2013 Friends' Newletter

62nd FESTIVAL | 23 October – 3 November, 2013

News for Friends Priority booking for friends opens 7 May 2013

FRIENDS’ BENEFITS We encourage you to use your Friends’ benefits to enhance your Festival experience. All Friends enjoy the following: • Priority Booking • Friends’ Newsletter and ‘Discover the Repertoire’ CD • Access to Friends’ overseas opera tour • Free subscription to Friends’ online magazine and exclusive access to the new Friends’ area of the website These resources give you access to behind-the-scenes updates and news in the lead-up to this year’s Festival.

• Invitations to the new ‘In Conversation’ series • Invitations to the Friends’ Recitals in London and Dublin • Complimentary tickets to the Friends’ Parties, Buffets and Lunches during the Festival • Complimentary Festival programme Your programme will be available for collection during the Festival between 12:00 and 16:00 in the Friends’ Lounge on Level 3 of Wexford Opera House, or in the evenings at the Friends’ Desk on the ground floor.

• Friends’ Loyalty Card and Friends’ Pin Loyalty cards are exclusively available to Friends and offer discounts in selected retailers, restaurants and hotels in Wexford.

INTRODUCING LUCY DURACK These are some of our early ideas in the development of our concept for the production of Cristina, regina di Svezia.

librettist ignored the morecopy controversial aspects of Photo Foroni’s of Lucy and CAlis alique duci beatemp oratur? to come Seque prore aut voles experepelent am, comni as ex ex es

cuptatempore estius minciis et voluptat latinul laudaerovit erum, sitibea quibeaque doloritatus venihil in repta quide id et in terra pax hominibus.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Friends’ Membership Benefits

2

Just for Friends

From the Artistic Director

3

Wining and Dining

Sponsors & Funders

5

Il Cappello di paglia di Firenze

4

Thérèse / La Navarraise

8

Cristina, regina di Svezia

12

24

in Wexford Opera House

26

Accommodation 27 Travel 28 Sponsorship, Development & Outreach

29

ShortWorks 16

News for Friends

35

Concerts & Recitals

18

In Memoriam

37

Dr Tom Walsh Lecture

20

How to Book

39

Festival Calendar

22

Opera Ticket Pricing

40

Seating Plan

41

Event Ticket Information

42

Booking Form

43

Discover the Repertoire CD

45

Front cover photograph © Clive Barda/ArenaPAL. Cover image from A Village Romeo and Juliet (Wexford Festival Opera, 2012).

Table of Contents 1

FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Dear Friends, As I write this signs of spring are all around me.

Daffodils, birdsong and sunlight hold out the promise of new life and the new, brighter light brings out nature’s hidden beauty – which seems to be rather an apt metaphor for what we do at Wexford: shine a bright light on to operatic rarities and breathe new life into them. I hope you will enjoy this year’s selection.

The dazzling and enigmatic figure of the seventeenth century Queen Christina of Sweden continues to fascinate us and Foroni’s opera, Cristina, regina di Svezia, which he wrote in Stockholm in the midnineteenth century, is a true rarity.

The double bill, Thérèse and La Navarraise, continues Wexford’s engagement with Massenet’s operas, bringing the total to nine, and promising an intensely dramatic evening of stirring passions and high emotion.

A fine cup of coffee is no laughing matter, but there will be plenty to enjoy in the perfect cappuccino that is Rota’s delightfully frothy farce, The Florentine Straw Hat (Il Cappello di paglia di Firenze).

We are very pleased that this year we can present four ShortWork operas, one of which, Verdi’s masterpiece La Traviata, will be performed in the Jerome Hynes Theatre. Away from the operatic stage 2013 marks the beginning of our three-year concert series, Irish Heritage at Wexford.

Wexford will play host this year to the Opera Europa Conference, and we are proud to welcome such a distinguished gathering to the town during festival time.

I look forward to greeting you all at this year’s Wexford Festival.

DAVID AGLER, Artistic Director

2 Friends’ Membership Benefits

SPONSORS & FUNDERS

Grant-aided by the Arts Council

Festival supported by Fáilte Ireland

Lead Production Sponsor of L’Arlesiana

Proudly Supporting Le Roi malgré lui

Official IT & Communications Partner

Proudly Supporting Le Roi malgré lui

Sponsors of The Gala Concert

Print Media Sponsor & Production Sponsor of Le Roi malgré lui

List of sponsors to come

Sponsors of the Festival Dress Rehearsals

National Broadcast Media Partner

Preferred Hotel Partner

Sponsors of the Lunchtime Recitals

Official Festival Partner

Italian Institute of Culture – Dublin Proudly Supporting L’Arlesiana

Youth Ticketing Sponsors

Official Airport Partner

Restaurant Partner

Restaurant Partner

Welcome 3

NINO ROTA (1911–1979)

{23} {26} {29} Oct, {1} Nov 20:00

Farsa musicale in four acts to a libretto by Nino Rota and Ernesta Rinaldi after Eugène Labiche and Marc Michel First performed on 21 April 1955 at Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Sicily Sung in Italian

sponsor name and logo to come

IL CAPPELLO DI PAGLIA DI FIRENZE (THE FLORENTINE STRAW HAT)

The Florentine Straw Hat is Nino Rota’s most popular opera, a joyously exhilarating comedy that has its origins in the famous 1851 French farce, Un chapeau de paille d’Italie

by Eugène Labiche and Marc Michel. Jacques Ibert wrote the incidental music for performances of the play in 1929 and used it as the basis of his popular work for chamber orchestra, Divertissement. In 1927 the play was transformed

by René Clair into his classic silent film comedy masterpiece, An Italian Straw Hat. A prolific composer of stage and concert works, Rota was more widely known as an extremely successful composer of music for over 140 films (including The Godfather).

He composed Il Cappello di paglia di Firenze in 1945 to a libretto he co-wrote with his mother. Like the original play, the opera is a witty and brilliant satire on the petty conventionalism of the French bourgeoisie. Here Rota’s musical style is akin to that of a latter-day Rossini, with elements of Puccini and Verdi.

The action takes place on the day of Fadinard’s wedding. To add to the usual stresses of such a day, his horse eats a lady’s hat on a bush at the roadside while the lady is hidden behind the bush with her lover, Lieutenant Tavernier. Because she is married she cannot return home hatless without being suspected of infidelity, so Tavernier orders Fadinard to replace the hat with one exactly like it. In an elaborate and complicated sequence of events Fadinard tries to find a hat whilst allaying the suspicions of his fiancée and her family.

Il Cappello di paglia di Firenze 5

conductor sergio alapont

director andrea cigni

designer lorenze cutùli

lighting designer paul keogan

PRODUCTION NOTES The chosen setting is that of Paris in the 1950s: costumes, objects, icons, all inspired by this era. A giant postcard that works as a stage and which represents the Ville Lumière, full of traps, as doors of a house in ‘horizontal’, from which, with a continuous rhythmic vaudeville, the protagonists enter the scene. All the singers are characterised

The background to this amusing view of Paris is a large number of posters of the same era, to recall the climate of the time, amused and almost cartoon-like (in the cinematographic sense), with an injoke for the knowledgeable, a quotation of poetry

by Fellini. There is a forestage to achieve a greater area for the action, and to create

as actors of a film, each with their own way of being, its madness, its own history: Nonancourt, Beaupertuis, the tailor, the Baroness, Felice the waiter, the two young lovers, many other crazy personages and a white horse too!

scenes and byplay on several dramatic levels: the stage, the postcard, the walkable gallery, the proscenium. The result is an unforgettable, colourful, fun, irresistible ...

Straw Hat of Florence ... in Wexford!

6 Il Cappello di paglia di Firenze

— Andrea Cigni, Director

Il Cappello di paglia di Firenze 7

JULES MASSENET (1842–1912) {24} {30} Oct, {2} Nov 20:00 {27} Oct 17:00 Drame musical in two acts Libretto by Jules Clareti First performed on 7 February 1907 at the Opéra, Monte Carlo Sung in French

THÉRÈSE

sponsor name and logo to come

Passion, heroism, impassioned tenderness, drama, renunciation and sacrifice, played out against the politics and terror of the French Revolution: music and story are perfectly matched in Massenet’s taut emotional opera Thérèse. Massenet completed the opera, which depicts events in 1792 and 1793, in 1906. The story concerns three people who are forced by the brutal politics of the time to confront their relationships and to make life and death choices.

Thérèse is given the opportunity to escape with her lover Armand, but chooses instead to go to her death with her husband – ‘The path of duty is salvation!’

— DOUBLE BILL —

LA NAVARRAISE Épisode lyrique in two acts Libretto by Jules Claretie and Henri Cain First performed on 18 May 1887 at the Opéra-Comique, Paris Sung in French

La Navarraise is an opera in the verismo tradition which realistically depicted lower-class contemporary life. It is the story of Anita, a young woman from Navarre, who, like Thérèse, is caught up in historical events. It is the civil war in Spain in 1874 and she is fearful for the safety of the man she loves who is in the army. However, it is not war that destroys her, but her own wrong moral choice. She is poor and her would-be father-in-law will not allow his son to marry her, so secretly she offers to kill the enemy leader for money for her dowry. But when she does so the man she loves accuses her of getting the money through prostitution and rejects her. He dies and she goes mad.

Thérèse / La Navarraise 9

conductor david agler

director renaud doucet

designer andré barbe

lighting designer paul keogan

PRODUCTION NOTES Massenet is a composer who has been very close to us since the start of our professional association and we are extremely pleased to produce for Wexford Festival Opera this double bill of Thérèse and La Navarraise which are unfortunately rarely performed.

Through these two individual stories we try to explore the influence of painting on life. Thérèse, set in a museum’s restoration workshop, shows us how historical subjects can come to life centuries after they happened, by means of a series of eighteenth century paintings about the French revolution before la terreur.

Using Picasso’s painting Guernica for La Navarraise shows us how the artist transcends historical subjects and events to make an important political and social statement. Massenet’s opera is given a new perspective by setting it in the Spanish Civil War’s most famous artistic outcry.

Like the painter, our work as an opera creative team of stage director and designer is to engage the senses of the audience by giving it sometimes an intensification of reality, sometimes an abstraction. Like the artist, we use Life as our subjectmatter. Art has to be grounded in the real world and enhance our understanding of ways of seeing. This involves a constant interrogation of our assumptions about the nature of art and life and its representation.

The artist who tries to replicate Nature is only an executive artist and, since the model he so faithfully copies is not going to be hung next to the picture, it is of no interest whether the result is an accurate copy of the original. We think that it is the same for every form of art. In a period when art funding is a struggle, a painting like Guernica is more than ever relevant, showing us how art can sometimes change the way we look at the world.

— André Barbe, Designer & Renaud Doucet, Director

10 Thérèse / La Navarraise

Thérèse / La Navarraise 11

sponsor name and logo to come {25} {31} Oct 20:00 {28} Oct, {3} Nov 17:00 Opera in five parts and three acts to a libretto

by Giovanni Carlo Casanova First performed on 19 May 1849 at Mindre Teatern, Stockholm Sung in Italian

JACOPO FORONI (1825–1858)

CRISTINA, REGINA DI SVEZIA The life and reign of Queen Christina of Sweden has been a rich source for creative artists over the years. As well as the subject of Foroni’s opera, she was the inspiration for August Strindberg’s 1901 play Kristina, and the films Queen Christina (1933), starring Greta Garbo, and The Abdication (1974), starring Liv Ullmann. Christina was an intelligent and extremely well-educated monarch who played an important role in ending the Thirty Years’ War, one of the longest and most destructive wars in European history.

The events leading up to Christina’s sudden abdication in 1654 – including political unrest, conspiracy and her loneliness as monarch – are at the core of Foroni’s opera and are stirringly presented in the dramatic orchestral music and lyrical bel canto vocal writing. The emotional focus is the queen’s unrequited love for her favourite, Gabriele (Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie), who loves and is loved by Maria, Christina’s cousin.

Foroni studied in his native Verona and began to make his name as a composer, but the political unrest of 1848 forced him to leave Italy and he went to Stockholm where he became the conductor of an Italian opera company. He composed Cristina, regina di Svezia as his introduction to the Swedish public and its success led to his appointment as Court Conductor. He died from cholera in 1858.

Although Foroni was an advocate of new and unfamiliar works by Schumann and Berlioz, in Cristina, regina di Svezia, we hear his familiarity with the music of Bellini, Donizetti and the young Verdi.

Cristina, regina di Svezia 13

conductor andrew greenwood

director stephen medcalf

set designer jamie vartan

lighting designer paul keogan

PRODUCTION NOTES These are some of our early ideas in the development of our concept for the production of Cristina, regina di Svezia.

Foroni’s librettist ignored the more controversial aspects of Christina’s personality and concentrated on her abdication, which according to the narrative of the opera is primarily motivated by the loneliness of her existence as a monarch.

The subject of the opera is the Queen’s struggle to subjugate her personal feelings to her state responsibilities – and the central thesis is that love is ultimately incompatible with power. As the opera begins with the Chancellor returning from mainland Europe with a promise of peace, continues with a royal wedding that ends badly and concludes with an abdication speech, we could not help but be struck by the resonances with events in

14 Cristina, regina di Svezia

Britain before the Second World War and parallels with the private life of the British Royal Family.

This has inevitably set us thinking about the imagery and atmosphere of this time and place in history: a world which has been brought more into the public consciousness in recent times by a succession of films dealing with Edward VIII’s love affair and George VI’s stammer; a world which is familiar to us through old news reels and black and white movies and one which we can begin to understand. Certainly our notions of Swedish Court life at the end of the Thirty Years War are rather vaguer!

We have also been seduced by Greta Garbo in the 1933 film Queen Cristina, which so charmingly and eloquently brings both of these worlds together.

— Stephen Medcalf, Director & Jamie Vartan, Designer

Cristina, regina di Svezia 15

SHORTWORKS

La Traviata

The Sleeping Queen

GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901)

MICHAEL WILLIAM BALFE (1808–1870)

JEROME HYNES THEATRE

THE AUDITORIUM, PRESENTATION SECONDARY SCHOOL, SCHOOL STREET

{24} {26} {28} Oct {1} Nov – 15:30 {31} October, {3} November – 11:00 TICKET €25 Sung in English In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of the greatest opera composers of all, this year’s daytime production of a classic opera from the standard repertoire is Verdi’s La Traviata. Based on La dame aux camélias, the tragedy of Violetta and Alfredo’s love story is told through some of Verdi’s most heart-breaking and beautiful music. Their happiness is destroyed by ingrained society attitudes, emotional blackmail and a fatal illness, against which even Violetta’s selfsacrificing nobility cannot prevail.

16 ShortWorks

{25} {31} October – 15:30 {28} October – 11:00 TICKET €25 Sung in English Dublin-born Balfe, who is best known for The Bohemian Girl, was the most successful composer of English operas in the nineteenth century. His one-act operetta The Sleeping Queen, in which a young queen finds that her unmarried state can be used to powerful advantage, is set in Spain c.1620. The style of plot foreshadows W. S. Gilbert and involves royal power, love, war, misunderstandings, a memorable dream and a happy ending.

This will be the first staged production in Ireland in very many years.

L’Elisir d’amore

Losers

GAETANO DONIZETTI (1797–1848)

RICHARD WARGO (b. 1957)

THE AUDITORIUM, PRESENTATION SECONDARY SCHOOL, SCHOOL STREET

THE AUDITORIUM, PRESENTATION SECONDARY SCHOOL, SCHOOL STREET

{26} October, {1} November – 11:00 {29} October – 15:30

{27} October – 11:00 {30} October, {2} November – 15:30

TICKET €25

TICKET €25

Sung in English

Sung in English

L’Elisir d’amore (‘The Elixir of Love’) is one of Donizetti’s most frequently-performed operas. It was the first Donizetti opera to be performed at Wexford, and that 1952 production has been followed by performances of a further fifteen of his operas. The story concerns Nemorino’s wooing of Adina, and his faith in a ‘magic’ love potion he buys from a quack doctor.

Nemorino’s constancy is contrasted with Adina’s fickleness, but eventually he wins his lady – and boosts the reputation of the elixir-maker.

In 2010 Winners, the first opera in Richard Wargo’s two-opera work Ballymore, was performed to great acclaim as a ShortWork at Wexford.

This year it is the turn of the second work, Losers, to receive its Irish premiere at Wexford. Ballymore was inspired

by Brian Friel’s pair of one-act plays, Winners and Losers. Wargo describes Losers as ‘a working-class farce whose plot turns on the Vatican decree expelling St Philomena from its Canon of Saints, and the comic havoc that ensues.’

ShortWorks 17

CONCERTS & RECITALS

PHOTO: PAULA MALONE CARTY

PHOTO: CLIVE BARDA/ARENAPAL

Lunchtime Recitals

Gala Concert

ST IBERIUS CHURCH

WEXFORD OPERA HOUSE

{25} {26} {28} {29} {30} {31} October – 13:05 {1} {2} November – 13:05

{27} October – 21:00

Ticket €15 TBC Continuing a long-established Wexford tradition, the popular lunchtime recitals (approximately fifty minutes) will be given in St Iberius Church in the centre of Wexford. These recitals afford a unique opportunity to hear the Festival’s opera stars display their vocal talents in other types of repertoire on an intimate concert platform. The artists and their performance dates will be announced at the beginning of the Festival.

18 Concerts & Recitals

Ticket €50-60 TBC 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 proceeds go toward supporting the programmes of Wexford Festival Opera.

Early booking is advised.

Morning Concerts: Irish Heritage at Wexford Irish Connections (Piano Trio) Back to Titanic (Voices and Piano) JEROME HYNES THEATRE

back to titanic

{24} October – 13:05 {30} October, {2} November – 11:00

irish connections {25} October – 11:00 Ticket €15 TBC Irish Heritage at Wexford is a new venture designed to highlight and showcase the music of Ireland. The concerts are curated

by Una Hunt who in 2012 presented and performed the acclaimed William V. Wallace Recitals.

Irish Connections is a programme of music for violin, cello and piano by composers from nineteenth and twentieth century Ireland, including Osborne, Joan Trimble and Balfe, and will feature the modern Irish premiere of Balfe’s Piano Trio.

Back to Titanic is music from the playlist of the White Star Line and other popular music from 1912. Our knowledge of what was to happen on Titanic’s voyage and that the First World War would start in 1914, adds to the nostalgic charm of this music of the high Edwardian era.

Concerts & Recitals 19

DR TOM WALSH LECTURE Dr Tom Walsh Lecture Why do we keep coming back to Wexford?

JEROME HYNES THEATRE {26} October – 15:30 Ticket €10 TBC Rodney Milnes, Geoffrey Wheatcroft and Elaine Padmore Dr Tom Walsh (1911-1988) was one of the founders of the Wexford Opera Festival (as it was then called) and its first Artistic Director, from 1951 to 1966. His skills as an impresario were developed during the late 1930s when he reformed the Wexford Operatic Society as the Wexford Musical Society, and then formed the Wexford Theatre Guild during the war years. In 1950 he set up the Wexford Opera Study Circle and invited Sir Compton Mackenzie to give the inaugural address. Mackenzie suggested that they put on an opera themselves, and so an operatic legend was born. The Dr Tom Walsh Lecture is presented by Wexford Festival Opera to honour the memory of ‘Dr Tom’.

20 Dr Tom Walsh Lecture

PHOTO: WEXFORD FESTIVAL OPERA ARCHIVES

This year the Dr Tom Walsh Lecture will be given by two international opera critics, Rodney Milnes and Geoffrey Wheatcroft, who have each attended the Wexford Festival for a remarkable forty-four years.

Their recollections will be encouraged by a former Artistic Director, Elaine Padmore, who, like them, knew Dr Tom. We invite you to join us for a cup of tea or coffee in the foyer of the Jerome Hynes Theatre after the lecture.

Kindly supported by Victoria Walsh-Hamer

PHOTO: ROB MOORE

Rodney Milnes is a musicologist and music critic with a particular interest in opera. Over the years he has been opera critic for Harpers and Queen, The Spectator, Evening Standard and The Times, and he was editor of Opera from 1986 to 1999. He has translated several operas and has broadcast and published widely on opera.

In 2002 he was awarded an OBE for services to journalism and music.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft is a journalist, author and historian, a former literary editor of the Spectator, former ‘Londoner’s Diary’ editor of the Evening Standard, and a columnist and features writer for many British and American newspapers and periodicals.

His books include Yo, Blair!, The Strange Death of Tory England and The Controversy of Zion, which won an American National Jewish Book Award.

Elaine Padmore was Artistic Director of Wexford Festival from 1982 to 1994, after which she ran the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, and in 2000 she was appointed Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

After her retirement she received the OBE in the Queen’s Jubilee Honours in 2012 and is now a freelance opera consultant. She has scarcely missed an annual visit to the Wexford Festival since 1976.

Dr Tom Walsh Lecture 21

FESTIVAL CALENDAR Wednesday 23 October

Saturday 26 October

Opening Ceremony

11:00 13:05 15:30 15:30 19:00

IL CAPPELLO DI PAGLIA DI FIRENZE 20:00 22:30

Friends’ Party

L’ELISIR D’AMORE Lunchtime Recital Dr Tom Walsh Lecture LA TRAVIATA Pre-Opera Talk

IL CAPPELLO DI PAGLIA DI FIRENZE 20:00 22:30

Friends’ Party

Thursday 24 October

Sunday 27 October

13:05 15:30 19:00

11:00 11:15

16:00

Irish Heritage – Back to Titanic LA TRAVIATA Pre-Opera Talk

20:00 THÉRÈSE / LA NAVARRAISE

LOSERS Festival Mass, Church of the Immaculate Conception, Rowe Street Pre-Opera Talk

17:00 THÉRÈSE / LA NAVARRAISE 21:00

Gala Concert

Friday 25 October

Monday 28 October (BANK HOLIDAY)

11:00 13:05 15:30 19:00

Irish Heritage – Irish Connections Lunchtime Recital THE SLEEPING QUEEN Pre-Opera Talk

11:00 13:05 15:30 19:00

THE SLEEPING QUEEN Lunchtime Recital LA TRAVIATA Pre-Opera Talk

20:00

CRISTINA, REGINA DI SVEZIA

17:00

CRISTINA, REGINA DI SVEZIA

22 Festival Calendar

62nd Wexford Festival Opera

Wednesday 23 October – Sunday 3 November 2013 Schedule correct at the time of going to print, but may be subject to subsequent change.

Tuesday 29 October

Friday 1 November

13:05 15:30 19:00

11:00 13:05 15:30 19:00

Lunchtime Recital L’ELISIR D’AMORE Pre-Opera Talk

IL CAPPELLO DI PAGLIA DI FIRENZE 20:00

L’ELISIR D’AMORE Lunchtime Recital LA TRAVIATA Pre-Opera Talk

IL CAPPELLO DI PAGLIA DI FIRENZE 20:00

Wednesday 30 October

Saturday 2 November

11:00 13:05 15:30 18:00 19:00

11:00 13:05 15:30 19:00

Irish Heritage – Back to Titanic Lunchtime Recital LOSERS Friends’ Buffet Pre-Opera Talk

20:00 THÉRÈSE / LA NAVARRAISE

Thursday 31 October 11:00 13:05 15:30 19:00

LA TRAVIATA Lunchtime Recital THE SLEEPING QUEEN Pre-Opera Talk

20:00

CRISTINA, REGINA DI SVEZIA

Irish Heritage – Back to Titanic Lunchtime Recital LOSERS Pre-Opera Talk

20:00 THÉRÈSE / LA NAVARRAISE 23:00

Friends’ Party

Sunday 3 November 11:00 11:00 16:00

Festival Service, St Iberius Church LA TRAVIATA Pre-Opera Talk

17:00

CRISTINA, REGINA DI SVEZIA

Festival Calendar 23

JUST FOR FRIENDS Dublin Friends’ Recital NATIONAL CONCERT HALL {11} June – Time TBC We are delighted to announce that this year we are holding a very special Friends’ Recital in partnership with the Friends of the National Concert Hall. The programme will feature performances by two of the outstanding singers appearing in this year’s festival.

PHOTO © GER LAWLOR

Friends’ Lounge

Friends’ ‘In Conversation’ Series

We hope you will enjoy using the Friends’ Lounge in Wexford Opera House during the Festival. Open from 11:00 to 16:00 every day, it provides the opportunity to relax in comfortable surroundings in the company of other Friends. Volunteers are on hand to answer questions and to help with any restaurant or other bookings you wish to make. Complimentary tea, coffee and newspapers are available.

DUBLIN ‘IN CONVERSATION’

The Lounge is also open for the exclusive use of Friends during the opera intervals and may be a welcome alternative to the busy bars. Your drinks can be pre-ordered and delivered to the Lounge to await your arrival.

The Lounge is located on Level 3 of Wexford Opera House, opposite the entrance to the Sky View Café.

24 Just for Friends

ROYAL HIBERNIAN ACADEMY {10} September – 19:00 WEXFORD ‘IN CONVERSATION’ WEXFORD OPERA HOUSE {12} September – 19:30 LONDON ‘IN CONVERSATION’ VENUE TO BE FINALISED {17} September – Time TBC Replacing our Friends’ Lectures, the new ‘In Conversation’ Series of talks will provide you with expert insight into artistic and production elements of Wexford Festival Opera. Come and join us at these events and hear about behind the scenes’ triumphs and challenges.

Details of the speakers to be circulated.

PHOTO © DEREK SPEIRS

Friends’ Parties, Buffets and Lunches This year there will be several opportunities to enjoy the company of other Friends and to mingle with the artistic team and cast at the Festival Friends’ events. In addition to our annual post-opera Friends’ Parties there will be two pre-opera Friends’ Buffets and a new lunchtime option for Friends who wish to meet during the day.

The Friends’ Buffets will include a delicious selection of food and complimentary wine.

Transport will be available after the Buffets to bring Friends to Wexford Opera House before the evening’s performance.

The post-opera Friends’ Parties will include champagne, wine and canapés.

Do not forget to book your complimentary tickets to the Friends’ Parties, Buffets and Lunches through the box office. Your complimentary tickets can be used at whichever events you wish to attend during the Festival. As part of the membership benefits Ensemble Friends are entitled to four complimentary tickets, Aria Friends are entitled to six complimentary tickets and Bravura Friends are entitled to ten complimentary tickets. Prelude Friends can purchase two tickets at the discounted price of €15 each.

GREENACRES FRIENDS’ PARTY {23} October – Post-Opera WHITES HOTEL FRIENDS’ PARTY 26 October – Post-Opera The Friends’ Lunches will be served in the Terrace Restaurant in Whites Hotel after the Lunchtime Recital.

WHITES HOTEL {28} October, {1} November

TALBOT HOTEL {30} October, {2} November – 17:30

If you require additional tickets to the Friends’ Parties, Buffets and Lunches they may be purchased from the box office at €30 each.

We look forward to meeting you at these events. To attend, please contact Lucy Durack, Development Executive, by email at friends@wexfordopera.com or phone +353 53 916 3525.

Just for Friends 25

WINING & DINING IN WEXFORD OPERA HOUSE

PHOTO: CLIVE BARDA/ARENAPAL

Pre-Opera Suppers at Wexford Opera House Friends of the Festival are entitled to priority booking for Pre-Opera Suppers in the Mackenzie Room of Wexford Opera House. Early booking is advised. The threecourse candle-lit table service is provided

by Ferrycarrig Hotel, our preferred catering and hotel partner. Pre-Opera Suppers, priced at €40 per person, will be served on each performance evening during the Festival, commencing at 18:00. On 27 October and 3 November the Suppers will be served after the 17:00 performance.

Reservations must be made directly with Ferrycarrig Hotel by telephone: call +353 53 915 3664 and quote your Friends’ booking PIN. We regret that Pre-Opera Suppers cannot be booked online or through the Wexford Festival Opera Box Office. Bookings may be made from 10:00 on Tuesday 7 May.

26 Wining & Dining in Wexford Opera House

Champagne and Canapés Treat yourself to a Champagne and Canapés interval reception in the Mackenzie Room at Wexford Opera House on any night during the festival. Tickets cost €20 and may be booked online from 7 May at www.wexfordopera.com and by telephone (+353 53 912 2144).

Sky View Café Located on the third floor at Wexford Opera House, the Sky View Café is open throughout the year and boasts panoramic views of Wexford Harbour. It offers delicious menus for morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea, brought to you by Ferrycarrig Hotel. For further information, menus and booking details, please visit www.wexfordoperahouse.ie

ACCOMMODATION Wexford Festival Opera recommends the following accommodation options to our valued Friends. To avail of an ‘EARLY BIRD’ 10% DISCOUNT OFFER exclusive to Friends of Wexford Festival Opera, for the duration of the Festival period, book with any of the hotels below by Monday 3 June 2013, quoting ‘Wexford Friends’. This offer is limited to one booking per Friend.

Other accommodation listings are also available at www.visitwexford.ie For more information call reservations directly The nationally and internationally on +353 53 915 3623 renowned 4-star Ferrycarrig Hotel boasts one of the most E: reservations@ inspiring locations of any hotel in Wexford or Ireland, with ferrycarrighotel.com sweeping views across the river Slaney. The hotel is the perfect W: www.ferrycarrighotel.ie location for your visit to the 2013 Festival. Our preferred hotel partner is the Ferrycarrig Hotel.

The Ferrycarrig Hotel

Whites of Wexford

For more information: T: +353 53 912 2311 E: info@whitesofwexford.ie W: www.whitesofwexford.ie

The Talbot Hotel

For more information: Tel: +353 53 912 2566 E: sales@talbothotel.ie W: www.talbothotel.ie

Kelly’s Resort Hotel

For more information: T: +353 53 913 2114 E: info@kellys.ie W: www.kellys.ie

Whites of Wexford is one of the leading 4-star Wexford hotels, conveniently located in the centre of Wexford town. Large parking facilities are available.

The Talbot Hotel, Wexford is ideally located in the heart of Wexford town. This is one of the finest hotels in Wexford, boasting panoramic views of Wexford’s quay front.

The 4-star Kelly’s Resort Hotel is uniquely situated along five miles of safe sandy beach in Rosslare, Co. Wexford.

Accommodation 27

TRAVEL

Waterford Airport

Wexford Bus

Due to the reduced number of flights into Waterford Airport this year, we will not be able to offer our complimentary bus transfer from the airport to Wexford. We would advise overseas visitors to consider travelling via Dublin Airport.

Text to come.

Travel options to Wexford from Dublin Airport include car hire, train (www.iarnrodeireann.ie) and express coach (www.buseireann.ie and www.wexfordbus.com).

28 Travel

copy for Wexford Bus to come

SPONSORSHIP, DEVELOPMENT & OUTREACH

PHOTO: PATRICK BROWNE

The President’s Circle Under the leadership and guidance of the Lord Magan of Castletown, the work of our President’s Circle continues apace.

This major gifts campaign aims to fund the artistic ambition and vision of the Festival annually. More specifically the campaign is designed to help fund the Festival’s artistic budget, with philanthropic gifts to the President’s Circle directed solely towards this end.

Some examples of specific artistic projects which are available for funding from ShortWorks President’s Circle gifts are as follows: • Main Stage Opera Productions • Festival ShortWorks Productions • The Orchestra of Wexford Festival Opera • The Chorus of Wexford Festival Opera • Wexford Festival Opera Education and Community Access Projects

Longer versions of these articles may be found in the Friends’ section of the website: http://wexfordopera.com/friends/

Friends and supporters who care deeply about the Festival are invited to contact David McLoughlin or Eamonn Carroll to discuss The President’s Circle. If you are based in the United Kingdom or North America, your gift to the President’s Circle can be made in a particularly taxadvantageous manner.

Endow your Seat

The highly successful Seat Endowment Programme at Wexford Opera House still has a limited number of seats remaining in the Stalls and Circle. You can endow your seat and dedicate it with a plaque in your own name or that of a loved one. Seat endowments also make the ideal Christmas, birthday, anniversary or corporate gift.

If you would like to endow a seat please contact Eamonn Carroll.

Sponsorship, Development & Outreach 29

SPONSORSHIP, DEVELOPMENT & OUTREACH Leave a Legacy We are honoured to have received a number of legacy gifts in 2012 and would like to extend our sincerest thanks to the individuals and families involved for their generosity. If you would like further information on leaving a legacy through your will or estate plan, please contact David McLoughlin in confidence.

Further information is also available from www.wexfordopera.com and www.mylegacy.ie

Opera committee of U.S.-based supporters and advocates is currently organising the inaugural annual AFWO fundraising gala which will take place in New York in September. The proceeds from this event will be devoted directly towards the production costs of one of this year’s mainstage opera productions.

Sponsor a Singer

European Friends of Wexford Opera We are delighted to announce the extension of our Friends’ Membership to the European mainland through the European Friends of Wexford Opera. This will be formally launched by its patron, Ireland’s Ambassador to the European Union, at an event in the European Parliament Building on 9 April.

United States Developments Wexford recently launched a new initiative aimed at expanding its donor and audience base, as well as its media profile, in the United States. The recentlyformed American Friends of Wexford

30 Sponsorship, Development & Outreach

Jessica Muirhead (A Village Romeo and Juliet, 2012) sponsored by Peter and Nancy Thompson.

Friends of the Festival are invited to support our Cast Sponsorship Programme at the 2013 Festival. If you would like to assist in this way our Artistic Director will discuss your choice of artist with you. Your generous gift will be acknowledged in the 2013 Festival Programme book and a private lunch or dinner engagement with the singer will also be arranged during your visit to Wexford.

Our 2012 sponsors were the John Small Family, Sandra Mathews, Peter and Nancy Thompson, Mark and Esther Villamar and an anonymous donor. We extend a sincere thank you to all our sponsors.

SPONSORSHIP, DEVELOPMENT & OUTREACH For further information and to participate in Cast Sponsorship at the 2013 Festival please contact Eamonn Carroll.

Gerard Arnhold Award

Anna Jeruc-Kopec is the recipient of the second annual Gerard Arnhold Award, generously donated by Anthony Arnhold in memory of his father. The award was announced by Artistic Director David Agler on the closing night of the 2012 Festival.

Anna Jeruc-Kopec (The Magic Flute, 2012) recipient of the 2012 Gerard Arnhold Award.

PHOTO: PAULA MALONE CARTY

Gerard Arnhold, a long-time patron and supporter of Wexford Festival Opera, died in 2010 after a long and fulfilling life.

Wexford Festival Opera is most grateful to Anthony and his family for supporting this award in his father’s memory.

Aria Friends Bursary Thanks to the support of the Aria Friends, the first Aria Friends of Wexford Festival Opera Bursary will be awarded on the closing night of the 2013 Festival. The bursary is intended to enable the winner to further his or her studies at home or abroad. During their visit to the Festival, Aria Friends will be encouraged to nominate a singer that they would like to see receive the award.

Peter and Nancy Thompson Peter and Nancy live in Hong Kong and have been coming to Wexford for the last sixteen years. Over the last number of years they have supported the Cast Sponsorship Programme at the Festival as they believe it is important to support the development of young singers. In 2013 Peter and Nancy are providing generous support to help make possible the production of the Massenet double bill, Thérèse and La Navarraise. They wish to make their gift to the festival in honour of their great friend, the late Jerome Hynes, Chief Executive at Wexford Festival Opera from 1988 to 2005.

Sponsorship, Development & Outreach 31

SPONSORSHIP, DEVELOPMENT & OUTREACH Production Internship Programme

Visit of RIAM Students

PHOTO: PATRICK BROWNE

PHOTO: PATRICK BROWNE

Wexford Festival Opera has established a new educational and artistic collaboration with two of Ireland’s third-level institutions: Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) and The Lir Academy at Trinity College, Dublin. IADT is one of Ireland’s leading third-level colleges and has a specific mission to drive and inform the creative, media and cultural industries through teaching, research and innovation. The Lir is the National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College, Dublin and is formally associated with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). The internship programme will take place during the opera festival and allows students from IADT and The Lir the opportunity to gain experience in such areas of stagecraft as make-up, prosthetics, wigs, costumes, stage technician, properties, lighting, sound, and audio visual.

Our partnership with the Royal Irish Academy of Music resulted in the visit of fifty music and drama students aged between eight and eighteen and their parents to a performance of A Village Romeo and Juliet at Wexford Festival Opera 2012.

32 Sponsorship, Development & Outreach

Michelle Nolan O’ Driscoll led the group and said that the students gained a great awareness and understanding of opera from their visit, from both the musical drama and the visual theatrical magic of lighting and set design in the Opera House.

Access to the festival for students and young people is made possible through the support of The Ireland Funds as part of their Promising Ireland campaign.

SPONSORSHIP, DEVELOPMENT & OUTREACH Zurich / Wexford Festival Opera Volunteers Award

on hand during the transition from the old Theatre Royal to the new Wexford Opera House. One of the duties that Viv attended to in the Theatre Royal was to check the seats for damage or wear and tear, a duty he no longer misses in the new house!

The Gathering Ireland 2013 PHOTO: PATRICK BROWNE

The second Wexford Festival Opera Volunteers Award, an annual award sponsored by Zurich Insurance to honour outstanding leadership and development, was presented to Vivian Crofton at a ceremony in Wexford Opera House during the 2012 Festival.

The award recognises Vivian’s significant leadership and his outstanding contribution to Wexford Festival Opera.

For more than forty years Vivian has been a volunteer, working quietly in the background and yet making an immense contribution. His involvement began under the tutelage of the late Nicky Cleary, Wexford Opera’s first stage manager. His many years of experience backstage have presented him with a variety of challenges and a fund of entertaining stories. He has seen many changes in the Festival and was

This is a year-long celebration of all things Irish. Throughout 2013 Ireland is opening its arms to hundreds of thousands of friends and family from all over the world, calling them home to gatherings in villages, towns and cities. To help celebrate our involvement in The Gathering we have launched the Wexford Festival Opera Ambassadors’ Programme to honour and recognise all those individuals who have shared their Wexford Festival experience with friends, family and colleagues and who each year extend warm invitations to others to visit what has become known as one of the world’s friendliest and most loved festivals.

Sponsorship, Development & Outreach 33

SPONSORSHIP, DEVELOPMENT & OUTREACH You can participate by becoming a Gathering Ambassador or by nominating others who are true advocates of Wexford Festival Opera.

To participate visit www.wexfordopera.com/ gatheringambassadors

Opera Europa

Opera Europa conference held in Moscow, 25–28 October 2012.

We are very proud that Wexford has been chosen as the venue for a major international cultural conference in 2013.

Opera Europa, the sole representative organisation for all Opera Houses, Companies, Festivals and other professionals throughout Europe and beyond will hold its annual gathering in Ireland for the first time ever in 2013.

The conference will provide a unique opportunity to promote, present and enhance the reputation of Wexford Opera, and will further showcase it as a leading destination for opera and music lovers, given that senior cultural delegates from potentially thirty-five countries will participate in conference events in Wexford Opera House during the second week of this year’s festival, from Monday 28 to Wednesday 30 October.

We encourage Friends who would like to attend mainstage opera performances on any of these three nights to book during the Priority Booking period to ensure their choice of seat. Given the expected demand for tickets from conference delegates who wish to attend performances on these nights, we expect them to sell out on the opening of General Booking.

David, Eamonn or Lucy will be delighted to hear from you if you would like to participate in any of the Festival’s development activities. They may be contacted as follows: David McLoughlin, +353 53 912 2400, or e-mail dml@wexfordopera.com Eamonn Carroll, +353 53 912 2400 or email eamonn@wexfordopera.com Lucy Durack, +353 53 916 3525 or email lucy@wexfordopera.com

34 Sponsorship, Development & Outreach

NEWS FOR FRIENDS New Chairman’s Term Begins

which gives us room to expand and grow.

We cherish our Friends, without whose support Wexford would not be the very special place it is.’

New Chorus Master for Wexford Festival Opera PHOTO: PATRICK BROWNE

The new Chairman of Wexford Festival Trust, in succession to Peter Scallan, is Ger Lawlor. Ger is a long-serving Board member who possesses a thorough knowledge and understanding of Wexford Festival Opera, gained from serving in a number of voluntary roles over many years in both the artistic and administrative areas of the festival. He first appeared on the stage of the old Theatre Royal as a pageboy in The Gondoliers in 1969. He was a member of the Board’s working group which collaborated with the designers of Wexford Opera House.

Ger will be known to many festival patrons as a photographer and in his spare time he is the Choirmaster and Organist at Bride Street Church. Commenting on his appointment he said, ‘I see our priority over the coming years as continuing to build on the terrific standards that David Agler is achieving in the new house, continuing to explore uncharted repertoire, while building a business model

Wexford Festival Opera’s acclaimed professional chorus has a new Chorus Master for the 2013 season, Errol Girdlestone, who succeeds Gavin Carr. Born in England, Errol began his professional musical career as a singer in a number of London choirs, including the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral and the Hilliard Ensemble, of which he was a founding member. He has developed a career as conductor, chorus master and composer and was on the music staff at English National Opera and Cape Town Opera.

An interview with Errol Girdlestone may be found in the Friends’ section of the website: http://wexfordopera.com/friends/

News for Friends 35

NEWS FOR FRIENDS

Irish Times Theatre Awards for 2012 At the Irish Times Theatre Awards ceremony in Dublin on 24 February 2013 the award for Best Set Designer went to Jamie Vartan for Wexford Festival Opera’s production of A Village Romeo and Juliet. Jamie is the designer for Cristina, regina di Svezia at Wexford Festival Opera this year.

Longer versions of these articles may be found in the Friends’ section of the website: http://wexfordopera.com/friends/

36 News for Friends

Wexford Festival Opera Nominated for Major International Opera Award The inaugural International Opera Awards ceremony will be held at the Hilton Hotel in London on 22 April 2013 where prizes will be awarded in twenty-two categories, covering many aspects of opera production and performance (http://www.operaawards.org).

More than 1,500 nominations from forty-one countries were received. In the category for the best ‘Festival Opera’, the five nominations are Wexford, Aix-en-Provence, Garsington, Salzburg and Santa Fe.

IN MEMORIAM

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, CBE (1936–2012) The English-born composer Richard Rodney Bennett died at his home in New York on 24 December, 2012 after a short illness. His opera The Mines of Sulphur, his first full-length stage work (1963), was performed in Wexford in 2008 as part of the first season in the new Opera House.

His music is published by Novello & Co (www.musicsalesclassical.com).

The Mines of Sulphur, Wexford Festival Opera, 2008 PHOTO: PAT REDMOND

Longer versions of these articles, including memories of Peter Ebert from Jim Golden and Eithne Scallan, and a tribute

by Victoria Walsh-Hamer, may be found in the Friends’ section of the website: http://wexfordopera.com/friends/

Peter Ebert (1918–2012) Peter Ebert, who died on 31 December, 2012 aged ninety-four, played a significant role in establishing the reputation of Wexford Opera Festival during its early years. He directed fourteen operas at Wexford between 1952, which was only the second year of the Festival, and 1965; works by Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini, Verdi, Ponchielli, Stanford and Mozart. His work is regarded as crucial to the success of Wexford in the early days. The affection in which he was held by the town was such that when he came back to Wexford in 2000 to give the ‘Dr Tom Walsh Lecture’ he had so much to say about his time in Wexford that he was asked back again the following year to tell more of his memories and anecdotes. He was a meticulous, strict and inspired director and must have learned much of the skill which took him through his long career in world opera from the challenges he surmounted when producing operas in Wexford.

In Memoriam 37

IN MEMORIAM In 1965 he directed La Traviata and La Finta giardiniera at Wexford. His daughter Judith was the designer for La Finta giardiniera and his father Carl produced Don Quichotte. Carl Ebert (1887-1980) had produced the first opera at Glyndebourne in 1934 and was its artistic director until 1959.

Peter Ebert was born in Frankfurt and moved to Britain with his family in 1933 to avoid Nazi persecution. Although his work in Wexford is highly-regarded, he is perhaps best-known as one of the founders of Scottish Opera in 1962 where he was director of productions from 1965 to 1976, and general administrator until 1980. His productions of Berlioz’s Les Troyens and Wagner’s Ring cycle at the Edinburgh Festival in 1971 and 1972 gained the status of operatic legends.

Peter Ebert (with Bryan Balkwill) addressing the cast of Don Pasquale, 1953

Don Pasquale, 1953

La Figlia del reggimento, 1957

Peter Ebert, Dr Tom Walsh, Dr Des Ffrench and Elvina Ramella during Rehearsals, 1952 I Puritani featuring Mirella Freni, 1957

38 In Memoriam

HOW TO BOOK Booking Dates – Priority Booking from 10:00 on Tuesday 7 May 2013 – General Booking from 10:00 on Tuesday 4 June 2013

Tickets may be booked using the following methods – Online: www.wexfordopera.com – E-mail: boxoffice@wexfordopera.com – Telephone: +353 53 912 2144 / 1850 4 OPERA – Post: fill out and post attached booking form PHOTO: ROSS KAVANAGH

Book Your Tickets Online Friends have the first opportunity to book their Festival tickets online via the Festival website:

We recommend that you book your tickets online as this is the best way to secure your preferred tickets.

www.wexfordopera.com

If you prefer the personal touch, our helpful Box Office staff will be pleased to take your bookings by phone (+353 53 912 2144 / 1850 4 OPERA), by e-mail (boxoffice@wexfordopera.com) or in person (Wexford Opera House, High Street, Wexford). Postal bookings may be made, using the attached booking form, but this is a slower method and your requested tickets might not be available.

which contains a step-by-step guide to booking your tickets online (no booking fee). From the opening of priority booking you will be able to browse and search our programme of events 24 hours a day and choose your own seats from the seating plan.

How to Book 39

OPERA TICKETS Booking Dates

Please note

Tickets are available in three price bands over the Festival.

Prices are based on the most requested Festival dates.

Information on our Refund/ Return Policy may be found on page 42.

Price Band A Wednesday 23 October – Sunday 27 October Friday 1 November – Sunday 3 November Price Band B Monday 28 October – Thursday 31 October Price Band C Gala Concert: Sunday 27 October

Pricing Floor Level

Seating Area

Dates & Prices Price Band A 23–24 Oct 1–3 Nov

Price Band B 28–31 Oct

Price Band C Gala 27 Oct

Circle

Rows A–B

€120

€90

€60

Circle

Rows C–G

€110

€80

€50

Circle

Row H*

€35

€35

€50

Circle

Side Stalls

€100

€70

€50

Circle

Boxes** (4 seats)

€75

Founders’ Circle

Centre

€130

Founders’ Circle

Side Stalls

€125

€110

€60

Founders’ Circle

Boxes** (6 seats)

€110

€80

€50

Stalls

Main Stalls

€120

€90

€50

Stalls

Side Stalls

€110

€85

€50

€25 €50 ticket prices €120confirmed €60 to be

*Reserved during all opera performances exclusively for the Young Friends of Wexford Festival Opera **Restricted view

40 Opera Tickets

SEATING PLAN O’REILLY THEATRE, WEXFORD OPERA HOUSE

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

H

2

1

G

8

H

9

8

7

6

5

7

6

5

4

3

4

G

F

F

E

E

D

D

C

B

I

A

12

BOX

D

2

1

2

1

30

29

B

J

A

1

BOX

17

19 20

B

21

A

22

E

BOX

F

Boxes D, E & F seat 6 each

P

14 15 16

N

2

O

1

2

M

1

3 2

4 3

6

5

4

3

2

1

5 4

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

8

7

6

5

4

3

1

7 8

5

6

2

O

9

8

7

6

7

8

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

N

C

10

BOX

3 4

J

A

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

A

BOX

9

11

1

P

B

6

alls

BOX

13

Side St

Boxes D, E & F seat 4 each

D

BOX

5

A

ls

BOX

4

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 2 17 18 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 C 1 C 9 10 21 8 22 7 23 14 15 13 16 17 18 6 24 10 11 12 19 20 9 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 8

7

6

5

4

3

18

I

A

3

Side Stal

E

BOX

2

14 15

F

29

28

13

16

BOX

C

Boxes A, B & C seat 4 each

BOX

A

B BOX

C

Boxes A, B & C seat 6 each

STAGE

Circle CIRCLE Rows A–B Rows A–B Rows C–G

Founders’ Circle FOUNDERS’ CIRCLE Side Stalls

Side Stalls

Boxes

Wheelchair Wheelchairaccessible Seat

Side Stalls

Row H

Boxes

Side Stalls

Side Stalls Boxes

Main Stalls Main Stalls

Centre Centre

Rows C–G

Row H

Stalls STALLS

Side Stalls

accessible Seat

Boxes Seating Plan 41

EVENT TICKETS Tickets – Friends’ Entitlements Priority booking for Friends opens on Tuesday 7 May 2013 at 10:00 and early booking is advised during this four-week advance booking period. Bookings can be made online at www.wexfordopera.com, 24 hours a day (see ‘How to Book’). As we cannot always guarantee your first choice of events, we would ask that Friends who are making a postal booking indicate an alternative date on their booking form. Please remember to book before 4 June, when general booking opens.

Ensemble Friends are entitled to six tickets per event, Aria Friends to eight tickets per event, Bravura Friends to ten tickets per event and Prelude Friends to two tickets per event.

Remember that each Friend is also entitled to an allocation of complimentary tickets to the Friends’ Parties, Buffets and Lunches, details of which are on page (?). Additional tickets may be purchased at €30 each.

Refund / Return Policy Subject to availability, tickets may be exchanged for the same opera on an alternative date. The original ticket(s) must be with the Box Office at least 72 hours prior to the performance to qualify for an exchange. Tickets can only be accepted for resale if the performance is sold out. The original ticket(s) must be with the Box Office before we can begin the resale process. If your ticket(s) is resold, you will be refunded, less 15% administration fee.

Special Needs Wexford Opera House is fully accessible for persons with restricted movement, both ambulant and wheelchair bound. There is convenient lift access to all public spaces.

42 Event Tickets

Provision has been made to accommodate up to fifteen wheelchair users and their companions in a variety of locations, each with sightlines as good as any on their respective levels. The wheelchair-accessible seating areas are indicated on the seating plan. To book these tickets you must contact the Box Office directly by telephone (+353 53 912 2144 / 1850 4 OPERA) or e-mail (boxoffice@wexfordopera.com).

If you are a wheelchair user and wish to attend Festival events outside Wexford Opera House, please advise the Box Office at the time of booking so that we can ensure your visit is as enjoyable as possible.

Pricing Operas €25 – €130 (depending on date and seat selection) ShortWorks €25 Lunchtime Recitals

€15

Dr Tom Walsh Lecture

€10

Friends’ Parties / Buffets / Lunches (in addition to Friends’ complimentary ticket allocation)

€30

ticket prices €50 – €60 Gala Concert toatbe confirmed €15 Irish Heritage Wexford

Please note The Management reserves the right to refuse admission and to change or cancel the advertised programme. Latecomers cannot be admitted once the performance has commenced. Please allow sufficient time for traffic and parking delays.

In keeping with Wexford Festival Opera

BOOKING FORM Name: Address:

Tel (day):

Tel (evening):

Mobile:

Booking PIN:

E-mail:

The Operas

Date 1st Choice

Seat Date Number Preference* 2nd Choice of Tickets

Total Payable

Il Cappello di paglia di Firenze Thérèse / La Navarraise Cristina, regina di Svezia Alternative dates – tickets are subject to availability If your first choice date is unavailable, your second choice date will be used.

Subtotal

*Seat Preference Comments:

Other Events

Performance Dates

Time

Number of Tickets

Total Payable

ShortWorks Lunchtime Recitals Gala Concert Irish Heritage at Wexford Dr Tom Walsh Lecture Friends’ Parties / Buffet Subtotal

Booking Form 43

BOOKING FORM Voluntary Donation Any donations to the Festival will be gratefully accepted and acknowledged

TOTAL Total from the Operas, the Events and Donation

Payment Method Cheque enclosed

Credit Card – Please fill in card details below

Account Number

Master Card

(Laser)

Visa

Expiry Date

Laser

The CVV is the 3 digit credit card security number on the signature strip on the back of your credit card.

*please note we do not accept American Express

Name on card (BLOCK CAPITALS)

Signature on card Tick here if you do not wish to join our mailing list BOX OFFICE USE ONLY Date Received

Order Number

Signed

Date Processed

44 Booking Form

CCV

DISCOVER THE REPERTOIRE

23 October – 3 November, 2013

1 I l Cappello di paglia

di Firenze by kind permission of Allegro Music

2 Th érèse

by kind permission of Orfeo International Music

The Discover the Repertoire CD includes an introduction to the Wexford Festival Opera programme and incorporates background information on the composers and operas in the 2013 season.

3 La Navarraise

by kind permission of Gala (Intermusic SA)

4C ristina, regina di Svezia by kind permission of Sterling

This introductory CD includes commentary

by Ian Fox and excerpts from this year’s four main operas (the programme includes a double bill). We hope that it will enhance your enjoyment of this year’s Festival.

Wexford Opera House | High Street, Wexford, Ireland Tel: +353 53 912 2400 | Box Office: +353 53 912 2144 Callsave: 1850 4 OPERA boxoffice@wexfordopera.com www.wexfordopera.com

IL CAPPELLO DI PAGLIA DI FIRENZE (THE FLORENTINE STRAW HAT) Nino Rota (1911–1979)

{23} {26} {29} October, {1} November 20:00

THÉRÈSE / LA NAVARRAISE Jules Massenet (1842–1912)

{24} {30} October, {2} November 20:00 {27} October 17:00

CRISTINA, REGINA DI SVEZIA (1849) Jacopo Foroni (1825–1858)

{25} {31} October 20:00 {28} October, {3} November 17:00

p atron Michael D Higgins, President of Ireland president Sir Anthony O’Reilly chairman Ger Lawlor artistic director David Agler chief executive David McLoughlin

Editor: Sarah Burn | Design: 24pt Helvetica