The Wexford Festival Opera has announced that Rosetta Cucchi will be its next artistic director.

She will initiate her six-year tenure after the 2019 festival when current artistic director David Agler steps down.

“I am happy and honored to be appointed Artistic Director of the Wexford Festival Opera. I have a great passion for the Festival and the people who make it possible,” Cucchi stated in a press release. “My vision will be to preserve its great tradition while at the same time, bring a touch of new breath to it.  To quote Jonathan Swift, ‘Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.’”

Cucchi studied to be a concert pianist at the Rossini Converatoire in Pesaro and the DAMS University in Bologna. She then received a Master’s Degree at the Scuola di Alto Perfezionamento Pianistico di Imola. Her directorial debut came at the Teatro Bellini in Catania and she has since worked with such companies as Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Teatro Comunale di Modena, Opera di Tenerife, Lubeck Theater, St. Gallen Theatre (Swiss) Teatro Pergolesi, Baltimore Theatre, Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Boston Lyric Opera, Teatro La Fenice Venice, Opera Las Palmas Spain, and the Rossini Opera Festival, among others.

She made her Wexford Festival Opera debut in 2004 with Braunfels’ “Prinzessin Brambila.” She has also directed three other operas since; she is set to direct Rossini’s “Adina” at the 2019 Festival.

She also served as Artistic director at the Lugo Opera Festival between 2001-2015. She also was Artistic Director at the Arturo Toscanini Foundation between 2005-2018.