TCD Chapel, Dublin

This was an impeccably conceived concert. Billed as "Great Irish Voices", it showcased Opera Theatre Company's connections with some of Ireland's most internationally famous singers, and its developmental work via its Young Associate Artists' Programme. The concert was also a fund-raiser for the Simon Community.

The fact that the evening offered a too-rare opportunity to hear the internationally renowned mezzo-soprano Ann Murray in her native country was not serendipitous. She is patron of the young artists' programme, and in several countries has a strong reputation as a teacher. Other well-known names included OTC's current chair, the soprano Virginia Kerr, the baritone Owen Gilhooly, who has sung in several OTC productions, and soprano Mairéad Buicke, herself a former OTC Young Associate Artist. The current young artists were represented by the soprano Emma Nash, tenor Ross Scanlon, and baritones Benjamin Russell and Nathan Morrison. The pianist was David Gowland, whose quietly consummate musicianship brought perfect characterisation to everything the event offered.

That offering was dominated by opera arias and duets; and nine of the 18 items were by that most-perfect of opera composers, Mozart. Yet the programme was no operatic mish-mash. Whoever put it together had thought very carefully about the range of possibilities and how one type of piece might lead into, or contrast with, another.

Nor were there any disappointments in the standard of performance, from the young singers or the more experienced – though I wish translations had been provided. One of the highlights was Ann Murray's achingly beautiful singing of the famous Brahms Lullaby. But so well conceived was the programme that even her deep artistic insight could not possibly overwhelm the more extrovert arias by Lalo and Massenet that surrounded it, and sung by two of the young artists.