Blackwater Valley Opera Fest launches this week

The Blackwater Valley Opera Festival (BVOF) opening ceremony will take place on Tuesday, May 26, at Millennium Park, Lismore.

The free outdoor ceremony will officially open festival week and welcome audiences, artists, supporters and the local community to BVOF 2026.

The ceremony will be officially opened by Councillor John Pratt, Deputy Mayor of Waterford City and County.

The festival takes place in Waterford and East Cork from May 26 to June 1, with a week of opera and classical music.

Ireland’s summer opera festival will present over 24 events, with more than 100 performers across 13 historic homes and venues in Lismore, Youghal, Dungarvan, and Castlemartyr.

The festival is expected to again welcome more than 5,000 visitors and engage with 2,000 students.

The programme features four performances of Mozart’s, 'Don Giovanni', staged at Lismore Castle.

The production, with a predominantly Irish cast and featuring the Irish Baroque Orchestra, will be conducted by composer Peter Whelan and directed by Tom Creed.

Meanwhile, Handel’s, 'Acis and Galatea', will be presented as a candlelit, semi-staged performance in St Carthage’s Cathedral, Lismore, starring Jade Phoenix, Dean Power, Edward Grint, Patrick Hyland, with the Irish Baroque Orchestra conducted by Oliver-John Ruthven.

Concerts at Dromore Yard remain a festival fixture, with highlights including performances by Magdalene Ho, and brother-and-sister piano virtuosos, Finghin Collins and Dearbhla Collins.

The concert programme concludes with the return of Cork-born mezzo-soprano Niamh O’Sullivan.