Directed by Cal McCrystal. Conductor - Erina Yashima. Design - Sarah Bacon. Choreography - Paula OReilly. Lighting - Sarah Jane Shiels. Répétiteur - Aoife OSullivan. Chorus Director - Richard McGrath. Assistant Director - Grace Morgan. Assistant Conductor - Peter Joyce. Associate Designer - LaurA Fajardo Castro. Studio Répétiteur - Ella Nagy. Language Coach - Annalisa Monticelli.
With Dierdre Higgins, Duke Kim, Claudia Boyle, Gianluca Margheri, John Molloy, Ian OReilly, Laura Aherne, Caroline Behan, Rheanne Breen, Eiméar Harper, Maria Matthews, Megan ONeill, Niamh St John, Anna Carney, Olha Doroshchuk, Leanne Fitzgerald, Sarah Kilcoyne, Sarah Luttrell, Bríd Ní Ghruagáin, Olha Palazhchenko, Emma Power, David Corr, Ben Escorcio, Luke Horner, Andrew Masterson, Cathal McCabe, Patrick McGinley, Oisín Ó Dálaigh, William Pearson, Adam Cahill, William Costello, Michael Ferguson, Ryan Garnham, David Kennedy, Maksym Lozovyi, Matthew Mannion, Dylan Rooney.
Rehearsal room Production team: Company Stage Manager - Paula Tierney. Stage Manager - Anne Kyle. Assistant Stage Managers - Oliver Kampmann & Grace Woulfe.
Irish National Opera production 2025
Director, Cal McCrystal the unsung hero of this terrific production, whose choreographic and compositional brilliance is superbly peppered with hilarious meta-operatic touches (a stage manager harassing Laurel and Hardy, a chorus singer overstepping her role) knows that if youre going to go over the top, go all the way over the top. May 28 sees Irish National Opera announce their next season. If L’elisir d’amore gives cause for excitement, it also presents the forthcoming season with issues. Namely, how to deliver an operatic experience to rival this? Joyous, delightful, exhilarating, hilarious, L’elisir d’amore offers an exquisitely entertaining night at the opera. Comic opera doesnt get better than this.
★★★★★ The Arts Review
“A good comedy,” McCrystal remarks in the production’s programme, “is where people laugh hard and a bad comedy is when they sit quietly tittering. I like big loud laughs.” And it’s big laughs that he secures with a comic modus operandi that is unapologetically physical, visual slapstick.
★★★★★ Irish Times
Tender love story shines through in Irish National Operas bawdy romance. Cal McCrystal renders it all very cartoonish and clownish, but utterly sophisticated with it.
Irish Independent
"A rollicking Wild West Elisir that hits all the right notes. McCrystal’s Elisir doesn’t merely update Donizetti; it lets him loose with joyously anarchic abandon. Its bold, brash and utterly beguiling."
★★★★★ Bachtrack
"If you ever meet someone who claims opera is boring and unfun, send them to Cal McCrystals wacky and wild (west) take on Donizetti’s endearing love comedy Send them right now! His production for Irish National Opera is ridiculously good fun, and hasnt a boring moment across a riotous, good-humoured, saucy and physical two-and-a-half hours."
★★★★★ Irish Examiner
"A ROOTIN TOOTIN OPERATIC TRIUMPH. Gifted director cal McCrystal transposes Donizettis Lelisir damore to the Wild West. You dont often get an opera that can be displayed as a rootin tootin display of theatrical fun, frolic and artistry. But that is what Cal McCrystal has delivered for Irish National Opera with Donizettis most popular work. Its played as a farce that doesnt go totally overboard."
★★★★★ Irish Mail on Sunday
“Cal McCrystal’s new L’Elisir d’amore is one of the funniest, most outrageous productions ever….McCrystals production was continually inventive, and I can honestly say there wasnt a dull moment... This was an outstanding production from Irish National Opera that deserves to be seen much more widely. I hope there will be opportunities for many more people to see it on tour or on a future occasion.”
Seen and Heard International
VIDEO
Trailer
RTÉ Radio Interview with Cal McCrystal & Claudia Boyle
YEAR
2025