It's raining, but we grit our teeth and "bide the pelting of this pitiless storm" making for a party in the Ocean bar on Charlotte Dock. Storm or not, it's on with the show. As poor King Lear might say on such a night: "No, I'll not weep: I have full cause of weeping, but this heart/shall break into a hundred thousand flaws or ere I'll weep."
Opera Ireland is out to party and tell all about its spring 2001 programme. Many of the cast of The Flying Dutchman, which opens on Sunday, April 1st, have come. Timothy Mussard, a Wagnerian tenor who "doesn't get the girl" in the opera, is here. After performing in the Opera Ireland production at the Gaiety Theatre, he jets off to Finland to play Herod in Salome (does Herod get the girl?). Johannes von Duisburg, a Berliner, is the dashing Flying Dutchman himself - a tragic figure "who is looking to be redeemed from pain". Cue the heroine, Claire Primrose, a Melbourne soprano, who is ready to take on the mantle of Senta. "I kill myself because I want to be with him," she says blithely, explaining the intricacies of the plot. How does she do away with herself, we wonder? "She jumps into the sea!" Well, of course she does.
Then there's the cast of The Silver Tassie. Dieter Kaegi, artistic director of Opera Ireland, urges theatre-goers not to be frightened by it. "You listen to it and you are overwhelmed by the beauty of the music. It speaks to the ears, the soul and the heart." My God, roll on opening night.
Other stars of the show include Derryborn singer Emer McGilloway, who is also a neurologist - but concentrating on her singing career right now. Also she's getting married in six weeks to Martin Fitzpatrick, head of the Royal Danish Opera. And former teacher Declan Kelly, a tenor from Gorey, Co Wexford, is here too, all set to play the notorious Dr Maxwell, the seducer in The Silver Tassie.