David McLoughlin, the long-standing CEO of the Wexford Festival Opera has announced he will step down at the end of March. After 13 years as the CEO, McLoughlin announced that he had decided to make the move from opera to return to producing roles in the film and television sector from where he had come prior to his work in {…}
The Wexford Festival Opera has announced a cast change for its closing night performance. The festival announced that Claudia Boyle and Pietro Adaíni will replace Lisette Oropesa, who will be unable to travel due to COVID-19 restrictions. Boyle is a well known Irish soprano who has performed at the Semperoper Dresden, Irish National Opera, English National Opera, and Teatro dell’Opera di {…}
The Wexford Festival Opera is set to premiere “What Happened to Lucrece,” a unique opera experience with multiple endings. The opera is set to stream between Oct. 13-15 and each night will offer up a different conclusion to the work. The opera was created during the COVID-19 lockdown by composer Andrew Synnott as part of the company’s “Waiting for Shakespeare… {…}
The Wexford Festival Opera has announced that it will team up with RTÉ and ARTE to bring opera to audiences in Ireland and worldwide. The festival will run between Oct. 11-18 and features performances by Lisette Oropesa, Antonio Pappano, Angela Meade, Celine Byrne, Ermonela Jaho, Aigul Akhmetshina, Simone Alberghini, Nicola Alaimo, Daniela Barcellona, Joseph Calleja, Roberto de Candia, Paolo Bordogna, Helena {…}
The Wexford Festival Opera has made its historic performance of “The Veiled Prophet” available online. Opera lovers can check out the opera by Irish composer Charles Villiers Standford via RTÉ Player. The work was showcased during Wexford Festival Opera’s 2019 slate in association with Heritage Music Productions. The production represented the first-ever professional performance in English of work and the {…}
The Wexford Festival Opera has announced the first-ever participants of the Wexford Factory. The factory is a two-week academy that aims to mentor young singers through masterclasses from international artists and professionals including famed tenor Juan Diego-Flórez, Irish soprano Celine Byrne, Ernesto Palacio of the Rossini Opera Festival, and Dmitry Vdovin, head of the Bolshoi’s Young Artist program. Additionally, Veteran {…}
OPERA America has selected 15 participants for its 2020 Leadership Intensive Program. These leaders, which hail from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Latin America, were selected from a pool of 44 candidates. The participants selected by OPERA America include are Derrell Acon, director of engagement and equity, Long Beach Opera; Joe Barnes, company manager, the Metropolitan Opera; Robert Boldin, artistic {…}
At last year’s Wexford Festival Opera I caught a recital by the largely unknown Polish baritone, Simon Mechlinski, and he made quite an impression. At the end of festival he received the Gerard Arnhold Bursary, an award made to a singer who is considered to have outstanding potential. This year he returned to Wexford and gave another recital, in addition {…}
(Photo: Clive Barda) Anyone who was fortunate enough to attend a performance of Rossini’s one act farsa “Adina” at this year’s Wexford Festival Opera, or managed to catch the broadcast on RTE’s Lyric FM could not fail to have been enthused by mezzo-soprano Rachel Kelly’s stunning interpretation in the title role. Since impressing on the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme {…}
(Photo: Michele Monasta) One of the delights of the Wexford Festival is the lunchtime recital which takes place in the mid-18th century church of St. Iberius on Wexford’s North Main Street each day at 1 o’clock. Lasting around an hour, it leaves just enough time for a quick lunch before the afternoon Opera Short presentation at Whites Hotel begins at {…}
(Photo: Clive Barda) There is certainly something of a Vivaldi revival going on in the opera world at the moment. In less than seven days, I managed to catch Irish National Opera’s splendid presentation of “Griselda,” the first ever production of a Vivaldi opera in Ireland, followed by Wexford Festival Opera’s production of “Dorilla in Tempe.” They employed two very {…}