Wexford Festival Opera Season Brochure by Wexford Festival Opera

2017 FESTIVAL PROGRAMME Book tickets at Wexfordopera.com or call 1850 4 OPERA

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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S WELCOME Greetings. Every October Wexford comes alive with musicians and creative artists from many countries. Wexford has a rich history of creativity, innovation and acclaimed performances. The life-enhancing gifts of music, theatre, and great singing come together during the Festival’s 18 days in Ireland’s beautiful National Opera House. Created by Dr Tom Walsh with the people of Wexford in 1951, the Festival retains a deep connection with the community. It attracts internationally-renowned singers, as well as brilliant conductors, directors and designers. Many come from near and far hoping to be the first to hear a young talent who just might be the next operatic star. Our mandate is to explore less-frequented areas of the operatic repertory, so the focus is on discovering and reviving operas that have not received wide exposure. Many of our re-discoveries have proven extremely popular, and gone on to become part of the standard opera repertory. In the National Opera House this year, we will be presenting three operas of unique dramatic interest. Medea by Luigi Cherubini: An opera which follows the Greek tragedy of Medea and Jason (of the golden fleece) ending in one of the most gruesome acts in all of opera. Margherita by Jacopo Foroni: An uplifting comedy of love and its complications, by the same composer as our award-winning 2013 production of Cristina, regina di Svezia. Risurrezione by Franco Alfano: A tragic story of love, sin and redemption, based on Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection, and set to Alfano’s evocative music.

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If a full-length evening performance doesn’t fit your schedule, we offer three ‘Shortworks’ almost every afternoon which typically are just over an hour in length. This year we present Verdi’s dramatic Rigoletto, Rossini’s comedy La Scala di seta (The Silken ladder), and the world premiere of Irish composer Andrew Synnott’s Dubliners, based on two stories by James Joyce. We are presenting this work in collaboration with Opera Theatre Company. You will find the many other unique events on offer at this year’s Festival described within these pages. We look forward to offering you a warm welcome in Wexford this fall. David Agler, Artistic Director

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MEDEA

Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842)

Opéra comique in three acts Libretto by François Benoît Hoffman (Italian version by Carlo Zangarini) based on Euripides’ tragedy of Medea and Pierre Corneille’s play Médée Sung in Italian with English Surtitles First performed at the Théâtre Feydeau in Paris 13 March 1797 Stephen Barlow Conductor Fiona Shaw Director Annemarie Woods Set and Costume Designer D.M. Wood Lighting Designer A co-production with Opera Omaha

It was not only Beethoven who regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his peers. Many of the foremost 19th-century composers from the Austro-German tradition admired Cherubini – an Italian who spent most of his career in France – and his most famous opera in particular. Medea was Schubert’s favourite work for the lyric stage, and for all his seemingly unoperatic temperament Brahms was moved to call it the work ‘which we musicians regard as the summit of dramatic music’. Yet despite all this, and the part that Maria Callas played in reviving its fortunes (beginning with her performance at the Maggio Musicale in Florence in 1952) after it disappeared from sight in the early 20th century, despite even more recent revivals in its original French form as Médée, Cherubini’s masterpiece remains a work of which everyone has heard, but relatively few opera lovers have actually experienced in the theatre. Medea is a fierce work, and not simply because of its subject matter; plenty of uncompromising plots have been watered down before reaching the operatic stage. As the New Grove Dictionary of Opera explains, ‘In its unmitigated horror, this opera has few equals. Its savage fury ties it closely to its Greek ancestry.’ It is all the more astonishing, then, to remember that it was written a mere six years after Die Zauberflöte. If its premiere, at the Théâtre Faydeau in Paris in 1797, was little more than a succès d’estime, it went on to inspire more enthusiasm in the German-speaking world. Cherubini, who composed over 30 operas as well as large quantities of church and chamber music, was himself fully cosmopolitan and stands apart from other Italian composers of his day. Having moved to Paris early on in his career and enjoyed aristocratic patronage, he had some trouble adapting to post-Revolution conditions, though not enough to stop him being appointed Napoleon’s director of music in Vienna in 1805–6. Dying in old age in Paris in 1842, he was buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery, in a plot near to where Chopin would join him seven years later.

O’REILLY THEATRE | NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE TICKETS €20 – €150 Thursday 19 October – 8 p.m. Sunday 22 October – 5 p.m. Saturday 28 October – 8 p.m. — BEST AVAILABILITY Tuesday 31 October – 8 p.m. < Friday 3 November – 8 p.m. 22 OCTOBER PERFORMANCE GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

Lochlann and Brenda Quinn 28 OCTOBER PERFORMANCE GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

Terry and Marjorie Neill KINDLY SUPPORTED BY

The ‘Medea’ Production Consortium 3 NOVEMBER PERFORMANCE GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

MARGHERITA

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Jacopo Foroni (1824–1858)

Melodramma semiserio in two acts Libretto By Giorgio Giachetti Sung in Italian with English Surtitles First Performed at The King’s Theatre In Milan 4 March 1848 Timothy Myers Conductor Michael Sturm Director Stefan Rieckhoff Set and Costume Designer D.M. Wood Lighting Designer A co-production with Oldenburghisches Staatstheater

Following the success of Cristina, regina di Svezia at Wexford in 2013, acclaimed by many as one of the most worthwhile rediscoveries in the Festival’s long history, we return to another of Jacopo Foroni’s operas. The clue to the previous long neglect of Foroni (1825–1858), who scarcely features in the reference books, may lie in Foroni’s early death from cholera in Stockholm, where he had taken charge of the Italian opera company in 1849, presenting his credentials that year with his opera on the tumultuous life of Queen Christina of Sweden. As that work showed, at this stage he could still have been considered a worthy rival to Verdi as the inheritor of Donizetti’s mantle, though perhaps his willingness to leave Italy suggests that his temperament lay elsewhere. Indeed, though his music brims with Italianate vitality, he was a cosmopolitan figure, aware of the symphonic tradition north of the Alps. Margherita was, significantly, his first opera, premiered one year earlier than Cristina in front of the ‘home’ audience in Milan. It was greeted with considerable enthusiasm, not least by the influential Alberto Mazzucato, who praised ‘the good balance between seriousness and comedy [and] the moderate timbre of the orchestral sound’. As this suggests, one of its models might have been Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore, with which it shares a rural setting (the action of Margherita takes place in a Swiss mountain village), and the score contains folk music tinges and evokes a Romantic landscape. Classified by its composer as a ‘Melodramma semiseria’, its libretto is an adaptation of a French text by no less a figure than Eugène Scribe, originally intended for the composer Adrien Boieldieu, who died before he could finish the work. Margherita was commissioned for Milan’s Teatro Re, a small theatre near La Scala (on a site absorbed into where the city’s famous Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele stands today), and the practicalities of writing for it are reflected in the opera’s essential intimacy.

O’REILLY THEATRE | NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE TICKETS €20 – €150 Friday 20 October – 8 p.m. — BEST AVAILABILITY Thursday 26 October – 8 p.m. < — BEST AVAILABILITY Sunday 29 October - 3 p.m. < — BEST AVAILABILITY Wednesday 1 November – 8 p.m. < Saturday 4 November – 8 p.m.

26 OCTOBER PERFORMANCE GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY

4 NOVEMBER PERFORMANCE GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY

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RISURREZIONE

Franco Alfano (1875–1954)

Opera in four acts Libretto by Cesare Hanau, based on the novel Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy Sung in Italian with English Surtitles First performed at the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Turin, Italy, 30 November 1904 Francesco Cilluffo Conductor Rosetta Cucchi Director Tiziano Santi Set Designer Claudia Pernighotti Costume Designer D.M. Wood Lighting Designer

Franco Alfano is remembered today less for his own operas than for his role in completing another composer’s work – Turandot, left unfinished at the time of Puccini’s death. But there is more to his output than that would suggest, more even than his own ten or so operas would indicate, since he paid closer attention to the fields of orchestral and chamber music than many of his contemporaries. Risurrezione, the opera that brought Alfano his first taste of fame, premiered in Turin in 1904 (the same year as Puccini’s Madama Butterfly). Its Russian subject matter – the opera is based on Tolstoy’s last great novel, Resurrection – anticipates a fashion in early 20th-century Italian opera; see also Giordano’s Siberia and Fedora. Risurrezione tells of the young aristocrat, Nekhlyudov, who while serving on a jury recognises the prostitute Katerina Maslova as the young girl he had once seduced, and how he rejects his former life and follows her to Siberia, trying to undo past wrongs. Tolstoy’s complex critique of Russian society was particularly unsparing in its gaze on the Orthodox Church, so much so that it led to the writer’s formal excommunication, and the first complete Russian text was actually published in England. Ironically, given the adaptations that have been made of his work for the lyric stage, Tolstoy hated opera because he thought it superficial (in War and Peace he set the scene of Natasha’s undoing at an opera performance). But he even became critical of his own works, such as that panoramic novel and Anna Karenina, and began to see art as serving a social purpose: Resurrection was something of a manifesto. Little of that comes through in Alfano’s adaptation, and his opera concentrates on the drama of personal relationships. But he does so in a manner that makes it easy to understand how the opera quickly became a hit in operatic capitals from Paris to Chicago, containing as it does such hits as ‘Dio pietoso’, a one-time favourite of the legendary Mary Garden and other sopranos since.

O’REILLY THEATRE | NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE TICKETS €20 – €150 Saturday 21 October – 8 p.m. Friday 27 October – 8 p.m. — BEST AVAILABILITY Monday 30 October - 8 p.m. < — BEST AVAILABILITY Thursday 2 November – 8 p.m. < — BEST AVAILABILITY Sunday 5 November – 5 p.m. <

21 OCTOBER PERFORMANCE GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY

Stephen Vernon PRODUCTION SPONSOR

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LA SCALA DI SETA Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868)

Farsa comica in one act Libretto by Giuseppe Maria Foppa Sung in Italian with English Surtitles First performed in Venice, Italy at the Teatro San Moisè 9 May 1812 Tina Chang Music Director Nathan Troup Director Luca Dalbosco Set & Costume Designer Rory Beaton Lighting Designer While some of Rossini’s operas count among the best loved in the repertoire, there are still many corners of his output worthy of exploring at a festival devoted to operatic rarities. In the context of this year’s programme, he can be seen both as coming from a generation or two before that of Foroni and from a generation or two after that of Cherubini, both Italians who sought their fortunes abroad. Rossini was not as quick as Cherubini to head to Paris, then the world’s operatic capital, but he eventually did so – indeed, like Cherubini (and Chopin), he was buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery, though his remains would later be taken home to his native Pesaro. La Scala di seta belongs firmly to his early Italian years, and indeed is a key work in his development, even if it is only more recently that its jewel-like qualities have come to be fully appreciated.

For a long time, La Scala di seta was remembered only for its brilliant overture, the earliest piece of Rossini to have survived as a concert work. But much else in it proclaims the genius of the then 20-year-old composer, who wrote it as the third of his farse for Venice’s Teatro San Moisè in 1812. A fast-moving comedy, its title translates as ‘The Silken Ladder’ – in this case, a stairway to the heaven of various nocturnal rendezvous.

CLAYTON WHITES HOTEL TICKETS €30* Saturday 21 October – 3.30 p.m. — BEST AVAILABILITY Tuesday 24 October – 3.30 p.m. < Friday 27 October – 3.30 p.m. — BEST AVAILABILITY Monday 30 October - 3.30 p.m. < Friday 3 November – 3.30 p.m. *Lunchtime Recital (St. Iberius Church) + Lunch/Shortwork (Clayton Whites Hotel) for €65. Package only available to book over phone on + 353 53 912 2144 The Festival ShortWorks are made possible by the generous support of The Lord Magan of Castletown

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Andrew Synnott (1970–)

Portrait of James Joyce by Jacques-Émile Blanche

DUBLINERS

World premiere of two one-act operas

The Boarding House

Counterparts and The Boarding House from Joyce’s Dubliners

Jack Mooney introduces The Boarding House, run by his mother. It caters both for clerks and visiting music-hall entertainers. The scheming proprietor, Mrs Mooney, allows her daughter Polly to spend time with the men who stay there. She knows that young men like it when a pretty girl is not too far away. A relationship blossoms between Polly and the successful clerk Bob Doran. Mrs Mooney carefully observes and tracks it until the most profitable moment. When she is sure the relationship has been observed by others, she knows that Mr Doran has no choice but to propose to Polly out of social propriety. The music and libretto poke fun at all of the characters as this entertaining drama unfolds.

Adaptation and text by Arthur Riordan Sung in English with English Surtitles Co-production of Opera Theatre Company and Wexford Festival Opera This double-bill is scored for piano, string quartet and a cast of six singers Andrew Synnott Music Director Annabelle Comyn Director Paul O’Mahony Set Costume Designer Joan O’Clery Costume Designer Rory Beaton Lighting Designer

CLAYTON WHITES HOTEL TICKETS €30*

Counterparts

Friday 20 October – 3.30 p.m.

In this dark tale, we follow the growing frustration of Farrington, a lumbering alcoholic copyist, over the course of one afternoon and evening. His mind-numbing work is made intolerable by an overbearing boss who demeans him in front of colleagues. Washing away his misery in several of Dublin’s pubs Farrington is humiliated once more when he physically tries to measure up to a visiting English acrobat. Worse still, an actress that Farrington eyes up is uninterested in him. Frustrated, he returns home where his mood worsens, and he violently takes out his anger on his son Tom. The music and libretto are infused with this growing sense of frustration and dread. The tragedy of Tom’s plight is central to the opera’s heart-breaking conclusion.

— BEST AVAILABILITY Thursday 26 October – 3.30 p.m. < — BEST AVAILABILITY Sunday 29 October – 11 a.m. < Wednesday 1 November – 3.30 p.m. *Lunchtime Recital (St. Iberius Church) + Lunch/Shortwork (Clayton Whites Hotel) for €65. Package only available to book over phone on + 353 53 912 2144 The Festival ShortWorks are made possible by the generous support of The Lord Magan of Castletown

Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)

Portrait of court jester by Jan Matejko

RIGOLETTO

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Opera in three acts Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le Roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo. Sung in Italian with English Surtitles First performed at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851 Giorgio D’Alonzo Music Director Roberto Recchia Director Luca Dalbosco Set & Costume Designer Rory Beaton Lighting Designer Dating from the very middle of Verdi’s middle period, and occupying first place in the famous early 1850s trilogy that includes Il Trovatore and La Traviata, Rigoletto is one of the best known of all Verdi’s operas. Indeed, it is the first of his operas to have remained popular and firmly in the repertoire without interruption, since its premiere at La Fenice in Venice in 1851 to the present day. There were, nevertheless, impediments to early performances, both from the official censors and self-censorious audiences, appalled by what they saw as the ‘immorality’ and ‘obscene triviality’ of the Victor Hugo play on which Verdi and his librettist Francesco Maria Piave based their masterpiece. Early performances sometimes had to be given under different titles, occasionally even with Gilda living to see a happy end – indication, if nothing else, of the opera’s durability. Despite magnificent choruses, it is also essentially an intimate drama, something that lends itself to the adaptations also required in

a pared-down performance such as that presented here in the ShortWorks series. Back in 1851, Rigoletto represented Verdi’s most radical break yet with the conventions of Italian opera. Everything seems to be driven by the characterization of Hugo’s play. Fired up with enthusiasm, Verdi called the play ‘the greatest subject and perhaps the greatest drama of modern time’, and he described Triboulet (the character who became Rigoletto) ‘a creation worthy of Shakespeare’.

CLAYTON WHITES HOTEL TICKETS €30* — BEST AVAILABILITY Sunday 22 October – 11 a.m. < — BEST AVAILABILITY Wednesday 25 October – 3.30 p.m. < Saturday 28 October – 3.30 p.m. Thursday 2 November – 3.30 p.m. Saturday 4 November – 3.30 p.m. *Lunchtime Recital (St. Iberius Church) + Lunch/Shortwork (Clayton Whites Hotel) for €65. Package only available to book over phone on + 353 53 912 2144 The Festival ShortWorks are made possible by the generous support of The Lord Magan of Castletown

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Portrait of Thomas Moore by an unknown artist

THE THOMAS MOORE SONGBOOK

Una Hunt, Ireland’s leading authority on Irish composers whose music has been largely forgotten or neglected, will present The Thomas Moore Songbook, a programme of Moore’s Irish Melodies. Two performances will be presented in the atmospheric setting of St Iberius Church on Thursday, 20 and Saturday, 28 October. ‘The poet of all circles and the idol of his own’ – the words are Lord Byron’s, inscribed on the tall Celtic cross erected above Thomas Moore’s grave one hundred years ago. Byron adored the Irish Melodies: he told Moore ‘I have them by heart ... they are my matins and my vespers’; Ireland’s national song writer was similarly revered in the land of his birth. He moved easily in the privileged circles of London’s salons where he was celebrated for singing and accompanying songs such as The minstrel boy, Believe me, if all those endearing young charms, The meeting of the waters, The harp that once through Tara's halls, and particularly, The last rose of summer which quickly became the anthem of every great soprano of the day. As a result of their popularity, the Irish Melodies were continually updated; some, such as Frank Lambert's She is far from the land became even more famous than the original.

Less well known, perhaps, is the fact that Moore’s Irish Melodies were translated into almost every language and, with their strongly nationalistic fervour, the songs became revolutionary rallying calls in Poland, Russia, Hungary and Cuba. Moore was also incredibly popular in the Parisian salons of the 1820s and ’30s where Berlioz must first have heard his songs and from whence, the French Mélodie was born. And another example of Moore’s endlessly surprising reach: Robert Schumann believed Moore's poetry had been made for music, even in its German translation, and used part of his long oriental poem Lalla Rookh for the cantata, Das Paradies und die Peri. In this programme, the Thomas Moore Songbook charts the path of Moore’s star, its influences and its transformation throughout a two-hundred-year history of national song. Una Hunt, Piano Sinead Campbell, Soprano Andrew Gavin, Tenor

ST IBERIUS CHURCH TICKETS €20* 20, 28 October – 1.05 p.m. *Thomas Moore Songbook (St. Iberius Church) + Lunch/ Shortwork (Clayton Whites Hotel) for €70. Package only available to book over phone on + 353 53 912 2144

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DR TOM WALSH LECTURE

FIONA SHAW The 2017 Dr Tom Walsh Lecture will be given by Fiona Shaw, Irish actress and theatre and opera director, known for her role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films and her role as Marnie Stonebrook in season four of the HBO series True Blood (2011). She has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, twice winning the Olivier Award for Best Actress; for various roles including Electra in 1990, and for Machinal in 1994. She won the 1997 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for The Waste Land. Her other stage work includes playing the title role in Medea, both in the West End and on Broadway (2001–02). She was awarded an Honorary CBE in 2001.

Born in County Cork, Miss Shaw attended secondary school at Scoil Mhuire in Cork City. She received her degree in University College Cork. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London and was part of a 'new wave' of actors to emerge from the Academy. She received much acclaim as Julia in the National Theatre production of Richard Sheridan's The Rivals (1983). Miss Shaw is directing this season’s production of Medea for Wexford Festival Opera. Tea and coffee will be served after the Lecture.

CLAYTON WHITES HOTEL TICKETS €10 Saturday 21 October – 11 a.m. Kindly supported by Victoria Walsh-Hamer

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PHOTO: GER LAWLOR

LUNCHTIME RECITALS

The very popular Lunchtime Recitals provide an insight into the artistic personality of some of the principal singers of the Festival and are a way to ‘meet’ them in an informal setting. In the beautiful and acoustically excellent eighteenth-century church of St Iberius in the centre of Wexford in Ireland’s Ancient East, audiences appreciate the musical versatility of solo singers who perform a wide variety of music from across the repertoire, including operatic arias, lieder, oratorio, concert and popular songs. One of the delights of attending a Lunchtime Recital is that the programme is not advertised beforehand, so everyone shares SPONSORED BY

the same degree of anticipation and expectation. Unsurprisingly, the Lunchtime Recitals sell out very quickly. The artists and their performance dates will be announced at the beginning of the Festival.

ST IBERIUS CHURCH TICKETS €15* 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30 October– 1.05 p.m. 1, 2, 3, 4 November – 1.05 p.m. *Lunchtime Recital (St. Iberius Church) + Lunch/Shortwork (Clayton Whites Hotel) for €65. Package only available to book over phone on + 353 53 912 2144

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OSCAR GHIGLIA

Music Network Artist Residency in partnership with The National Opera House and Wexford County Council Former assistant to Andres Segovia, Oscar Ghiglia has had a profound influence on the classical guitar both as a performer and teacher. He makes his Irish concert debut at the National Opera House. A monument of experience and musicality, he is considered the ideal successor of Segovia’s teaching. Oscar Ghiglia was also the chairman-founder of the department of classical guitar at the Aspen Music School of Colorado and an Artist in Residence at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. He taught regularly for many years at the Music Academy of Basel. As well as at this Academy, he is often invited to hold advanced master classes at the Academies of Zurich and Lucerne and he is a regular visiting professor at the Juilliard School of New York, Northwestern University of Chicago and the Cincinnati University Conservatory of Music, where he holds master classes every year. His worldwide concert activity knows no interruptions and he is now adding a new series of CDs for the Stradivarius label to his many recordings (E.M.I., Nonesuch, Ricercare, etc.), the latest of which are dedicated to M.M. Ponce and to J.S. Bach. In 2004 he received a doctorate honoris causa in music from the University of Hartford, Connecticut. Among his most illustrious students he loves to number above all Eliot Fisk, Marcin Dylla, Shin-Ichi Fukuda, Stefano Grondona, Letizia Guerra, Sharon Isbin and Elena Papandreou (now his wife).

Programme J.S. Bach, Lute Suite No. 3 BWV 995 Fernando Sor, Capriccio op 50 (‘le calme’), Frank Martin, Quatre pièces brèves Maurice Ohana – Tiento Manuel Maria Ponce, Sonata romantica Manuel de Falla , Hommage à Debussy Giampolo Bracali, Viajes

JEROME HYNES THEATRE NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE TICKETS €20 Monday 23 October – 8 p.m. The residency is centred around an exciting and diverse concert series of international and Irish musicians curated by guitarist Redmond O’Toole.

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CHLOË HANSLIP / REDMOND O’TOOLE

Music Network Artist Residency in partnership with The National Opera House and Wexford County Council CHLOË HANSLIP, VIOLIN

REDMOND O’TOOLE, CLASSICAL GUITAR

Chloë Hanslip has established herself as an artist of distinction on the international stage. Prodigiously talented, she made her BBC Proms debut in 2002 and her US concerto debut in 2003, and has performed at major venues in the UK (Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall), Europe (Vienna Musikverein, Hamburg Laeiszhalle, Paris Louvre and Salle Gaveau, St Petersburg Hermitage) as well as Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Arts Space in Tokyo and the Seoul Arts Centre.

Redmond O'Toole has been hailed as Ireland's premier classical guitarist. He was the first to adopt Paul Galbraith’s ‘Brahms guitar’. This groundbreaking instrument and technique uses an eight-string guitar in the position of a cello. He has given numerous tours of the US as a former member of the Dublin Guitar Quartet and has performed as soloist with orchestras such as BBC Ulster and the Irish Baroque. He has also has toured extensively as guitarist for legendary Irish group ‘The Chieftains’.

Chloë records for Hyperion and her first release on the label featured Violin Concertos by Vieuxtemps (Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra/Brabbins). Her CD of York Bowen Sonatas with Danny Driver received recommendations from Gramophone (Choice) and The Strad and her other Hyperion recordings include Glazunov/Schoeck Concertos and Medtner Violin Sonatas. Other notable recordings included Bruch Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra (Warner Classics), and a highly acclaimed recording of John Adams Violin Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

Recent projects include collaborations with world renowned cellist, Raphael Wallfisch, the Vanbrugh String Quartet and Soprano Kim Sheehan. He has also performed with the LA guitar Quartet, Derek Gripper and his former teacher Paul Galbraith. He has collaborated with a wide range of ensembles including Crash Ensemble, The Callino Quartet and the UFO Orchestra amongst others. In 2012 Redmond set up Music Generation Wicklow: part of a national music education programme funded by U2 and the Ireland Funds. O’Toole was coordinator for the initial 18 months of the programme.

Programme Niccolò Paganini, Sonata Concertanta in A major, Op.61 J.S. Bach, Sonata for solo violin, No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001 Manuel De Falla, Six Spanish Folksongs Carlo Domeniconi, Koyunbaba (solo guitar) Ian Wilson, Spilliaert's Beach Astor Piazzolla, Histoire du Tango

O’Toole’s principal teacher was Oscar Ghiglia (see page 11) with whom he studied privately in Athens, Greece and at the famed Accademia Chigiana in Siena.

JEROME HYNES THEATRE NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE Tickets €20 Tuesday 24 October – 8 p.m. The residency is centred around an exciting and diverse concert series of international and Irish musicians curated by guitarist Redmond O’Toole.

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MY REAL LIFE ★★★★ ‘Don Wycherley gives a wonderfully understated performance’ — The Scotsman

★★★★ ‘Prepare to shed a tear…’

PHOTO © COLIN SHANAHAN – DIGICOL PHOTOGRAPHY & MEDIA PRODUCTIONS

— The Telegraph

Adding to the artistic diversity of the Festival, the play, My Real Life by Wexford-man and NY Times best-selling author Eoin Colfer, has recently been added to the programme. Described by Wexford’s Booker Prize winning novelist, John Banville as a play which is at once ‘Wexford and the world’, My Real Life is performed by Don Wycherley (Sing Street, Bachelors Walk, Abbey Theatre) and directed by Ben Barnes, Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal, Waterford and former Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre. In a mesmerising 70 minute monologue, Noel has two sides of an old cassette tape to record his very last words. This is an acclaimed blackly comedic and very moving play about love, life, death and the Thompson Twins from the pen of one of Ireland's most celebrated authors.

JEROME HYNES THEATRE NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE TICKETS €20–€25 Friday 27 October – 8.30 p.m. Saturday 28 October – 8.30 p.m. Friday 3 November – 8.30 p.m. Saturday 4 November – 8.30 p.m.

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PHOTO: CLIVE BARDA/ARENAPAL

OPERAS OF THE PAST, MIRRORS OF OUR PRESENT

Virginia, Wexford Festival Opera 2010

SYLVIA L’ÉCUYER, O.C. Often inspired by the works of the greatest poets and playwrights, operas expose us to another perspective of our humanity. Gods and nymphs, dukes and queens, warriors and courtesans are inspired by the same passions and defeated by the same foibles as we are. Today the stage directors feel the urge to make the message clear, shedding crowns and gowns, and updating the drama to contemporary circumstances. At which point do these adaptations betray the true nature of the work?

Sylvia L’Écuyer has been associate professor of musicology at the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal since 2001. Her research and publications focus on French music of the 19th century. A contributor to many works of reference, she has enjoyed a parallel career in broadcasting with the CBC, where from 1996 to 2000 she was director of music; since 2007 she has been the producer of the Opera Saturday for Ici Musique. JEROME HYNES THEATRE, NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE TICKETS €10 Saturday 28 October – 11 a.m.

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PHOTO: PATRICK BROWNE

GALA CONCERT

The Gala Concert is one of the highlights of Wexford Festival Opera and features a collection of favourite party pieces from members of the Festival company. All performers generously donate their time and talent for the Gala Concert, and all proceeds go toward supporting Wexford Festival Opera.

O’REILLY THEATRE | NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE TICKETS €65 – €80 Sunday 29 October – 8.30 p.m.

GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY

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PHOTO: FRANCES MARSHALL

PIANO RECITAL

FINGHIN COLLINS One of Ireland's most successful musicians, Dubliner Finghin Collins was born in 1977 and studied piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with John O'Conor and the Geneva Conservatoire with Dominique Merlet. Winner of the RTÉ Musician of the Future Competition in 1994 and the Classical Category at the National Entertainment Awards in Ireland in1998, Finghin went on to achieve major international success by taking first prize at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland in 1999. Since then he has developed a flourishing international career that takes him all over Europe, the United States and the Far East. In 2016 Finghin made his debuts in Turkey, China and Australia as well as performing throughout Europe. In March 2017, he performs a recital as part of the National Concert Hall's International Concert Series to mark his 40th birthday. Other engagements include performances in Jersey, Switzerland, France, Ireland and the USA, where he will make his debut at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in August 2017, performing with counter-tenor David Daniels. Finghin Collins is very active as a programmer, commissioner and concert presenter in Ireland, having been Artistic Director of the New Ross Piano Festival since its inception in 2006, and Artistic Director of Music for Galway since 2013. In addition, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Dublin International

Piano Competition (2006–2015), a member of the Board of Directors of the National Concert Hall (2001–2006), Musicianin-Residence in South Dublin County Council (2005–2008) and Artist-in-Residence in Waterford Institute of Technology (2005–2009). Programme Berg – Sonata Op. 1 Janáček – Sonata I.X.1905 ‘From the Street’ Wagner arr. Liszt – ‘Isoldens Liebestod’ from Tristan und Isolde Verdi arr. Liszt – Rigoletto Paraphrase —— Chopin – Prelude Op. 45 Chopin – Four Mazurkas Op. 17 Chopin – Two Nocturnes Op. 48 Chopin – Ballade No. 4 in A flat major Op. 52

O’REILLY THEATRE | NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE| TICKETS €25 – €30 Monday 30 October – 11 a.m. Kindly supported by Beverly Sperry

WEXFORDOPERA.COM / 2017 FESTIVAL 17

PHOTO: PATRICK BROWNE

BECOME A FRIEND OF WEXFORD FESTIVAL OPERA

STAY CLOSE TO THE HEART OF THE DRAMA Wexford Festival Opera breathes new life into Hidden Gems of the Operatic Repertoire. This is only made possible with the generous support of our closest Friends. As a special thank you, we have designed a range of exclusive benefits to enhance your experience during the Festival and throughout the year. We provide our Friends: • Advance Priority Booking for the best seats and performances • Complimentary tickets to Friends’ Parties, Lunches, and Buffet during the Festival • An opportunity to purchase additional tickets for Friends’ events • Invitations to the Friends’ Recitals and ‘In Conversation’ events held in Dublin and London. • An option to join our annual European opera trip • Exclusive access – during the Festival – to: – The Friends’ Lounge in the National Opera House – Welcome Receptions held during the Festival • A Programme Book, Loyalty Card, Newsletter, CD, and lapel pin • Regular news updates

Each Friends’ level* provides support directly for an important artistic element of the Festival: • Chorus Friends support the Festival Chorus and enjoy many benefits of full membership throughout the year at an affordable price • Ensemble Friends provide wonderful support for the Wexford Festival Opera Orchestra • Ensemble + Friends support our Creative Team; providing stunning backdrops/staging to the Operas and ShortWorks • Aria Friends provide funds and nominate a young singer for the ‘Aria Friends Artist Bursary’ • Cabaletta Friends contribute to the production of a designated ShortWorks performance • Bravura Friends are philanthropic benefactors for one mainstage opera production each year We also provide a way for young opera enthusiasts to experience the wonderful ambiance of the Festival: • Prelude Friends (Under 35s, €80) This is a great way to experience the atmosphere of the Festival and the mainstage operas at a very affordable level For those wishing to support Ireland’s National Opera House we offer a seat endowment programme: • Teatro Friends receive a seat endowed in a name of your choice in the O’Reilly Theatre at the National Opera House coupled with all the benefits of an Ensemble membership. For further information about our Friends’ Programme contact Nuala Sheedy, Friends’ Membership Executive, on +353 53 916 3525 or by email: nuala@wexfordopera.com. Visit Wexfordopera.com/friends *Membership levels and benefits are relevant to our 2017 season.

18 WEXFORDOPERA.COM / 2017 FESTIVAL

The story of Rubens and robberies in one of Ireland’s great houses.

Russborough House, Co. Wicklow.

From the beautiful galleries of Russborough House, to the tragic past of Wicklow Gaol, to the follies of Belvedere House and Gardens, you’ll ﬁnd hundreds of stories in Ireland’s Ancient East.

GREAT STORIES STAY WITH YOU FOREVER

Find yours at IrelandsAncientEast.com

WEXFORDOPERA.COM / 2017 FESTIVAL 19

PHOTO © CLIVE BARDA/ARENAPAL

BOOK YOUR TICKETS

BOOK ONLINE

Booking Fees

Book tickets online at Wexfordopera.com

A booking fee of €1.50 per transaction applies to all credit and debit card transactions.

BY PHONE +353 53 912 2144 or 1850 4 OPERA

Exclusive Offers

PAYMENT

Receive exclusive Festival offers and updates by joining our mailing list online at Wexfordopera.com/media/subscribe-toour-newsletter and by following us on Facebook and Twitter.

Payment may be made by credit or debit card or cheque. Cash payments may only be made in person.

IN PERSON Festival Box Office, The National Opera House, High Street, Wexford Box Office opening hours • to 14 October: Monday–Saturday, 9.30 a.m. – 5.30 p.m. • 16–18 October: 9 a.m. – 8 p.m. • 19–21 October: 9 a.m. – 8.30 p.m. • 22 October: 9 a.m. – 5.30 p.m. • 23–24 October: 9 a.m. – 8.30 p.m. • 25 October: 9 a.m. – 5.30 p.m. • 26 October – 4 November: 9 a.m. – 8.30 p.m. • 5 November: 9 a.m. – 5.30 p.m.

Post If you choose to have your tickets posted to you, they will arrive at least six weeks before the event. A fee of €1.00 to post.

Ticket Collection If you choose to collect your tickets for events outside of the National Opera House, they may be collected from the Box Office up to two hours before the performance.

Don’t be late Please arrive at the venue at least thirty minutes before the performance and allow ample time for traffic and parking delays. Latecomers cannot be admitted once the performance has commenced.

Refunds Wexford Festival Opera has a ‘no refund’ and ‘no exchange’ policy on all tickets purchased. Friends of Wexford Festival Opera who book tickets during the Friends’ Priority Booking period have a limited exchange and refund facility.

Special Access Requirements For information on our special access requirements, visit Wexfordopera.com/programme/how-to-book/.

Please Note The Management reserves the right to refuse admission and to change or cancel the advertised programme or artists.

Dress Code In keeping with Wexford Festival Opera tradition, evening dress is strongly recommended for the evening opera performances.

20 WEXFORDOPERA.COM / 2017 FESTIVAL

BOOKING DATES Tickets are available in three price bands over the Festival. Prices are based on the most requested Festival dates. Price Band A

Sunday 22, Monday 30 October; Wednesday 1, Thursday 2 November

Price Band B

Thursday 19, Friday 20, Saturday 21, Thursday 26, Friday 27, Saturday 28, Sunday 29 October; Friday 3, Saturday 4, Sunday 5 November

Price Band C

Gala Concert: Sunday 29 October

PRICING FLOOR LEVEL

SEATING AREA

DATES & PRICES Price Band A 22, 30 Oct; 1, 2 Nov

Price Band B 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, 29 Oct; 3, 4, 5 Nov

Price Band C Gala Concert 29 Oct

 Upper Circle

Rows A–B

€145

€75

 Upper Circle

Rows C–G

€100

€125

€65

 Upper Circle

Row H

€95

€65

 Upper Circle Side Stalls

I 12–18, J 1–7 I 19–22, J 8– 11

€50 €35

€65 €65

 Upper Circle Boxes (6 seats)*

Boxes A,B,D,E Boxes C, F

€25 €20

€65 €65

 Founders’ Circle

A3–A26 A1, A2, A27, A28 Rows B–C

€150 €145 €150

€80 €75 €80

 Founders’ Circle

Side Stalls

€135

€80

 Founders’ Circle (4 seats)*

Boxes A,B,D,E Boxes C,F

€50 €25

€75 €75

 Main Stalls

Rows A–B Rows C–P

€100 €110

€120 €130

€70 €70

 Side Stalls

1–6, 13–18 7–12, 19–24

€110 €100

€130 €120

€70 €70

*Restricted view, prices per seat

PLEASE NOTE In keeping with Wexford Festival Opera tradition, evening dress is strongly recommended for the evening opera performances.

WEXFORDOPERA.COM / 2017 FESTIVAL 21

O’REILLY THEATRE, NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 H 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2 1 12 21 G 13 11 10 14 G 9 15 16 17 6 7 8 18 5 19 20 4 2 3 21 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 22 F F 1 7 8 9 18 19 5 6 20 21 3 4 22 2 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 9 23 E 8 1 19 20 E 6 7 21 4 5 22 3 12 13 14 15 16 17 23 2 8 9 10 11 18 19 24 D 7 1 6 D 20 21 4 5 22 3 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 2 10 11 24 22 9 1 23 8 C 25 C 24 7 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 25 6 10 11 20 21 5 26 4 8 9 27 22 7 3 23 28 6 24 29 2 5 25 1 30 4 26 3 27 2 28 1 29

BOX

B J

18 19 20

7 8

alls Side St

4 3

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

BOX

2 3 4

talls

O N 1 M

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 O

Side S

Boxes D, E & F seat 6 each

14 15 16

BOX

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 4 5 16 2 3 17 18 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 C 1 C 10 9 21 22 8 7 23 13 14 15 16 17 18 12 6 11 24 19 20 9 10 5 25 21 8 4 22 7 26 6 23 3 27 5 24 25 4 2 28 3 26 1 29 27 2 28 1 B 7

BOX

Boxes A, B & C seat 6 each

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 5 22 23 24 BOX L 6 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 1 23 24 25 K 7 19 2 14 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 J 8 20 3 15 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 I 4 16 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 11 10 9 8 9 7 6 21 5 21 22 23 3 4 BOX 24 H 5 17 H 1 2 10 22 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 18 G 1 2 3 4 24 25 G 6 11 23 12 13 11 10 14 9 16 8 15 7 17 18 19 20 21 7 19 4 5 6 22 23 24 12 F 1 2 3 F 24 8 20 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 3 4 5 6 23 24 AA AA 25 E E 1 2 9 21 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 3 4 5 6 22 23 24 22 D 1 2 D 10 12 13 11 14 16 15 10 17 9 18 8 7 19 20 6 Boxes 21 22 23 3 4 5 23 24 25 C 11 C 1 2 A, B & C 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 12 8 7 24 6 5 4 3 22 seat 4 23 24 B 1 2 B each 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 8 7 6 4 5 22 23 24 3 2 1 25 A A

BOX

L 1 2 3 4 K 1 2 3 4 J 1 2 3 4 I 1 2 3

Boxes D, E & F seat 4 each

STAGE

FOUNDERS’ CIRCLE

Founders’ CentreCircle

8 9

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

S4E8 C4T9 IO5 N0

447 8

4489

465

446 7

D N TI O

445 6 46

4445

454

476

443 454

432

421 421

432

4309

4319

420

379 4308

397 38

346

368

346

443

33 32

313

324

31 30

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

SE C

40 41

27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

CT SE

41 42 43

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 2

40 41

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 C 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 G 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 D 35 36 37 38 39 40 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 H 23 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 E 24 J 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 F 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 SECTION C 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 30 31 32 G 26 27 28 29

20 25 21 26 22 27 23 28 24 29 25 30 26 31 27 32 28 33 29 34 30 35 36 37 38 39

18 24 19 25 20 26 21 27 22 28 23 29 24 30 25 31 26 32 27 33 34 35 36 37

SECTION B 23 24 25 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

6 7

I C1T

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

8 6

48 58

10 11 12 13 10 14 11 15 12 16 13 17 14 18 15 19 16 20 17 21 18 22 19 23 20 24 21 25 22 26

A E B F

386

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

9 10 10 11 12 13 14 15 11 16 12 17 13 18 14 19 15 20 16 21 17 22 18 23 19 24

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

8 15 9 10 10 11 12 13 14 16 11 17 12 18 13 19 14 20 15 21 16 22 17 23

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

37 47

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

9 10 10 11 12 13 14 15 11 16 12 17 13 18 14 19 15 20 16 21 17 22 18 23 19 24 20 25

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

335

2 2

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

357

STAGE

CLAYTON WHITES HOTEL

4434

STAGE

Boxes

Side Stalls

Wheelchairaccessible Seat

Boxes

Side Stalls

WheelchairSide Stalls accessible Seat

Row H

Side Stalls

Rows C–G

SideMain Stalls Stalls

Boxes

3480

Side Stalls Centre

Row H

Stalls Main Stalls

410

Rows C–G Rows A–B

STALLS

Rows A–B

UPPER CIRCLE

Circle

22 WEXFORDOPERA.COM / 2017 FESTIVAL

GREAT PLACES TO STAY

Ferrycarrig Hotel

Clayton Whites Hotel

Talbot Hotel Wexford

Kellyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Resort Hotel

Talbot Suites at Stonebridge

Artramon House

Monart

Marlfield House Hotel

Riverbank Hotel

Maldron Hotel

Killiane Castle Country House & Farm

Rathaspeck Manor

(Preferred Hotel)

(053) 912 0999 ferrycarrighotel.ie

(053) 912 2566 talbotsuites.ie

(053) 912 3611 riverbankhousehotel.com

(053) 912 2311 claytonwhiteshotel.com

(053) 915 9395 artramon-farm.com

(053) 917 2000 maldronhotelwexford.com

(053) 912 2566 talbotwexford.ie

(053) 923 8999 monart.ie

(053) 915 8885 killianecastle.com

(053) 913 2114 kellys.ie

(053) 942 1124 marlfieldhouse.com

(053) 914 1672 rathaspeckmanor.ie

PREFERRED DUBLIN HOTEL

Whitford House Hotel (053) 914 3444 whitfordhotelwexford.ie

Brandon House Hotel (051) 421 703 brandonhousehotel.ie

Kilmokea Country Manor (051) 388 109 kilmokea.com

The Merrion

(01) 603 0600 merrionhotel.com

WEXFORDOPERA.COM / 2017 FESTIVAL 23

GREAT PLACES TO EAT

Greenacres

(053) 912 2975 greenacres.ie

Thomas Moore Tavern (053) 917 4688 thomasmooretavern.com

Terrace Restaurant, Clayton Whites Hotel

Reeds Restaurant, Ferrycarrig Hotel

(053) 912 2311 claytonwhiteshotel.com/diningoptions/terrace-restaurant/

(053) 912 0999 ferrycarrighotel.ie

Oyster Lane Restaurant, Talbot Hotel Wexford

La Marine Bistro, Kelly’s Resort Hotel

The Duck Restaurant, Marlfield House Hotel

The Restaurant at Monart

Westgate Design

Whitford House Hotel

Cístín Eile

Simon Lambert & Sons

The Lobster Pot

The Yard

The Gallery, Brandon House Hotel

The Silver Fox

(053) 912 2566 talbotwexford.ie/Oyster-LaneRestaurant.html

(053) 912 3787 westgatedesign.ie

(053) 913 1110 lobsterpotwexford.com

(053) 913 2114 kellys.ie/la-marine-bistro.html

(053) 914 3444 whitfordhotelwexford.ie

(053) 914 4083 theyard.ie

(053) 942 1124 marlfieldhouse.com

(053) 912 1616 80 South Main Street

(051) 421 703 brandonhousehotel.ie

(053) 923 8999 monart.ie/dining

(053) 918 0041 simonlambertandsons.ie

(053) 912 9888 thesilverfox.ie

24 WEXFORDOPERA.COM / 2017 FESTIVAL

GREAT PLACES TO EAT

GREAT PLACES TO VISIT

Wild and Native Seafood Restaurant

Mary Barry’s

Hook Lighthouse

Wells House & Gardens

The Coffee Shop

Mi Asian Streetfood

The Irish National Heritage Park

International Outdoor Adventure Centre

(053) 913 2668 wildandnative.ie

(053) 912 4703 20 Trimmers Lane

(053) 913 5982 marybarrys.ie

(053) 919 8677 mistreetfood.ie

(051) 397 055 hookheritage.ie

(053) 912 0733 irishheritage.ie

EXHIBITION

The Holy Grail

(053) 914 4100 theholygrailwexford.com

The Red Kettle

(085) 249 7340 19 Mallin St, Ferrybank South

GREAT PLACES TO SHOP

The Blue Egg Gallery

Bravura at the Blue Egg Gallery. Exhibition running 21 October to 5 November 2017 22 John’s Gate St. (053) 914 5862 blueegggallery.ie EXHIBITION

(053) 918 6737 wellshouse.ie

(053) 918 9022 ioac.ie

EXHIBITION

Caroline Ward at Kelly’s Hotel Rosslare

Exhibition running 18 October to 5 November 2017 (087) 616 9924 carolinewardartist.com

Orla Barry – Breaking Rainbows

A live performance/installation Performance: 20–21 October 8 p.m. Exhibition: 22 October–18 November 2017 Wexford Arts Centre (053) 912 3764 wexfordartscentre.ie

Diana Donnelly

(053) 912 2175 | 48 The Bull Ring, Wexford

WEXFORDOPERA.COM / 2017 FESTIVAL 25

GREAT PLACES TO SHOP

Westgate Design (053) 912 3787 westgatedesign.ie

Shoestyle

(053) 912 4536 shoestyleinternational.com

Greenacres Fine Food Store Selected Femme/Homme

Corcorans Menswear

Charles Pierce Menswear

Frock

Pamela Scott

(053) 912 2687 corcoransmenswear.ie

(053) 912 2975 greenacres.ie

(053) 917 4064 selected.com

Essee Boutique

Panache

The Silk Connection

Murphy’s Jewellers

Dillons Jewellers

Sherwood’s Pharmacy

Selskar Pharmacy

Alison J. Murphy Optometrist

(053) 912 1488 72 North Main Street

(053) 917 1818 6 North Main Street

(053) 912 2939 42 South Main Street

(053) 912 2875 mccabespharmacy.com

(053) 915 2087 2 Selskar Street

(053) 912 2792 charlespiercemenswear.com

(086) 338 7905 Kilmore Quay

(053) 918 5171 28 Selskar Street

(053) 912 2686 pamelascott.com

(053) 914 6077 4 Slaney St, Ferrybank South

(053) 914 2662 ajmoptometrist.com

26 WEXFORDOPERA.COM / 2017 FESTIVAL

CULTUREFOX.IE

NEVER MISS OUT The Arts Council’s new, upgraded CULTUREFOX events guide is now live. Free, faster, easy to use – and personalised for you. Never miss out again.

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They say that if you want to escape time, listen to music. That’s why we say that RTÉ lyric fm is where life sounds better. And it’s true. Across the day, lyric provides a unique escape. And in the evenings, lyric provides true specialisation in the musical arts, across trad and world music, jazz, experimental and opera. But we also go further. The RTÉ lyric fm Outreach scheme takes music into the classrooms, while our Composer in Residence scheme gives budding composers real and powerful development opportunities.

We support the arts. We live the arts.

Supporting the arts. Supporting Communities.

28 WEXFORDOPERA.COM / 2017 FESTIVAL

FESTIVAL CALENDAR Thursday 19 October

Tuesday 24 October

Opening Ceremony

1.05 p.m.

Lunchtime Recital

3.30 p.m.

La Scala di seta

8.00 p.m.

Redmond O’Toole and Chloë Hanslip

8 p.m.

Medea

Friday 20 October Friends’ Welcome Reception*

Wednesday 25 October

1.05 p.m.

Thomas Moore Songbook

1.05 p.m.

Lunchtime Recital

3.30 p.m.

Dubliners

3.30 p.m.

Rigoletto

7 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

8 p.m.

Margherita

10 a.m.

Thursday 26 October

1.05 p.m.

Lunchtime Recital

Saturday 21 October

2 p.m.

11 a.m.

Dr Tom Walsh Lecture

3.30 p.m.

1.05 p.m.

Lunchtime Recital

7 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

3.30 p.m.

La Scala di seta

8 p.m.

Margherita

7 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

8 p.m.

Risurrezione

Friends’ Lunch* Dubliners

Friday 27 October

10 a.m.

1.05 p.m.

Lunchtime Recital

Sunday 22 October

3.30 p.m.

La Scala di seta

11 a.m.

Rigoletto

7 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

4 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

8 p.m.

Risurrezione

5 p.m.

Medea

8.30 p.m.

My Real Life

10.30 p.m.

Friends’ Party*

Friends’ Welcome Reception*

Monday 23 October

Saturday 28 October

11 a.m.

1.05 p.m.

Thomas Moore Songbook

3.30 p.m.

Rigoletto

7 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

8 p.m.

Medea

8.30 p.m.

8 p.m.

Oscar Ghiglia – Guitar Recital

10.30 p.m.

*Available to Friends only. See page 17 for details.

Opera Lecture – Sylvia L’Écuyer

My Real Life Friends’ Party*

Sunday 29 October

Thursday 2 November

11 a.m.

Dubliners

1.05 p.m.

Lunchtime Recital

2 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

3.30 p.m.

Rigoletto

3 p.m.

Margherita

5.15 p.m.

Friends’ Buffet*

8.30 p.m.

Gala Concert

7 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

8 p.m.

Risurrezione

Monday 30 October Friday 3 November

(bank holiday)

11 a.m.

Piano Recital

10 a.m.

1.05 p.m.

Lunchtime Recital

1.05 p.m.

Lunchtime Recital

2 p.m.

Friends’ Lunch

3.30 p.m.

La Scala di seta

3.30 p.m.

La Scala di seta

7 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

7 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

8 p.m.

Medea

8 p.m.

Risurrezione

8.30 p.m.

Friends’ Welcome Reception*

My Real Life

Tuesday 31 October

Saturday 4 November

1.05 p.m.

Lunchtime Recital

3.30 p.m.

Rigoletto

7 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

8 p.m.

Margherita

8.30 p.m.

8 p.m.

Medea

Wednesday 1 November

1.05 p.m.

Lunchtime Recital

3.30 p.m.

Dubliners

7 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

8 p.m.

Margherita

10.30 p.m.

My Real Life Friends’ Party*

Sunday 5 November

4 p.m.

Pre-Opera Talk

5 p.m.

Risurrezione

TRAVELLING TO WEXFORD

*Available to Friends only. See page 17 for details.

For instructions on travelling to Wexford via plane, train, automobile or ferry, you’ll find helpful information our website: wexfordopera.com/visit/directions-transport/

THE NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE High Street, Wexford, Y35 FEP3, Ireland Tel: +353 53 912 2400 Box Office: +353 53 912 2144 Callsave: 1850 4 OPERA boxoffice@wexfordopera.com Wexfordopera.com

patron Michael D Higgins, President of Ireland president Sir David Davies chairman

Ger Lawlor

rtistic director David Agler a hief executive David McLoughlin c

Join the Conversation #WFO2017