“YOU’RE WELCOME to sing along.” This is not something you’re likely to hear announced before curtain-up at La Scala, or indeed, at any venue when you’re waiting for an opera performance to begin. But yesterday, this is what Morgan Crowley, director of Opera in the Open at Wood Quay, was encouraging the audience to do.
This is the 12th year of Dublin City Council’s Opera in the Open initiative; a series of free lunchtime performances in the Civic Offices amphitheatre that run each Thursday from 1-2pm or thereabouts throughout August.
Yesterday's opera was highlights from Bizet's Carmen, with Liz Ryan singing the part of Carmen, and from noon people started gathering in the sheltered green space. There were ad-hoc picnics among the buggies, and more bottles of wine than you usually see al fresco at lunchtime on a working day in Dublin.
Four who had brought their own seating were husband and wife David and Sue Downes, and their friends visiting from the Netherlands, Joop and Gerrie Gierat van der Ree. They were all ensconced in snazzy folding armchairs and tucking into pork pies, sandwiches and muffins.
“We’ve come up from Portlaoise specially,” said David Downes.
“We’re going on the Horse Show after this, so we’re making a day of it. And if it rains, we have umbrellas.” There was no need of umbrellas yesterday; in fact, it was so hot the Civil Defence had to intervene when one of the estimated 1,110 audience members fainted.
Susan Fahey was picnicking with her son Cúan and eight other family members, including five children between the ages of three and 13.
“Having it outdoors allows the children great freedom because they can move around if they like; they’re not sitting in a seat. They don’t think of it as opera. They just think of is as a picnic with music. It’s a great outing and a great introduction to a bit of culture for them,” said Fahey.
“It’s my first time coming along, and I’m prepared for everything, because I didn’t know what to expect,” said Ann O’Brien, pulling a sun hat, down jacket and a large blow-up pillow out of her bag. She was there with friend Gina Campbell, who works nearby, and had persuaded her to come along. “I couldn’t ever see myself going to a full opera, but it’s great to have these lunchtimes as tasters,” Campbell enthused.
And while the crowd didn’t sing along, they did clap along loudly, as the the famous Toréador song was performed. You wouldn’t hear that in La Scala either.
Opera in the Open will be performed at 1pm in the amphitheatre of the Civic Offices at Wood Quay for the remaining three Thursdays in August. Weather permitting, the schedule is Toscanext Thursday; Dido and Aeneason the 18th and The Marriage of Figaroon the 25th.
