Sir, - I was taken to my first opera as a child of 10 and I am now a grandmother. In all the intervening years I have never seen a set equal in ugliness to that for the Opera Ireland of La Traviata. There were no side or back-drops which usually obscure backstage equipment and we were treated to an unimpeded view of such items as a massive boiler, a "Fire Exit" sign, a wall-mounted fire hose in a red casing and - surely the piece de resistance - a corrugated iron door dominating the back wall of the stage. I suspect that the same hand was behind the equally ugly costumes inflicted upon the chorus.
Boilers and suchlike might be acceptable for Sean O'Casey or Bernstein's West Side Story, but are bizarre in the extreme for a salon in 19th-Century Paris or a country villa and garden of the same period. How the performers were expected to portray, and the audience to experience, the drama and pathos of Verdi's work when the action took place in what appeared to be a disused garage is beyond my comprehension.
It is sad that such wonderful music, well sung, was so ill served by Opera Ireland.-Yours, etc.,
Joy Houston, Ballyroan Road, Templeogue, Dublin, 16.