(Credit: © CLIVE BARDA ArenaPAL) The Wexford Festival Opera has announced a new partnership with the airline, British Airways. Under this new partnership, British Airways will be the Festival’s official airline and production sponsor for Mascagni’s “Iris,” the highly anticipated production that will open the 2026 Festival on Oct. 15 in Wexford’s National Opera House. Beyond the stage, British Airways {…}
(Photo: Alciro Theodoro da Silva) As the final opera of George Frideric Händel, “Deidamia” (1741) has long occupied a minor space in the composer’s canon. Often viewed as a weary departure from the high-octane heroism of his Royal Academy years—a view infamously codified by Winton Dean’s somewhat dismissive assessment of Händel’s operatic swan song—the work, as the core production of {…}
(Photo: Padraig Grant) In 1752, Händel’s final complete composition, his oratorio “Jephtha,” was premiered at London’s Covent Garden Theatre, bringing to an end the composer’s illustrious career. Just over ten years earlier, he had premiered his opera “Deidamia” at London’s Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, in what proved to be another significant landmark; it was to be the last of his {…}
(Photo: Padraig Grant) The Wexford Factory Academy is a program offering young singers the opportunity to take part in workshops, masterclasses and performances in the weeks leading up to and during the festival. The highlight of the program is a fully staged production on the festival’s main stage, in which all the roles are performed by the Factory singers. The {…}
(Photo: Padraig Grant) Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” premiered at Rome’s Teatro Apollo in 1853 and proved to be an immediate box office success that led to further productions across Italy, Europe, and the Americas. Following its Parisian premiere at the Théâtre Italien in 1854, Verdi was commissioned to adapt it for a production at the city’s Opéra, which required changes to {…}
The up-and-coming British soprano Jane Burnell recently made her role debut as Countess Cortese in “Il Viaggio di Reims” at the Wexford Festival Opera. OperaWire was lucky to meet up with her for a quick interview to get to know more about her. OperaWire: What was the first opera you went to see? Jane Burrell: I was about 11 years {…}
(Photo: Padraig Grant) Interest in Frederick Delius’ operas has never been particularly high; even his best-known opera, “A Village Romeo and Juliet,” receives only the occasional performance. Wexford Festival Opera‘s decision to stage a production of “The Magic Fountain,” his second of six operas, written between 1893 and 1895, was therefore a welcome, if not a surprising, choice for the {…}
(Photo: Padraig Grant) As well as its featured operas, the Wexford Opera Festival also puts on an array of other events, including performances of its “pocket operas,” that is, short works or abridged versions of larger works, sung to a piano accompaniment, presented in the smaller Jerome Hynes Theatre, rather than on the theatre’s main stage. One of the “pocket {…}
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Wexford Festival Opera announces it 2026 season. This article only features opera events. Main Stage Operas First up is Pietro Mascagni and Luigi Illica’s “FIris.” Rosetta Cucchi directs and Francesco Cilluffo conducts. Performance Dates: October 15, 20, 23, 28, & 31, 2026 “L’equivoco stravagante” by Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Gasbarri is next. Max Hoehn directs. Riccardo Bisatti conducts. Performance Dates: October {…}
As it prepares for its 75th anniversary, the Wexford Festival Trust has announced the appointment of Dr. Terry Neill as its sixth President. Neill, who has spent 32 years with Andersen Worldwide/Accenture in Dublin, Chicago, and London, serving as Chair of the worldwide board and Global Managing Partner for the firm’s change management practice, will officially assume the role on {…}