In the typology of tales, there is one called The Wronged Wife. It takes a number of forms, but the constants are that the husband (often a king) accuses his wife of some failing and repudiates her, but is won round in the end by her constancy and all ends happily. Such is the bare outline of Vivaldi’s Griselda, currently on tour in a production by Irish National Opera but, **SPOILER ALERT**, the jury is out on the happy ending.

In a nod to same-sex marriage, director Tom Creed has the trouser roles of palace officials Corrado and Ottone played as women, which makes Sinéad O’Kelly’s Ottone a rather predatory lesbian, exploiting her position in palace security to, in effect, stalk Griselda on the CCTV screens. To add to Griselda’s pain, Ottone tries to get her to marry her by threatening to kill Griselda’s young son – an earlier daughter being, apparently, murdered.

It is a glittering production in more than one sense. When Costanza, the woman of royal blood, arrives (with her boyfriend) to replace Griselda as queen, she is wearing a pink coat over a very short sheath-dress entirely of sequins, while Roberto wears a sequined jacket and loafers. Jorge Navarro Colorado, as well as being the villainous king Gualtiero, has to wear an unflattering gold suit with matching shirt, topped with an ermine cape and purple velvet crown for state occasions. One suspects Griselda might have embraced with relief her grey trackies and orange duvet coat with fur-trimmed hood.

Katie Davenport’s two-floor set works well - upstairs the white state room, the table set up with microphones for state broadcasts, and downstairs the entrance area with its security office monitoring all the CCTVs covering palace and city of Thessaly, providing lots of scope for dramatic exits and entrances through doors.

The text of the arias is particularly repetitive so it is well that the ensemble is as good at acting – for example, Costanza’s (Emma Morwood) exasperation when Roberto (Russell Harcourt) sings of his love for her despite her being Gualtiero’s bride. Also O’Kelly’s plotting and, later, her unalloyed glee when she believes Gaultiero is giving her Griselda as wife. The all-seeing Corrado (Raphaela Mangan) mostly keeps her own counsel, till she advises Griselda to accept the inevitable and marry Ottone.

In a small theatre, it is easy to watch the rapport created between conductor Peter Whelan and his singers and the players of the Irish Baroque Orchestra. A special mention for the jolly horns who add exuberance to the strings, and for the theorbo of Alex McCartney in the aria Ombra vane.

While all the singing is excellent – particularly in Vivaldi’s fiendish runs - Katie Bray in the title role is outstanding. She has the greatest emotional range to convey – rage, despair, anger, fear, unrequited love – and has the audience’s total belief in her plight. Her shell-shocked expression when ultimately she is restored to her place at Gualtiero’s side says more than even Vivaldi’s music.