The Anna Livia Dublin International Opera Festival

Anna Livia Dublin International Opera Festival

Gaiety Theatre, Dublin

Verdi - Rigoletto

Verdi's Rigolettois the opera about which it's been said that all you need is the four best singers in the world. Given the current underfunding of opera in Ireland, that's the most unlikely of outcomes for any production mounted by an Irish company.

The Anna Livia Dublin International Opera Company's new production hasn't done too badly. It's fortunate in its Gilda, a touchingly fresh-toned Talise Trevigne who always seems to have the necessary high notes within easy and secure reach.

Scott Piper's womanising Duke of Mantua was less even in achievement on the opening night. His manner was always extrovertly Italianate, but there were times when he strained too obviously at climaxes and didn't manage to sustain the necessary firmness of tone.

His strutting confidence was, however, well-placed in the crucial scene of the final act. Mikolaj Zalasinski's Rigoletto was vocally altogether more stable, but there was something in his characterisation which failed to arouse sympathy.

Irish mezzo soprano Sharon Carty's Maddalena was confident in projection if not always persuasive in inflection, but the impression she made suggested she's a young singer we'll be hearing a lot more of.

The production, directed and designed by Roberto Oswald, with costumes by Anibal Lapis, was in the familiar Anna Livia style, low- key, unfussy, not particularly refined in detail.

The most serious limitation of the evening, however, was the conducting of Derek Gleeson, which was altogether too stiff in manner, unyielding to the vocal lines, and frequently unresponsive to the pathos of the music. The quality of the orchestral playing was mixed, at times sharp, at others untidy. But the clockwork rum-ti-tum that Gleeson so often defaulted into did Verdi no favours.

• The Anna Livia Dublin International Opera Festival runs until Sun MICHAEL DERVAN