The Sound of MusicCork Opera House★★★★★After more than 60 years of theatrical supremacy, something approaching ecstasy is expected from any presentation of this Rodgers and Hammerstein marvel. Ecstasy is here delivered. By Do-Re-Mi – “Doe, a deer, a female deer” – all resistance to charm has been conquered. Maria is a young Austrian nun who doubts her vocation and meets her destiny in a family of motherless children. It’s almost old-fashioned, yet this narrative of fractured loyalties is not a fairytale. As the jubilant decibels of the nunnery’s introductory alleluias fade and Maria is advised by her abbess that life can be lived devoutly outside the convent, and in any case the religious life has no place for the pious, joy is so unconfined as to make laudatory adjectives redundant. Everybody is ready to burst out singing, and not only on the stage.In this Cork Opera House presentation of Richard Rodgers’ and Oscar Hammerstein’s final work together, the production values pay respectful attention to the demands of their combined musical and lyrical genius. These demands are challenging for director Davey Kelleher as, going by the book of the stage version by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, he has to balance all the gaiety and song-and-dance with the fact that in Austria in 1938 the hills are alive with invading Nazis. That balance is elusive. The imperatives of the plot seem to slip out of focus, and even the second act’s conversational references to politics don’t impose a necessary tension. There is also a slippage in the scene where Maria and Captain Von Trapp finally recognise their love for each other and exchange a kiss so cautious that it is greeted by whistles and laughter, as if adolescent schoolboys were brought to a mandated performance of Romeo and Juliet. This matters, but it cannot deny the memorable impact of what has already been accomplished. The set design by Pai Rathaya stretches deeply curved arches to accommodate landscapes and interior traceries of balconies and stairways manipulated with formality. Built by Realtra Productions and Costello Engineering, this ensures every gesture is decided by John Heginbotham’s choreography. Not a foot is wrong, even in the Ländler dance.Costumes from Catherine Fay are appropriate, and although the nuns’ wimples seem to have missed the ironing board, her eye for detail shows in the accuracy of the female footwear. The fluency of Cathal Synnott’s direction of his 20-strong band – whose orchestral capacity also yields some effective solos – is adaptable to the sound design from Aeron Donnelly-Jackson and Mick Hurley’s lighting, which carry the darker nuances of this beloved story.It’s inevitable that in so formidable a musical a kind of lasso of approval has to be thrown around the principals in the cast. Majella Cullagh escapes from this coil as the Abbess in grand operatic voice, while both Wendy Carr as Maria and Matt Blaker as Von Trapp are tunefully sympathetic. Among the endearing children, Caitlin Anderson gives Sixteen Going on Seventeen a tender exuberance.The Sound of Music is at Cork Opera House until Sunday, August 23rd