Kilkenny Arts Festival

Spare a thought for the brave opera-lovers who staunchly sat through Irish National Opera’s rain-swept but powerful production of Richard Strauss’s El(...)

Who’d have thought, a year ago, that we’d now be in the midst of a second round of annual arts festivals severely restricted by Covid. There was a qui(...)

ELEKTRA The Castle Yard, Kilkenny ★★★★☆ Her father was hacked to death with a hatchet. He was taking a bath. After that, her life had followed a sing(...)

The Belfast soprano on music, acting and her career route to Strauss’s angry, angular role The Elektra in Richard Strauss’s 1909 opera is a woma(...)

Away from the fractious debate over reopening indoor hospitality, arts venues and festivals are pushing ahead with ambitious plans of their own, despi(...)

At this stage of the pandemic we know certain things about the Irish approach to the challenge: it’s at the more conservative end of the spectrum; it (...)

One of the great beauties of Ireland’s summer arts festivals has always been the element of random chance. You go to see one thing, and find yourself (...)

I had thought I would feel more joy, but maybe anxiety should come as no surprise. As arts producers and theatre makers across the country return to l(...)

Richard Mosse reminds me of a world I had almost forgotten. After a false start and a reschedule or two, we make contact on a Friday evening. The Iris(...)

“Virginia Woolf wanted to be buried to it” Marina Carr, prolific and award-winning Irish playwright My favourite work is the Cavatina from String Quar(...)