THREE FORGOTTEN masterpieces – Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snegurochka (The Snow Maiden), Carlo Pedrotti’s comic Tutti in Maschera and the 1960s gothic work, The Mines of Sulphur by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett – will be performed in full at this year’s 57th Wexford Festival Opera.
The festival’s programme, comprising these three rarely performed operas, three short works – Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino and Menotti’s The Old Maid The Thief – as well as recitals, concerts, art exhibitions, plays and lectures, was announced by Minister for Arts Martin Cullen in the National Gallery in Dublin yesterday.
The festival, which runs from October 16th to November 2nd, will take up residence for the first time in its new state-of-the-art, multi-function Wexford Opera House on the site of the town’s old Theatre Royal. The €33 million landmark building, which was designed and project-managed by the Office of Public Works, in association with Keith Williams Associates Architects, includes a main auditorium with seating for 781 opera goers and a second space with a seating capacity of 176.
“The main star this year is the Wexford Opera House itself, an incredible feat of engineering, blessing the skyline of Wexford and providing a five-star home for our productions for generations to come,” said David Agler, the festival’s artistic director.
David McLoughlin, chief executive of the festival and the opera house, said: “We are on the eve of what will be the most exciting period of innovation, development and expansion in the festival’s history.”
Over its 18-day run, the festival entertains about 30,000 opera lovers. It was described by Mr Cullen as “a jewel in our nation’s treasury of arts events”.