OPERA THEATRE Company (OTC) has announced the 1968 opera, The Diary of Anne Frank, by the little-known Russian composer Grigory Frid as its latest – and last – production.
The Armenian-American soprano Ani Maldjian makes her Irish debut in the opera’s sole role, and actor Ingrid Craigie becomes an opera director for the first time, when she collaborates on Frid’s treatment of the famous diary with OTC’s artistic director, Annelies Miskimmon.
The hour-long Diary of Anne Frank, conducted by Andrew Synnott and with designs by Nicky Shaw, will be the first of the now 94-year-old Frid's operas to be mounted in Ireland. And the two performances at The Peacock will also be the company's first presentation at the National Theatre.
The Diary of Anne Frankalso marks the end of an operatic era in Ireland, as it will be the last work to be staged in the company's 24-year history.
The company will no longer be funded by the Arts Council after the end of December.
Its functions and those of Opera Ireland will be subsumed into the Irish National Opera (INO) company, which was formally announced by the then Minister for Culture, Martin Cullen, last March.
The chair of INO, Ray Bates, has said he expects INO’s first production to take place next autumn, and the new company last week advertised for a general director. A business manager is to be appointed next January.
OTC's chair, soprano Virginia Kerr, who sang in the company's debut production, of Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw, announced that the OTC will close at the end of the year.
It is the most travelled of Irish opera companies. Its work has not only toured in Ireland, but has also been seen in Britain, continental Europe and the United States.
Its fundamental tenet that all its work should be presented in English has made it unique among Irish opera companies.
Its final presentation will be seen in Armagh, Drogheda, Navan, Waterford, Kilkenny, Newbridge, Roscommon, Dundalk, Tralee, Bray, and Galway, and the last performance will take place in the Civic Theatre, Tallaght, on Saturday, October 9th.