The award-winning company, founded in 2018, produces large-scale productions in Dublin, Cork, and Wexford, and tours productions to venues of all sizes throughout Ireland and beyond. Irish National Opera responded creatively to the challenges posed by the global pandemic by commissioning and producing 20 Shots of Opera, 20 new short operas for film, a project that received enthusiastic reviews from the international press.

In February 2022, the company’s production of Vivaldi’s Bajazet, a co-production with the Royal Opera House, received an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for director Peter Whelan and the Irish Baroque Orchestra. In January 2023, the company returned to the Royal Opera House with Least Like The Other by Brian Irvine and Netia Jones, which received a 2023 Olivier Award nomination for Best New Opera Production. The co-production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with Theatre Lovett and Abbey Theatre won the award for Best Opera at the 2022 Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards. Additionally, the company received two nominations at the International Opera Awards.