Celine Byrne

The huge orchestra required for Die tote Stadt made the NCH right for the Irish premiere

Mendelssohn’s longest symphony and a project to remember the late John Lynch

Why couldn’t a truthful response remain focused on what befalls a child of fifteen, recalling other fifteen-year-old girls?

Irish soprano on her love of Puccini, Zadar’s sea organ and why Liam Neeson is her favourite actor

András Schiff brings enlightenment to NCH; Maxim Vengerov multitasks with RTÉ NSO

Classical music highlights for the coming week

Smiles all round on a special night as the President shows how lucky we are to have him

Westland Row campus redevelopment involves €9m public funding and significant philanthropy

Patrick Freyne: Pope Francis receives families, gets selfie with a child and gives a speech with a mother-in-law joke

Pontiff met and talked to families who shared their stories and posed for selfies with children

Why is he visiting? Where will he stay? and more questions answered

Sharon Carty, Celine Byrne and Danielle de Niese are all performing in Ireland this week

Pope Francis opts to sit among the faithful and not on stage with dignitaries at Croke Park

Music, musicals and movies to entertain you

Pricewatch: Three purchasers forced to pay ‘booking fee’ of more than €100

Ireland’s best-known soprano effortlessly moves from opera to ‘The Sound Of Music’

‘Vocations are very good there, with a surplus of priests,’ says bishop

Russian fare and a 90th birthday celebration for Veronica Dunne

Russian Puccini, refined Haydn and raw saxophone

Biggest public event in Ireland blessed by good weather and a large turnout

Crowds stay on streets after visiting museums, galleries, theatres, churches, studios

The technical standard at this year’s competition has been high, but other shortcomings have become apparent

A few revivalist tweaks can’t hide the age of the Moscow State’s Opera’s tired Butterfly

RTÉ tends to give new Irish music just one airing in concert, so its plans to celebrate the past century of Irish music is a very valuable idea

The looseness of the ensemble and problems with co-ordination proved largely insurmountable

More than 5,000 teenagers will participate in 180 competitions over the next 11 days

Childhood memories to raise money for charity

The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra is failing to engage with modern music, and this needs to change

The Irish soprano gives a star turn in this new production by the Moscow State Opera, serving to highlight how few opportunities there are for Irish singers here