ArtScape: The move of Niall Doyle, executive director of RTÉ's performing groups, to become chief executive of Opera Ireland has taken the world of music and opera by surprise, writes Michael Dervan.
The RTÉ job is so influential and demanding that there's really nowhere in Ireland to move up to from it. Even the National Concert Hall has only a fraction of the budget of the RTÉ performing groups and an even smaller fraction of direct control over artistic programming output. Doyle's move, which will not take place until April, is imaginative and intriguing.
Opera Ireland has been a troubled company for decades, struggling against financial odds. Its problems are partly of its own making and partly the inevitable outcome of unrealistically low grants from the Arts Council. With Doyle's background and skills - he's been an Arts Council client before, as chief executive of Music Network - there should be nowhere now for Opera Ireland to go but up. Music Network grew out of all recognition in Doyle's time there, and he has stabilised the RTÉ performing groups, with notable successes in the artistic solidity of the RTÉ NSO and adventurous programming in the the RTÉ Living Music Festival. If Doyle can't turn Opera Ireland's fortunes around, it's hard to see who could.
There are, of course, some major issues looming for Doyle's successor at RTÉ. There's the matter of new principal conductors for both of the orchestras and there's the still unresolved aftermath of the fiasco of the Helix, where the RTÉ Concert Orchestra was supposed to become orchestra in residence, a plan that was announced by none other than the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.
The acoustically attractive northside venue has never got its act together in terms of marketing, identity and access. The new metro will be a boon when it finally opens, but it's hard to see the RTÉCO delving back into the repertoire areas it hoped to explore at the Helix, unless the venue itself manages to make a greater impact on the awareness and affections of potential concert-goers.
And then there's the new, enlarged National Concert Hall, whose extra capacity will, through the RTÉ NSO, have more of an impact on RTÉ than on any other user of the hall. There could be a lot of empty seats on Friday nights if RTÉ gets its strategy wrong on that front.
Just as there was no obvious successor to David Collopy, the outgoing chief executive of Opera Ireland, there is no clear successor to Niall Doyle at RTÉ. However, this year's surprise appointments - Doyle's, and Michael Hunt's at Wexford - suggest the space will be well worth watching.
Belfast opera house reborn
The great and the good were out in force last Saturday evening in Belfast, all done up in their best bib and tucker, to give the reborn Grand Opera House a rousing welcome, writes Jane Coyle.
The theatre has been dark since May, with dust sheets covering its splendid main auditorium as building work began. The result is a flexible 120- to 150-seat space called the Baby Grand, four new bars, a visual art exhibition area (the Phoenix Gallery) and a brasserie christened Luciano's, after Italian tenor Pavarotti, who made his UK debut there in Madame Butterfly in 1963.
In addition, access throughout the building has been improved and backstage facilities extended.
Reaction to the appearance of the glass-fronted cube, facing directly on to Great Victoria Street has, predictably, been mixed. The word "carbuncle" has been used more than once. But there is a general acceptance that no modern-day architect or contractor could have come close to the Victorian magnificence of Frank Matcham's ornate pleasuredome and that the challenge was to create a pleasing but striking contrast between old and new.
The overall cost of the rebuilding was borne by the Northern Ireland Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure; the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's National Lottery Fund; Ulster Garden Villages; and the Grand Opera House Trust's own fundraising.
Not that any of this was of major concern to the thousand or so guests, who were treated to a glitzy two-hour modern variety show, harking back in spirit to 1904, when the original Grand Opera House and Cirque was renamed the Palace of Varieties.
On stage, hosted by Eamonn Holmes and following in the footsteps of legendary names such as Gracie Fields, Irving Berlin and Luciano Pavarotti, came pianist Barry Douglas, Westlife, Brian Kennedy, X Factor winner Shayne Ward, the Riverdance troupe, two soloists from Northern Ballet Theatre, illusionist Keith Barry, comic actors Dan Gordon, Conor Grimes and Alan McKee, pantomime dame May McFetridge and the understated star of the show, Derry traditional singer Cara Dillon, whose ethereal vocals were accompanied on piano by her husband Sam Lakeman.
Since its opening in 1895, the theatre has endured storm floods, the Blitz, terrorist bombings and prolonged closures. But it has survived, its fabric and spirit intact. and its rebirth marks another chapter in its colourful history.
The vice-president of Boston College, William Neenan SJ, was in town during the week to present Tomás MacAnna with the university's Distinguished Alumnus Award, at the James Joyce Centre, in recognition of his contribution to Irish theatre and drama and his longstanding relationship with Boston College. MacAnna's 60-year contribution to drama dates back to his 1947 appointment as producer of Gaelic plays (in effect artistic director for work in Irish) at the Abbey. He also directed at the Damer Theatre in the 1950s and 1960s, and served three terms as artistic director of the Abbey between 1966 and 1984, winning a Tony Award for the stage adaptation of Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy. In 1999, he was presented with a special award by the President Mary McAleese for his lifelong service to drama in the Irish language. MacAnna was a visiting director at Boston College in the 1985-1986 academic year, and on several occasions directed Boston College students at Boston College's Robsham Theater in such productions as Ulysses in Nighttown and Cathleen Ní Houlihan and was the guiding light for more than two decades of the Boston College Summer Programme at the Abbey Theatre, which brought more than 300 BC students to Ireland.
Most launches are adult affairs, but given its subject matter of children's wall art, illustrator Adrienne Geoghegan decided to have a celebratory event for children last weekend at Ocean restaurant. Geoghegan, whose colourful and quirky work has graced these pages in the past, and whose latest children's book, Fancy That!, was shortlisted this year for the Bisto award, has started a novel venture. She and her husband, photographer Mark Neiland, have set up My Very Own Picture, limited edition keepsake wall art for children by artists including Geoghegan, Neiland, Joven Kerekes, Tatyana Feeney and Ed Miliano. The venture is the first of its kind in Europe and the website www.myveryownpicture.com has just gone live. Their canvas prints are printed on archival quality canvas, using the Giclee method, which gives deep, saturated colours and excellent detail. Those looking for an unusual gift for a child, with prices starting at €100, can check out the work on the website, or ring 01-6776032 or 087-9919211. At their launch party for kids at Ocean, Geoghegan's and Neiland's son Oscar (2) played with the other children there, and buns and lollies were consumed. The previous evening's more grown-up affair saw comedian Anne Gildea do the honours, fresh from her own book launch earlier in the week. At the launch party of Gildea's first comic novel, Deadlines and D**kheads, were comics Ardal O'Hanlon, Pom Boyd, Sue Collins, Anne's brother Kevin Gildea, Karl MacDermott, Father Ted and The IT Crowd writer Graham Linehan, and playwright Mark Doherty.
The stage set for Equivalents, a performance produced in Dublin in 2001 by the Temenos Project, has been selected as an American entry to the Prague Quadrennial 2007, the world's most prestigious conference of set design. Equivalents was devised collaboratively by Irish, American and Japanese artists, and was inspired by the art of American painter Georgia O'Keeffe.
The set, designed by Kris Stone, an American who works frequently in Ireland, won a US-wide competition to become an official American entry to the Quadrennial. Stone's most recent set design graces the Samuel Beckett Theatre stage for Corn Exchange's current Theatre Festival production, Everyday, which ends tonight.