Since 2022, Limerick Opera Festival has helped bring opera to audiences across the city through concerts, collaborations, workshops, exhibitions and public events. In that time, it has built a strong reputation for creating opportunities to experience opera in ways that feel welcoming, ambitious and rooted in Limerick.
Across the past number of years, the festival has helped make opera more visible, more accessible and more connected to Limerick’s cultural life through a wide range of performances, collaborations, exhibitions, workshops and public events. From concert halls and museums to cafés, parks and city streets, Limerick Opera Festival has continued to create opportunities for audiences to experience opera in different and engaging ways.
At the heart of that journey has been our Artistic Director, David Howes. A Limerick man and professional opera singer with the Magdeburg Theatre in Germany, David has been with the festival since day one in 2022. His artistic leadership and international experience have helped shape the festival’s direction and strengthen its programme year after year.
From the outset, Limerick Opera Festival has focused on facilitating and presenting opera events that connect artists, audiences and the city itself.
In 2023, one of the festival’s standout collaborations was an opera production developed with the Limerick School of Music, reflecting the festival’s commitment to partnership and to supporting music and performance at local level. That same year, internationally respected pianist Una Hunt took part in a workshop, adding further distinction to the programme and offering audiences and participants a valuable artistic experience.
Another major highlight in 2023 was the festival’s operatic memorabilia exhibition at Limerick Museum. This gave visitors the chance to engage with opera history and heritage in a meaningful way. Among the most notable pieces was an image of Catherine Hayes, received from La Scala Milan, creating a special link between Limerick’s own musical heritage and one of the world’s best known opera institutions. The festival returned to Limerick Museum again in 2025 to stage a further exhibition.
The festival has also become known for helping bring opera into public space during Riverfest each year. Events have been facilitated at the Bandstand in the People’s Park, a setting that has become closely associated with the festival’s annual public programme. Over the years, other city locations such as Colbert Station have also featured, helping introduce opera to people in the course of daily life and widening its reach beyond traditional venues.
In 2024, this public engagement continued with on-street performances facilitated from the balcony of the International Rugby Experience building. These moments added another lively and accessible dimension to the festival and helped bring opera to new audiences in the city centre.
The festival has also supported a number of smaller, more intimate events that have proven hugely popular. In 2023 and 2024, Christmas themed operatic aria evenings were held in Mother Macs, while the Greenyard Café hosted memorable aria evenings that created a warm and close-up setting for audiences to enjoy opera.
Another distinctive part of the programme has been the opera trail walk led by local historian Sharon Slater, which connected Limerick’s streets, stories and heritage to the wider operatic tradition. It is this variety in format and setting that has helped make the festival such a unique addition to the city’s cultural calendar.
In 2025, one of the festival’s major highlights was the highly successful concert version of Carmen at University Concert Hall in October. The event marked an important moment in the continued development of the festival and demonstrated the scale and quality of opera experiences that Limerick Opera Festival can help bring to local audiences. The cast, including Raphaela Mangan in the title role, contributed to what was widely regarded as a memorable occasion.
Also in 2025, events were facilitated in One Opera Square, continuing the festival’s tradition of linking opera with place and ensuring that it remains part of the wider cultural life of Limerick.
Over the years, Limerick Opera Festival has facilitated and supported a wide range of successful events, from concerts and workshops to exhibitions, heritage activities and open air performances. If you have audience totals available, this would be a very good place to add them.
What makes Limerick Opera Festival special is not simply the range of events it has presented, but the way it has steadily built a place for opera within the city’s cultural identity.
Year after year, the festival has created opportunities for artists to perform, for audiences to engage, and for opera to be experienced in both established and unexpected settings. It has helped connect international quality with local pride, and heritage with contemporary cultural life.
That is something worth celebrating.
Since 2022, Limerick Opera Festival events have welcomed thousands of attendees across concerts, workshops, exhibitions and public events, making a lasting contribution to the cultural life of the city, one note at a time.
As we look back on the many successful events that have taken place since 2022, we are also looking ahead to what comes next.
We are delighted to promote our free performance on 1 May (https://www.limerickoperafestival.ie/free-events/opera-friday-initiative-friday-may-1st-2026/), which offers another wonderful opportunity to experience opera in Limerick and to be part of the continuing story of the festival.
Whether you have attended before or are planning to come for the first time, we encourage you to join us and enjoy this special event.
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