• La Bohème @ Carlisle Memorial Church, Belfast

    “Love, alone command me!” The venue for Northern Ireland Opera’s comeback opera after eighteen months of Covid-19-inflicted anxiety, lockdown and isolation was different – an abandoned 19th century church, as opposed to the Grand Opera House. The socially distanced crowd in this former place of worship was small – ninety instead of the usual thousand that typically pack Belfast’s opera house. But one thing had not changed in the interminable, surreal interim – NI Opera’s capacity to deliver a world class show. Giacomo Puccini’s enduringly popular La Bohème may have seemed like a safe bet for the full-scale debut of…