Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone! To give an operatic nod to the patron saint of Ireland, here are some appropriately-themed clips via YouTube. First up is Irish tenor John McCormack (1884-1945), who had a pretty enviable career; he sang at Covent Garden, Royal Albert Hall, made tons of recordings. He apparently had such great breath control that he could sing 64 notes in a row of Mozart’s “Il mio tesoro” without taking a breath (that’s a weird way of putting it, but that’s Wiki for you). So, here’s John McCormack singing “Il mio tesoro”.

Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught made headlines last summer during her run as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at Glyndebourne, when critics (mostly male) made some pretty awful and unnecessary comments about her physique, and her credibility as a male love interest. Mean critics aside, Tara sounds fantastic in this rendition of “Una voce poco fa” from Il barbiere di Siviglia. Big round sound, lots of agility, personality to boot. Enjoy.

For a more vague nod to St. Patrick, here’s a clip from Robert Carsen’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Britten. It’s Oberon’s fantastic Act I scene, “I know a bank”. This clip is not only beautiful, but it’s also particularly green.

Finally, because sometimes alcohol is involved with St. Paddy’s day, I figured a drinking song is in order. Here’s a clip from Otto Schenk’s production of Die Fledermaus, filmed as a TV movie in 1972. It’s pretty hilarious and the cast is stellar; I beg you all, watch until the 2:30 mark, and you won’t be sorry. Watch the whole thing here, because it includes a cameo by Schenk as Frosch. Pretty great.

Bonus, because it’s beautiful: Aprile Millo singing “Danny Boy.”

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Be safe and have fun!