugene Onegin, conducted by the legendary Valery Gergiev.

It starts at 6pm and tickets are available from the venue.

This marks the beginning of the series which will see works by New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra being staged at the Eye as part of a worldwide live broadcast scheme – and for a small fraction of the price of a ticket to the events themselves.

On Sunday, October 20 at 4 pm one of the Bolshoi Ballet’s greatest productions, Spartacus, the famous tale of the slave-turned gladiator who leads a revolt against Rome, will be performed. With sweeping evergreen music by Khatchachurian (including the Adagio made famous as theme music to The Onedin Line), and dazzlingly athletic choreography, it will be screened live from from the beautiful Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

The Russian thread continues on Saturday, October 26  when live opera from the Met returns with a production of The Nose. William Kentridge’s production of Shostakovitch’s surreal comic opera about a beleaguered Russian official whose nose runs away and gets into all manner of scrapes  has already been a huge hit in New York. Described by one critic as ‘Shostakovitch meets the Keystone Cops’,  this is the first opportunity for audiences to see this great modern classic in Ireland.

It’s six years since The Met: Live in HD started transmitting live operas from the famous New York venue. Since then it has become a global phenomenon and set a template for a whole new way of experiencing live entertainment. It is transmitted in Ireland through Classical Arts Ireland, a not-for-profit voluntary organisation established in 2011. CAI aims to promote and develop a range of activities in opera in Ireland, and in the related fields of ballet and classical music.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.