Based at the Gaiety Theatre, the country's longest established opera company, Opera Ireland, is internationally renowned, and instrumental in the development of the art across the country. In an earlier guise, the company played a part in the emerging career of a certain Luciano Pavarotti when, in 1963, the then unknown Italian tenor sang in the Dublin Grand Opera Society's production of Rigoletto.

This November the company launches its 2009/10 season with five staged performances of Verdi’s Macbeth (Nov 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22, tickets €10-120) and two concert performances of Wagner’s Das Rheingold (Nov 19 and 21, tickets €10-65).

The company will also present a weeklong series of lunchtime arias, a fundraising Christmas event (Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Thurs 10 Dec, tickets €250) and an expanded nationwide Met Live in HD Series. These Metropolitan Opera House in New York productions will be transmitted live to ten locations around the country, including Dublin, Wexford, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Belfast, Derry and Newry. To find out more about Opera Ireland and its programme of events, visit www.operaireland.com.