Wexford Festival Opera 2015 Friends’ Newsletter

2015 News for Friends 64th Festival

21 October – 1 November 2015

Silent Night, Kevin Puts. Photo Š Clive Barda/ArenaPAL

Don Bucefalo, Antonio Cagnoni. Photo © Clive Barda/ArenaPAL

Salomé, Antoine Mariotte. Photo © Clive Barda/ArenaPAL

Friends’ Benefits We encourage you to avail of all your membership benefits to enhance your Festival experience.

Friends enjoy the following: • Priority booking • Exclusive ticketing offer for Friends: if you purchase more than six tickets for the main stage operas during the priority booking period, you will receive 15% discount on all additional tickets purchased • Refund/Return policy now available only for Friends (see booking terms and conditions) • 10% discount on accommodation for bookings made during priority booking with our hotel partners for the Festival period. Quote ‘Wexford Friends’ to receive this exclusive offer • Friends’ Welcome Receptions: complimentary tea, coffee and scones on four mornings during the Festival • Access to the Friends’ Lounge in the Opera House during the day and during opera intervals • Friends’ Newsletter and Discover the Repertoire CD • Access to Friends’ opera tour to Vienna • Invitations to the ‘In Conversation’ series in Dublin and London • Invitations to Friends’ Recitals and Events in London, Dublin and Berlin • Complimentary tickets to Friends’ Parties, Lunches and Buffet during the Festival • Priority booking for the Wexford Festival Opera Annual New York Dinner Gala • Complimentary Festival programme – available for collection during the Festival from the Friends’ Lounge (12 noon to 4 p.m.) or from the Friends’ Desk in the Opera House Foyer (evenings) • 15% discount on all Wexford Festival Opera merchandise • Friends’ Loyalty Card and lapel pin Photo by Patrick Browne

Wexford Festival Opera 21 October – 1 November, 2015

Contents Friends’ Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Front Cover Funders and Sponsors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Welcome from the Artistic Director . . . . . . . . . . 3

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Evening Operas Koanga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Guglielmo Ratcliff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Le Pré aux clercs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Conductors and Directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 ShortWorks The Portrait of Manon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Hansel and Gretel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Tosca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Lunchtime Recitals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Daytime Events Package. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Dr Tom Walsh Lecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Gala Concert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tara Erraught in Recital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Piano Recital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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London Friends’ Recital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 European Friends’ Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Dublin Friends’ Recital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Friends’ ‘In Conversation’ Series . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Friends’ Parties, Lunches and Buffet . . . . . . . . 25 Friends’ Lounge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Friends’ Welcome Receptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Friends’ Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 The President’s Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 The 1951 Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Cast and Artistic Sponsorship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 American Friends of Wexford Opera . . . . . . . . 32 National Opera House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 How to Support Wexford Festival Opera . . . . 33 Awards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Souvenirs of Wexford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 The Delius Trust and Wexford Festival Opera . 37 In Memoriam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Endow a Seat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Volunteers Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Wining and Dining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Accommodation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 Wexford Festival Opera Tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Wexford Opera House Tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Book Your Tickets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Booking Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Festival Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover

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Funders and Sponsors Principal Funder

Grant Funders

Principal Production Sponsor

THE DELIUS TRUST Corporate Leaders

Corporate Sponsors

Official IT & Communications Partner

Community & Education Partners

Accommodation Partners

Preferred Hotel Partner

Hospitality and Media Partners

2 | FESTIVAL 2015

Welcome

Photo by 21stops.com

Dear Friends, Greetings from Wexford Town where the entire Festival staff is happily employed preparing all the elements of the 64th Festival season.

Before commenting on the 2015 programme I would like to thank the Friends who participated in the recent survey on the schedule and content of the Festival.

Your opinions and suggestions have given me and my colleagues invaluable assistance as we consider the format of the seasons from 2016 and beyond. It is our goal to increase the length of the Festival in order to offer greater flexibility when planning your Festival visit. A longer season will enable the restoration of some much-missed elements which had to go when the Festival was shortened at the time of the economic downturn.

As 2014 rolls inexorably into 2015 I have been reflecting on two people who did so much to spread the joyous word about our beloved Festival. Many writers and journalists over the years have written enticingly (and amusingly, remembering Bernard Levin’s priceless description of a certain incident in the 1979 Festival) about the opera productions they have seen at Wexford. With the deaths of Elizabeth Forbes and Michael Kennedy, Wexford lost two dear friends and advocates. You will find tributes to these two remarkable individuals in this Newsletter.

This autumn we unwrap three excellent operas which have been languishing neglected and unperformed.

When the curtain rises on Le Pré aux clercs I will have the satisfaction of knowing that at long last an opera on the wish list of Festival founder, Dr Tom Walsh, is being produced at Wexford. The only other opera

by Hérold to have been performed at Wexford was Zampa, way back in 1993, so statistically it’s good to be able to double the number of Hérold operas we have presented! While I wouldn’t recommend opera plots as being the best way to learn history, if you enjoyed Chabrier’s Le Roi malgré lui in 2012, about the reluctance of Henri de Valois, the third son of Henri II and Catherine de’ Medici, to become King of Poland (the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as it was then), you will be intrigued to learn that the heroine of Le Pré aux clercs, Marguerite de Valois, is the sister of the same Henri, now King Henri III of France.

Delius becomes another of Wexford’s two-opera composers, with our new production of Koanga, a ground-breaking opera through its use of AfricanAmerican music and characters. I have been asked for Koanga by Festival patrons more than any other opera, so I am delighted to be able to stage it so soon after our 2012 production of A Village Romeo and Juliet, and to express my deep gratitude to the Delius Trust for its considerable generosity in also supporting Koanga.

The melodramatic story of Guglielmo Ratcliff was bound to appeal to a young composer like Mascagni, who was only nineteen when he began to compose the first version of his opera, a Gothic tale of thwarted love, senseless killings and the ghosts of his victims, set in an exotic Scottish location.

Read on to find out more about this year’s Festival and of how you can take advantage of your Friends’ early booking privileges. I look forward to greeting you in October!

David Agler, Artistic Director

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Koanga FREDERICK DELIUS (1862–1934) Lyric drama in a prologue, three acts and an epilogue Libretto by Frederick Delius and Charles F Keary after the novel The Grandissimes: A Story of Creole Life by George W Cable First performance (in German translation by Jelka Delius) in the Stadttheater, Elberfeld, Germany on 30 March 1904 Sung in English Stephen Barlow | Conductor Michael Gieleta | Director James Macnamara | Set Designer Sarah Roberts | Costume Designer 4 | FESTIVAL 2015

Koanga was Delius’s third completed opera, composed in 1895–7, about ten years before A Village Romeo and Juliet (Wexford, 2012). Delius framed the original story with a prologue and epilogue in which the plantation owner’s daughters ask an old slave, Uncle Joe, to tell them the story of Koanga and Palmyra. Koanga, a Voodoo priest and Dahomean prince, was brought to the Louisiana plantation and met Palmyra, a mulatto, also of Dahomean ancestry. Koanga promises to be an obedient slave if he can marry Palmyra, and when this is granted he renounces the beliefs of his people.

He and Palmyra love each other, but their marriage is stopped because the overseer wants to marry her himself and enlists the support of Palmyra’s half-sister, the plantation owner’s wife. Palmyra is abducted and Koanga repents of his betrayal of his heritage, calling on his Voodoo gods to curse the plantation. The story of Koanga and Palmyra ends violently, and in the epilogue the girls reflect on Uncle Joe’s tale.

SPONSORED BY

THE DELIUS TRUST This story appealed to Delius and it probably recalled memories of his time spent in Florida in 1884 on an orange plantation. His glowing, colourful music creates the opera’s powerful characterisations and atmospheric setting. In Koanga he used melodies and improvised harmonies he had heard sung by the black workers in Florida, and the authenticity of his collected material led to Koanga being recognised as the first opera in the European tradition to have much of its melodic material based on African-American music. Delius’s lyricism and admired orchestration complement the poignancy and exoticism of the story. Although the opera was premiered in Germany in 1904, excerpts had been performed in London in 1899. Delius’s champion, Sir Thomas Beecham, conducted Koanga in England in 1935. The orchestral interlude La Calinda has remained popular in the concert hall.

O’Reilly Theatre | National Opera House Tickets ¤25 – ¤145

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OCTOBER SAT TUE

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21| 24|27| 30 8 p.m.

8 p.m.

8 p.m.

8 p.m.

21 OCTOBER PERFORMANCE SPONSOR

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Guglielmo

6 | FESTIVAL 2015

Ratcliff

PIETRO MASCAGNI (1863–1945) Tragedia in four acts Libretto based on Andrea Maffei’s Italian translation of the play Wilhelm Ratcliff by Heinrich Heine First performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan on 16 February 1895 Sung in Italian Francesco Cilluffo | Conductor Fabio Ceresa | Director Tiziano Santi | Set Designer Giuseppe Palella | Costume Designer

Heine wrote his play Wilhelm Ratcliff in only three days and Mascagni too was captivated by the young Scottish romantic anti-hero outsider. He began composing his opera Guglielmo Ratcliff (translated into Italian) in 1882 whilst a student in Milan but laid it aside in order to compose Cavalleria rusticana for a competition. He won the competition, triumphing over seventy-two other composers, and made his name. Mascagni supported the ideals of the Scapigliatura movement, which attempted to rejuvenate culture in the newly unified Italy through foreign influences, especially from German romanticism.

However, the Gothic plot and stylistic and melodic mannerisms of Guglielmo Ratcliff, reminiscent of Verdi and Ponchielli, were thought old-fashioned, and it was only moderately successful when first performed in 1895. In addition, the role of Guglielmo Ratcliff has the reputation of being one of the most demanding ever written for tenor.

Cavalleria rusticana is clearly anticipated in the music, particularly in the atmospheric orchestral writing, full-blooded melodies and dramatic pace.

The opera is set in northern Scotland and concerns the tragic consequences of broken relationships in two generations. Maria MacGregor rejected Guglielmo Ratcliff as a husband but he is determined that no-one else shall marry her and challenges other suitors to a duel, killing two of them. As Maria prepares to marry Count Douglas she learns that her mother and Guglielmo’s father had loved each other. However, her mother changed her mind and married MacGregor. The erstwhile lovers later resumed their relationship, but Maria’s father, MacGregor, killed Guglielmo’s father out of jealousy and Maria’s mother died of a broken heart. Guglielmo is haunted by the ghosts of the men he has killed and in his final delirium he kills Maria, her father and himself.

O’Reilly Theatre | National Opera House Tickets ¤25 – ¤145

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OCTOBER SUN WED

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22|25|28| 31 SUPPORTED BY

8 p.m.

5 p.m.

8 p.m.

8 p.m.

Made possible through the generous support of Stephen Vernon

In association with Italian Institute of Culture – Dublin

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Le Pré aux clercs FERDINAND HÉROLD (1791–1833) Opéra comique in three acts Libretto by François-Antoine-Eugène de Planard after Chronique du temps de Charles IX by Prosper Merimée First performed at the Opéra-Comique (Salle de la Bourse), Paris on 15 December 1832 Sung in French Jean-Luc Tingaud | Conductor Éric Ruf | Director Éric Ruf | Set Designer Renato Bianchi | Costume Designer

Three women are at the heart of Hérold’s last and finest opéra comique (he died shortly after the triumphant premiere in December 1832), but because the year is 1572 they are little more than pawns in a maledominated society. Nicette is the exception, happy about her forthcoming marriage to Girot, hotelier from the Pré aux Clercs (‘the Clerks’ Meadow’), across the Seine from the Louvre Palace. Marguerite de Valois, godmother of Nicette, is the wife of King Henry of Navarre and the sister of the king of France, Henri III, but she is held in Paris as a virtual prisoner, a hostage to peace. Incidentally, before becoming king of France, Henri III had been Henri de Valois, king of Poland and the subject of Chabrier’s opera Le Roi malgré lui (Wexford, 2012). A young countess, Isabelle, Marguerite’s lady-in-waiting, is in love with Baron de Mergy from Navarre and he with her, but Henri wishes her to marry Comte de Comminge. Marguerite is told

that she may return to Navarre but Isabelle must marry Comminge. Marguerite helps Mergy and Isabelle to marry secretly. Mergy kills Comminge in a duel and escapes with Isabelle across the border to Navarre.

Hérold’s libretto drew on a novel by Prosper Merimée, Chronique du temps de Charles IX, the same source as the libretto for Meyerbeer’s opera Les Huguenots. Both operas were extremely successful, obviously responding to the mood of the times, for it was not long after the July Revolution of 1830 and with peace came a desire to exorcise the past. Le Pré aux clercs treated the subject indirectly, focusing on the conflict between Henri, the Roman Catholic king of France, and Henry, the Protestant king of Navarre, which was to culminate in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in August 1572.

Co-production with Opéra-Comique, Paris

O’Reilly Theatre | National Opera House Tickets ¤25 – ¤145

FRI

OCTOBER MON THUR

NOVEMBER SUN

23 | 26 | 29 | 1 8 p.m.

8 p.m.

8 | FESTIVAL 2015

8 p.m.

5 p.m.

SUPPORTED BY

Presented with the support of the Bravura Friends of Wexford Festival Opera

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Conductors and Directors Koanga Stephen Barlow, Conductor Currently Artistic Director of Buxton Festival. International opera and orchestral conducting career. Recent and current opera-conducting projects include Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Beijing)‚ Capriccio‚ Rusalka‚ Tristan und Isolde‚ Pique Dame‚ Dialogues des Carmélites, Peter Grimes (Grange Park Opera) and Otello (Birmingham Opera Company).

As a pianist he has recorded the complete songs of Butterworth, Delius and Quilter. Other recordings include his own composition Rainbow Bear, with his wife, Joanna Lumley, as narrator.

Michael Gieleta, Director He trained at Warsaw, Milan and Oxford Universities and at the National Theatre Studio. He has directed operas in Chicago, Cape Town, Pretoria and the UK, and has worked with Zeffirelli in the West End. This is his third season at Wexford: in 2010 he directed Smetana’s Hubiˇ cka and in 2011 he directed Statkowski’s Maria, with its unforgettable setting of 1980s Poland where he himself spent the central years of his childhood, under the Soviet occupation.

Guglielmo Ratcliff Francesco Cilluffo, Conductor Increasingly acclaimed as conductor and composer. Born in Turin, his postgraduate composition degrees are from London. His highly praised second opera, Il casa Mortara, was commissioned and performed in New York in 2010. Conducted orchestras and operas in Britain, throughout Italy, in Germany, Denmark, Moscow, USA and Chile. Forthcoming conducting engagements include: L’elisir d’amore (Parma and Modena), Il Campiello (Trieste), world premiere of Le braci by Marco Tutini (Martina Franca and Florence), and La Traviata (Liège).

Fabio Ceresa, Director Director at La Scala, Milan; directs operas throughout Italy. He graduated in law from Bocconi University, Milan, before working in opera. Recent productions include Madama Butterfly (Jesi, Florence), L’italiana in Algeri (Bari), Giovanna d’Arco (Festival della Valle d’Itria). He has written several opera libretti, including his prize-winning opera for children, Once upon a time there was …

King Thunder!, composed by Daniela Terranova. He co-wrote the libretto for La Ciocira (‘Two Women’), composed by Marco Tutino (premiere: San Francisco Opera, June 2015).

Le Pré aux clercs Jean-Luc Tingaud, Conductor Studied at Paris National Conservatoire and was assistant to Manuel Rosenthal, a pupil of Ravel, who instilled in Tingaud his passion for French music. 2015 is his fifth Wexford Festival (2001, Sapho, Massenet; 2002, Manon Lescaut, Auber; 2005, Pénélope, Fauré; 2012, Le Roi malgré lui, Chabrier). International conducting career. In 2014 he recorded two CDs (Dukas and Bizet) for Naxos with RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Dublin.

10 | FESTIVAL 2015

Éric Ruf, Director Joined the Comédie-Française in 1993; became the 498th member in 1998; appointed Administrateur général (Managing Director) in 2014.

Distinguished career as actor in theatre, television and film; director of theatre and of opera; set designer.

1999: awarded Prix Gérard Philipe (best stage actor) by the city of Paris. In 2007 he received two Molière Awards for his acting and set designs for the play Cyrano de Bergerac (2006) at the Comédie-Française.

ShortWork

The Portrait of Manon Jules Massenet (1842–1912) Sung in French

Manon Lescaut, a young woman with an ardent and loving nature, as well as extravagant and luxurious tastes, who came to the moralist’s ‘bad end’, was the heroine of a short novel by Abbé Prévost, the seventh and final volume of Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality, which was banned in France when it was published in 1731. Nevertheless, the story became extremely popular and was the subject of operas by Massenet, Puccini, Auber and Hans Werner Henze, and of several films. The character of Manon was also mentioned in a large number of literary works, by Dumas, Oscar Wilde, Stendahl, Foucault, James Joyce, Dorothy L. Sayers, and many others, attesting to her hold on the public imagination.

Whites Hotel | Tickets ¤25

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11 a.m.

3.30 p.m.

Massenet wrote The Portrait of Manon in 1894 as a one-act opéra comique sequel or epilogue ten years after his superlatively successful 1884 opera Manon, which established him as the leading French opera composer of his generation. In The Portrait of Manon (Le Portrait de Manon), to a libretto by Georges Boyer, Massenet returns to the Chevalier Des Grieux, now an old man who is obsessed with memories of Manon, his lost love. Des Grieux’s nephew Jean is in love with Aurore but she is neither wealthy nor of noble birth and Des Grieux forbids their marriage – possibly he does not want Jean to be hurt, as he was hurt by Manon. However, it turns out that Aurore is the niece of Des Grieux’s beloved Manon and so all ends happily.

In his music for The Portrait of Manon, Massenet quoted from Manon and also wrote eighteenthcentury pastiche, as he did in the earlier opera. After the tragedy of Manon, The Portrait of Manon is a charming and exhilarating sequel.

22|25|28 The Festival ShortWorks are made possible by the generous support of The Lord Magan of Castletown

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ShortWork

Hansel and Gretel

Engelbert Humperdinck (1854–1921) Sung in English

Humperdinck, whose music bears the influence of Wagner, for whom he worked from 1880 until shortly before Wagner’s death in 1884, wrote much vocal music, but his best-known and most popular work is Hänsel und Gretel, which grew out of four songs he composed in 1890 to words by his sister Adelheid Wette, re-telling one of the tales collected by the Grimm brothers. Adelheid decided to alter the story so that the mother is the children’s real mother, rather than a wicked stepmother, thus creating a more optimistic plot. The story that the Grimm brothers collected may have originated in the Great Famine (1315–1321), when desperation caused people to abandon children and even resort to cannibalism.

Humperdinck developed the songs into a Singspiel version of the story, consisting of sixteen songs with piano accompaniment, which he presented to Hedwig Taxer at Christmas 1890 as an engagement present. A year later he gave her a draft of the full three-act opera version of Hänsel und Gretel as a Christmas present. Their marriage in 1892, the birth of their first child, Wolfram, and Humperdinck’s work as a teacher and critic all delayed the completion of the opera until September 1893. His friend Richard Strauss directed the first performance in Weimar on 23 December 1893 at the Hoftheater. Its success was immediate and spread throughout Europe: Mahler gave the first performance in Hamburg in September 1894, Weingartner conducted it in Berlin in October in the presence of the Kaiser, Cosima Wagner directed

it in Dessau in November and Vienna in December, attended by Humperdinck, Brahms and Wolf.

Performances in London and New York soon followed, in English as well as German versions, and in 1923 a performance at Covent Garden was the first complete opera to be broadcast from an opera house in Europe.

Whites Hotel | Tickets ¤25 OCTOBER FRI THURMONWED THUR SAT

SAT

23|26|29|31 22| 28| 31 The Festival ShortWorks are made possible by the generous support of The Lord Magan of Castletown

12 | FESTIVAL 2015

3.30 3.30p.m. p.m.

ShortWork

Tosca

Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) Sung in Italian

Puccini’s fifth opera, Tosca, was an immediate success with the public at its premiere and has remained one of the most enduringly popular of all operas. Written four years after La Bohème and four years before Madama Butterfly, its tremendous vitality is a tribute to Puccini’s technical skill. He succeeded so well that the tragedy of the singer Floria Tosca, her republican lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi, and the scheming, sadistic chief of the Rome police, Baron Scarpia, has remained vividly present in the collective imagination ever since.

Victorien Sardou’s 1887 melodrama La Tosca, written for Sarah Bernhardt, was immensely popular and Puccini made great efforts to obtain the rights to make it into an opera libretto. His librettists, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giocosa, eventually succeeded in creating a libretto that satisfied Puccini.

Whites Hotel | Tickets ¤25

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OCTOBER TUE

FRI

NOVEMBER SUN

3.30 p.m.

11 a.m.

24| 27| 30| 1 3.30 p.m.

3.30 p.m.

Three opening chords, which represent the vindictive character of Scarpia, are heard at the beginning, so the opening scenes in the church are underpinned by an atmosphere of political instability. Menace and fear are frighteningly normal and reflect the historical reality of the political background of Rome in June, 1800, when the Kingdom of Naples’ control of Rome was threatened by Napoleon’s invasion of Italy. This instability is increased by the contrasting lyrical beauty of the arias and duets of Tosca and Cavaradossi. But their happiness is doomed.

Cavaradossi helps Angelotti, an escaped political prisoner, to hide, which brings him to the attention of Scarpia, who lusts after Tosca and will do anything to make her his own, including destroying Cavaradossi.

Puccini’s intention was to represent reality, with real characters in real surroundings, and to put music at the service of the drama. He does this so well, with such expressive economy and tension, that the dramatic finale is inevitable.

The Festival ShortWorks are made possible by the generous support of The Lord Magan of Castletown

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Lunchtime Recitals St Iberius Church Tickets ¤15 The very popular Lunchtime Recitals provide an insight into the artistic personality of some of the principal singers of the Festival and are a way to ‘meet’ them in an informal setting.

In the beautiful and acoustically excellent eighteenth-century church of St Iberius in the centre of Wexford, audiences appreciate the musical versatility of solo singers who perform a wide variety of music from across the repertoire, including operatic arias, lieder, oratorio, concert and popular songs.

One of the delights of attending a Lunchtime Recital is that the programme is not advertised beforehand, so everyone shares the same degree of anticipation and expectation.

Unsurprisingly, the Lunchtime Recitals sell out very quickly.

The artists and their performance dates will be announced at the beginning of the Festival.

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22| 23| 24|27 WED

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28| 29|30|31 1.05 p.m.

Photo by Sean O’ Riordan

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Daytime Events Package St Iberius Church, Stable Diet Restaurant, Whites Hotel Tickets ¤60

Discover the world of opera with our Daytime Events Package. This is the perfect introduction to Wexford Festival Opera and can be comfortably enjoyed over a few hours in Wexford without the necessity of making an overnight stay. It has proved particularly attractive to groups of people as a day out for their organisation.

Of course, it can also form the basis of a longer visit, so you can create your own mini opera trip.

The package includes two Festival favourites – a Lunchtime Recital in St Iberius Church and a ShortWork opera in the afternoon in Whites Hotel – as well as lunch.

Depending on the date you choose, your lunch will be served either in Whites Hotel or in the spectacularly situated Stable Diet Restaurant in the Opera House.

Come and find out more about an art form that has captivated Wexford’s locals and visitors for over sixty years.

For groups of fifteen or more the group organiser receives a complimentary ¤60 Daytime Events Package ticket.

Group bookings must be made through the Box Office: +353 53 912 2144 Individual bookings may be made online or through the Box Office.

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OCTOBER FRI SAT

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22|23| 24|27 WED

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28|29|30|31 1.05 p.m.

Photo by Sean O’ Riordan

Daytime Events Package 1.05 p.m. Lunchtime Recital at St Iberius Church, given by one of the principal artists of the Festival. The schedule of performers will be announced at the beginning of the Festival 2.15 p.m. Lunch at Whites Hotel or at the Stable Diet Restaurant, National Opera House (see schedule below) 3.30 p.m. ShortWork opera in Whites Hotel – a small-stage opera production, duration approx. 60 – 90 minutes (see schedule below) Thursday, 22 October Lunch (Stable Diet Restaurant) – The Portrait of Manon Friday, 23 October Lunch (Whites Hotel) – Hansel and Gretel Saturday, 24 October Lunch (Stable Diet Restaurant) – Tosca Tuesday, 27 October Lunch (Whites Hotel) – Tosca Wednesday, 28 October Lunch (Stable Diet Restaurant) – The Portrait of Manon Thursday, 29 October Lunch (Whites Hotel) – Hansel and Gretel Friday, 30 October Lunch (Stable Diet Restaurant) – Tosca Saturday, 31 October Lunch (Whites Hotel) – Hansel and Gretel

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Dr Tom Walsh Lecture

John Julius Norwich

Jerome Hynes Theatre | National Opera House Tickets 造10

Photo by Jonathan Himoff

The 2015 Dr Tom Walsh Lecture will be given by John Julius Norwich (John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich, CVO) one of the most distinguished and charismatic writers and broadcasters of our time.

After a career in the diplomatic service he became a writer, particularly on history, art and travel subjects.

His many books include acclaimed works on Venice, Byzantium, Mount Athos, the Normans, Shakespeare, the Popes, architecture and Glyndebourne (Fifty Years of Glyndebourne), and his Christmas Crackers collections of trivia and witticisms. He has edited the diaries of his father, Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, and letters from his famously glamorous mother, Lady Diana Cooper (Darling Monster: The Letters of Lady Diana Cooper to Her Son John Julius Norwich).

As a distinguished and popular broadcaster on television and radio he has written and presented some thirty television documentaries on art, architecture and history subjects, and is fondly remembered for his wit and erudition by listeners

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to the BBC radio programmes My Word! and Round Britain Quiz. He has chaired or served on the committees of numerous charitable projects, including those concerned with Venice, world monuments, fine arts, the disabled, the National Trust and English National Opera. He is a regular speaker at lunches and dinners and in 2006 and 2007 he gave one-man shows in two London theatres.

Tea and coffee will be served from 10 a.m. before the Lecture.

Kindly supported by Victoria Walsh-Hamer

OCTOBER SATURDAY

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Gala Concert O’Reilly Theatre | National Opera House Tickets ¤50 – ¤60 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.

The 2014 International Opera Award for Best Rediscovered Work was won by Wexford Festival Opera’s 2013 production of Cristina, regina di Svezia by Jacopo Foroni. The audience at the Gala Concert during the 2014 Festival were treated to a celebration of the Award by Helena Dix, who sang the role of Cristina (for which she was nominated as Best Female Singer).

Early booking is advised.

Photo by Patrick Browne

OCTOBER SUNDAY

25 9 p.m.

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Tara Erraught in Recital O’Reilly Theatre | National Opera House Tickets ¤25

Tara Erraught (mezzo-soprano) and Henning Ruhe (piano) Dundalk-born mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught garners critical praise and enthusiastic audience acclaim wherever her increasingly busy international opera career takes her. A graduate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, she considers herself fortunate to be continuing her studies with Veronica Dunne, whom she describes as the guiding force in her musical career. Tara lives in Munich where she also works on her current repertoire with Brigitte Fassbaender.

Tara came to worldwide attention in February 2011 when she learned the role of Romeo in five days for a new production of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, in order to replace an indisposed colleague. She had already sung solo roles in a number of productions at Glyndebourne, the Wiener Staatsoper, Theater an der Wien and the Bayerische Staatsoper, being hailed by the press as ‘the new queen of bel canto’. She has been a member of the opera studio at the Bayerische Staatsoper since 2008. In 2010 she received the National Concert Hall, Dublin’s Rising Star Award, and in 2013 the Bavarian government awarded her the prestigious ‘Pro meritis scientiae et litterarum’ prize, which recognises outstanding contribution to the arts. She is the youngest recipient, and only the fifth musician, to have received this annual award since its instigation in 2000.

Tara performs with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin in March, 2015. During the spring and summer of 2015 she will sing with the Hamburg Staatsoper, the Bayerische Staatsoper, Washington National Opera and in the Dominican Republic.

OCTOBER MONDAY

26 11 a.m.

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Piano Recital O’Reilly Theatre | National Opera House Tickets ¤25

At Wexford in 2012 the Festival audience was thrilled by the recital given by Nikolay Khozyainov, the nineteen-year-old winner of the 2012 triennial Dublin International Piano Competition (DIPC). Since then Nikolay has toured the world, but particular highlights were his highly-praised recitals in Carnegie Hall in New York in April 2013 and in London’s Wigmore Hall in May, 2014. Recitals in these world-class concert halls are part of the first prize awarded to the winner of the DIPC, which, together with the Competition’s mentoring and nurturing elements, contributes to the high regard in which the Dublin International Piano Competition is held throughout the world.

The 2015 Dublin International Piano Competition takes place between 15 and 26 May. There has been the largest-ever entry, of 170 competitors from all over the world, including applicants from several countries new to the Competition, such as Syria, Columbia,

Vietnam, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Sixty competitors will be selected to take part in the Competition and their names announced in mid-January. Ten Irish applicants took part in a preliminary competition in December 2014, and five of them were selected for the Competition.

The Wexford recital will be the first opportunity to hear the winner of this prestigious competition, which, like Wexford Festival Opera, prides itself on presenting the very best performers on the threshold of their careers.

OCTOBER SATURDAY

31 11 a.m.

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Just for Friends

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Photo by Patrick Browne

London Friends’ Recital St John’s Smith Square, London SW1P 3HA

We return to St John's Smith Square for our London Friends’ Recital in 2015. We look forward to welcoming you to this wonderful building, which is such a special venue for concerts, on the day that Wexford Festival Opera comes to London. Last year’s recital was given

by Helena Dix and David Stout, two of Wexford’s highly-acclaimed artists. Full details of this year’s Friends’ Recital await confirmation and will be sent to

you as soon as possible. Meanwhile, please note the date of the Recital so you can look forward to hearing once again some wonderful singers from the stage of the National Opera House, Wexford.

MARCH THURSDAY

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European Friends of Wexford Opera Event Embassy of Ireland, Berlin

First established in Brussels in 2013 and expanding into Paris in 2014, the European Friends' Chapter has grown from strength to strength. We are continuing to develop this initiative in 2015 and look forward to introducing new audiences to Wexford Festival Opera.

This year the European Friends' event will take place at the Irish Embassy in Berlin on Tuesday 26 May, hosted

by His Excellency Michael Collins, Ambassador of Ireland to Germany.

We look forward to making new Friends in Berlin and welcoming more international visitors to Wexford this October.

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If you are interested in attending the European Friends’ Event in Berlin, please contact Lucy Durack by e-mail at friends@wexfordopera.com or by telephone: +353 53 916 3525.

MAY TUESDAY

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Dublin Friends’ Recital National Concert Hall, Dublin

Following the success of the Recital in 2014, with breathtaking performances by Helena Dix and Igor Golovatenko, we are delighted to continue our partnership with the Friends of the National Concert Hall for another year. This year’s Summer Recital will be given by some of the outstanding singers who have performed at Wexford Festival Opera. The singers will be announced closer to the time of the event.

Photo by Ros Kavanagh

JUNE TUESDAY

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Friends’ ‘In Conversation’ Series

Our 'In Conversation' Series of talks gives expert insight into specific elements of the 2015 productions.

Join us as we go behind the scenes to learn more about the challenges that face the artistic teams as they work to realise their concept of an opera and to bring it to life on stage. Last year’s audiences enjoyed fascinating stories from Joe Csibi with members of the Wexford Festival Orchestra, and were privileged to hear from Clair Rowden, a leading authority on Salome and on French music.

We will provide further information about the speakers for the 2015 events nearer the time.

Dublin 'In Conversation' The Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin

SEPTEMBER THURSDAY

10

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Set design for Le Pré aux clercs

London 'In Conversation' Embassy of Ireland, 17 Grosvenor Place, London SW1X 7HR Please note that as space is limited the London event is by invitation only. If you are based outside the UK and would like to attend, please contact Lucy Durack before Monday 10 August (e-mail friends@wexfordopera.com or telephone +353 53 916 3525).

SEPTEMBER WEDNESDAY

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Friends’ Parties, Lunches and Buffet Friends' Lunches in the Terrace Restaurant, Whites Hotel We look forward to meeting you at our special Friends' Events during the 2015 Festival, ranging from informal coffee mornings, lunches and buffet to glamorous parties. Enjoy delicious local and organic food, much of it from County Wexford, where lush pastures, fertile soils and traditional techniques produce high-quality meat, cheese, fruit and vegetables.

Thursday 22 October – 2 p.m.

Monday 26 October – 1 p.m.

Experience the sense of occasion and excitement of an evening at the opera in Wexford. Dressing in evening clothes and enjoying a meal beforehand, getting together with other opera-lovers and being offered the opportunity to meet the singers and artistic teams: these social occasions add immensely to the pleasure of attending Wexford’s renowned highquality operatic performances.

Friends' Buffet at the Talbot Hotel

Friends’ Parties at Greenacres OPENING NIGHT PARTY Wednesday 21 October – 10.30 p.m.

Celebrate the opening of the 64th Festival at the opening night post-opera party at Greenacres. The event includes locally-produced food, wine, live music, great company and the opportunity to catch up with Friends you may not have met since the previous Festival.

BANK HOLIDAY CELEBRATION PARTY Saturday 24 October – 10.30 p.m.

Join our Artistic Director and members of the cast from Koanga and enjoy post-opera food, champagne and wine in the beautiful surroundings of Greenacres.

CLOSING WEEKEND GALA PARTY Saturday 31 October – 10.30 p.m.

Join the cast from Guglielmo Ratcliff and members of the Wexford Festival Opera team and enjoy another evening of superb food, champagne and wine with James and Donal at Greenacres.

Our popular daytime Friends' Lunches are once again on the menu. Enjoy a delicious lunch and a glass of wine at Whites of Wexford and take the opportunity to meet members of the artistic team and cast.

Wednesday 28 October – 5.15 p.m.

For an elegant pre-opera dining experience come to the Friends' Buffet at the Talbot Hotel and enjoy a sumptuous three-course buffet meal with fine wines.

After your meal a courtesy bus will be available to bring you from the Talbot to the Opera House for the 8 p.m. evening performance.

How to book your tickets for the Friends' Lunches, Buffet and Parties Space is limited and admission is by ticket ONLY, so do remember to book your complimentary tickets for the Friends' Parties, Buffet and Lunches through the box office. Your complimentary tickets can be used for whichever events you wish to attend during the Festival.

As part of your 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 may purchase two tickets at the discounted price of ¤15 each.

Bring a friend If you require additional tickets to the Friends' Parties, Lunches and Buffet they may be purchased from the Box Office. Additional tickets for the Friends’ Parties may be purchased for ¤40 each, additional tickets for the Friends' Buffet may be purchased for ¤30 each and additional tickets for the Friends’ Lunches may be purchased for ¤20 each.

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Friends’ Lounge Level 3 | National Opera House

We hope you will enjoy using the Friends’ Lounge in the Opera House during the Festival – it’s your Festival Club.

Open from 12 noon to 4 p.m. every day on level 3 in the Opera House, it provides an 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.

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.

Friends’ Welcome Receptions Level 3 | National Opera House We invite all our Friends, new and old, to join us for complimentary tea, coffee and scones to welcome you to the 64th Wexford Festival Opera. These informal welcome receptions will be held in the Friends' Lounge on level 3 of the National Opera House. This is a small ‘thank you’ for your support and is an opportunity for you to meet each other and talk to members of our team.

Friday 23 October: 11 a.m.

Monday 26 October: 10 a.m.

Thursday 29 October: 11 a.m.

Sunday 1 November: 11 a.m.

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Friends’ Travel

Vienna State Opera. Photo by Markus Leupold-Löwenthal

Vienna Opera Tour 27–30 April 2015 Following successful trips to Berlin and Paris, our Friends’ Opera Tour is now in its third year. This year Travel for the Arts has designed an exclusive tour programme to Vienna, a city renowned for opera and classical music. The tour will include two operas at the magnificent Vienna State Opera, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and a new production of Donizetti's Don Pasquale with Peruvian tenor, and Wexford alumnus, Juan Diego Flórez (L’Étoile du Nord, Wexford, 1996).

For more information or to register your interest, please contact Travel for the Arts directly and quote the reference ‘Wexford Friends’ Tour’: +44 20 8799 8350 or tfa@stlon.com Juan Diego Flórez. Photo: Decca / Josef Gallauer

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Sponsorship and Development

Guests enjoying the 2nd American Friends of Wexford Opera New York Dinner Gala Photo by James Higgins

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The President’s Circle

The President’s Circle recognises donors who support the Festival at the leadership level. These friends are at the core of Wexford’s success because presenting rarely performed or neglected opera requires generous patrons.

Photo by Patrick Bowne

Some members of the President’s Circle, such as Stephen Vernon, support a main stage opera, while others, such as The Lord Magan of Castletown, help to make the ShortWorks possible. Peter and Nancy Thompson helped to initiate our Emerging Artist Fund in memory of their great friend Jerome Hynes.

education, outreach and community access projects, and emerging artist apprenticeships.

Specific artistic projects which can greatly benefit from being funded by President’s Circle gifts include main stage and ShortWorks productions, the Orchestra and Chorus of Wexford Festival Opera,

For further information on joining The President’s Circle, please contact David McLoughlin (+353 53 916 3521, dml@wexfordopera.com) or Christopher Massi (christopher@wexfordopera.com).

All gifts are donor-advised, reflecting your interests, and can be directed to whichever aspect of Wexford’s extensive artistic activities you may wish to support.

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Legacy Giving

The 1951 Society

The revival of operas at Wexford your present and their future Legacies connect the past to the future, and legacy giving is a way of enabling your interest in opera at Wexford to continue for many years to come. This is the story of how it began, because all that we enjoy today at Wexford Festival Opera has grown out of people’s ideas and talents. Their love for performing little-known operas united them and it unites us.

Wexford Festival Opera was an unlikely idea which took shape in Foyles bookshop in Charing Cross Road, then grew during a conversation with Sir Compton Mackenzie, founder of Gramophone magazine.

Unlikely it may have been, but neglected and forgotten operas had gained a new champion when Dr Tom Walsh launched the Wexford Festival of Music and the Arts (nowadays called Wexford Festival Opera) in 1951, performing The Rose of Castile by Michael Balfe, who had lived for a time in Wexford.

During its first decade the Wexford Festival offered an increasingly enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience such rarities as Lortzing's Der Wildschütz and Bellini's La sonnambula. Their revival at Wexford led to other performances elsewhere and many Wexford rediscoveries are now part of the mainstream operatic repertoire. Increasingly, Wexford attracted well-known or about-to-be-famous producers and designers such as Peter Ebert. Soon the Festival was attracting internationally recognised operatic talent and receiving enthusiastic reviews in the Irish and overseas press.

In a bold move, the Festival's home of so many years, the Theatre Royal, was demolished after the 2005 Festival and replaced on the same site by the Wexford Opera House – now the National Opera House.

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Photo © Wexford Festival Archive

Following two seasons in temporary venues (Dún Mhuire hall in 2006 and Johnstown Castle in June 2007), the 57th Festival opened in the new building on 16 October 2008. Widely acclaimed, the Opera House is comparable with some of the best operatic venues in the world.

The crazy idea of 1951 had grown into a first-class festival in a first-class venue, and Wexford remains committed to the founding vision. Dr Tom Walsh’s legacy still informs the opera festival we enjoy today.

The Festival has always valued its links with the past, whilst being committed to the future. So how do you ensure that your legacy will support our commitment to rarely performed and neglected operas?

The 1951 Society At Wexford Festival Opera, legacy gifts honour Dr Tom Walsh’s great idea: ensuring that interesting and worthwhile – but neglected – operas have a home. Your legacy gift to the Festival can also play a role.

Legacy gifts come from the proceeds of your estate.

They might be a portion or even all of your estate.

Some people leave property and some a monetary gift. What matters is that you support something that has meaning for you, something that can continue for many years to come. We can work with you to ensure that your gift is properly named and recognised – but you need to let us know!

If you are interested in The 1951 Society, please e-mail Christopher Massi (christopher@wexfordopera.com).

Wexford Festival Opera can also arrange for you to speak to a solicitor specialising in wills and estates, if you wish.

Cast and Artistic Sponsorship

Photo by Mary Browne

Sponsoring a singer or member of our artistic team through our Cast and Artistic Sponsorship Programme is a really significant way of supporting Wexford Festival Opera. It is an excellent opportunity to become involved in the career of a performer, to meet them and take a personal interest in them. The artist may be struggling to develop his or her talent and career, so knowing that someone in the audience is supporting them in such a practical manner provides a wonderful boost, and in our experience lasting friendships have been made between artist and sponsor.

This initiative allows Wexford Festival Opera to maintain its artistic integrity by enabling the Artistic Director to engage truly gifted opera singers, designers, directors and conductors.

If you are interested in sponsoring a Festival performer our Artistic Director, David Agler, will be pleased to discuss with you an artist with whom you can enjoy a rewarding relationship.

You will receive accreditation in the Festival programme and complimentary Festival tickets. A lunch or coffee engagement with the artist may also be arranged. Such an encounter is a unique opportunity for you to enter into the world of opera in a personal way and appreciate it from a performer’s perspective.

So why not become a benefactor and discover the many rewarding benefits of sponsorship.

If you are interested in becoming involved for the 2015 Festival, please contact Lucy Durack for more information: lucy@wexfordopera.com, +353 53 916 3525.

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American Friends of Wexford Opera Work is well under way for the Third American Friends of Wexford Opera New York Dinner Gala, details of which will be announced during the next few months and which promises to be an even more special and enjoyable celebration of Wexford Opera in North America. If you would like any further information on the Gala in advance, please contact David McLoughlin (dml@wexfordopera.com).

Photo by James Higgins

The National Opera House

Photo by Ros Kavanagh

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Following detailed discussions, the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht announced on the opening night of the 2014 Festival that she had approved the request to officially recognise Wexford Opera House as Ireland’s National Opera House. Opened in 2008, the National Opera House remains Ireland’s only custombuilt Opera House and has won numerous national and international architectural awards. Its very specific design and acoustic criteria uniquely qualified it to be officially recognised as the country’s National Opera House. As the home of Wexford Festival Opera this national designation will further enhance the Festival’s national and international reputation and should present increased opportunities for its productions.

It will also heighten the awareness of Irish opera production and continue to develop this culturally and economically important art form for Ireland’s benefit.

How to Support Wexford Festival Opera Photo © Clive Barda/ArenaPAL

There are many ways in which you can support Wexford Festival Opera to enable it to continue to achieve ever-higher standards of opera performance at a world-class festival.

• Become a Friend: – Prelude Friends – ¤80 – Ensemble Friends – ¤185 – Aria Friends – ¤500 – Teatro Friends – ¤1,000 – Bravura Friends – ¤2,000 • Endow a Seat – ¤850 • Become a Corporate Friend – packages from ¤2,000 • Become a Cast Sponsor – from ¤5,000 • Become an Artistic Sponsor – from ¤3,500 to ¤10,000 • Become a ShortWork Producer – ¤10,000 • Join us at the American Friends’ New York Dinner Gala: – Seats for $500 – Tables for $10,000, $20,000 and $35,000 • Join the President’s Circle – gifts of ¤25,000, ¤50,000, ¤100,000 and more can transform a production, a season and the future of Wexford Festival Opera Lucy Durack will be delighted to hear from you regarding any of your Friends’ Membership queries, and if you are interested in participating in our Cast Sponsorship, Artistic Sponsorship or Seat Endowment initiatives. She can be contacted as follows:

Lucy Durack Membership Development Executive +353 53 916 3525 lucy@wexfordopera.com To learn more about major gifts, the American Gala, legacies and transformational giving, please contact: David McLoughlin Chief Executive +353 53 916 3521 dml@wexfordopera.com Christopher Massi Strategic Development Executive +353 53 916 3554 christopher@wexfordopera.com To avail of corporate giving opportunities, please contact: Eamonn Carroll Corporate Development Executive +353 53 916 3527 eamonn@wexfordopera.com For further information on all the opportunities for giving and for ways to support your opera festival, please visit Wexfordopera.com/support Gifts can be made in a tax-advantageous way through our Irish, UK, Canadian and US Charitable Trusts.

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News for Friends

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Silent Night. Photo by Patrick Browne

Awards

In 2014 the Gerard Arnhold Bursary was awarded to two members of the Festival Company, Canadian soprano Johane Ansell and Irish baritone Rory Musgrave.

The Aria Friends’ Bursary, which is funded by the generous gifts of our Aria Friends, was awarded to the Irish mezzo-soprano Kate Allen, who made her professional Irish opera debut in Silent Night (Madeleine Audebert) and La Cenerentola (Angelina).

All photos by Mary Browne

The Artistic Director, David Agler, commented: ‘Kate has a unique voice, by which I mean there is no mistaking to whom it belongs, although when she sings I am reminded of the great Spanish mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza. I believe Kate has a promising future as a Rossinian as she possesses excellent agility in her voice. I have encouraged her to use her Aria Friends’ Bursary to study in Italy.’

Johane Ansell, who was a member of the Chorus in Salomé and Don Bucefalo, and The Plaintiff in Trial

by Jury, said: ‘What an honour and a privilege to be named a recipient of the Gerard Arnhold Bursary. I feel so grateful and humble, and I know that winning this award will further my career opportunities immensely.

The scholarship has already made it possible for me to travel for vital auditions and it has allowed me to attend coachings and lessons with my trusted team of mentors and teachers. These opportunities are invaluable and, in truth, would not have been possible were it not for the bursary. The award not only enables me to continue my pursuits as a young artist, but it also demonstrates trust and confidence in my abilities, which is a great motivator and a great source of inspiration. I am so thankful to the Wexford Festival, David Agler, and to the Arnhold family for the recognition and for the opportunities this award provides.’

Rory Musgrave, who was a member of the Chorus in Silent Night, said: ‘The Gerard Arnhold Bursary was such a wonderful and unexpected boon, not just financially but emotionally. It has been for me a symbol of the faith and support from those established in the profession, and this vote of confidence spurs me on to strive further. It has enabled me to expand my training outside Ireland to teachers and coaches in London, and I intend to invest in a language course in the summer.

The bursary has, and will continue to be, of invaluable assistance in the progression of my career, and I wish to thank the benefactors, Mr and Mrs Anthony and Mayca Arnhold, for their generosity. The impact such support has on one’s early career is incalculable. Thank you.’

Johane’s rewarding and happy experience of performing at Wexford reflects that of so many artists through the years. In a letter to David Agler she wrote: ‘I must admit that I have tried in vain to write this letter of thanks many times, but have struggled to put into words how the Wexford Festival has changed my life. The Wexford Festival is a unique and very special place. It is magic; it really is. The life lessons, knowledge and personal growth I have gained due to my participation in the Festival are immeasurable. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. The memories from Wexford will be with me for a lifetime, as will the friendships. It truly is a family and I feel so blessed and honoured to count myself a member of that family.’

Kate Allen said: ‘I had an incredible time in Wexford. It was so wonderful to have the opportunity to perform at home and with such high calibre artists! I plan to use the bursary to help with travel costs for auditions in the coming season, mainly in the UK and Germany and possibly France, and preparation for these auditions, which will include language and musical coaching.’

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Souvenirs of Wexford

Don Bucefalo. Photo © Clive Barda/ArenaPAL

Anders Wiklund, Helena Dix and Tobias Ringborg. Photo by Patrick Browne

by Anders Wiklund, editor of Cristina, regina di Svezia and Don Bucefalo After the first modern performance in Sweden in August 2007 (in concert) of Jacopo Foroni’s Cristina, regina di Svezia everyone was stunned by its impact on the audience. This was Verdi before Verdi! Also, people wondered what a modern staged production would look like. The libretto is in many ways very unnineteenth century. When I learned from David Agler that Wexford Festival Opera intended to perform the opera in 2013 I was really excited. The recording from 2010 was of course in a way a door-opener but still, I felt it was risky to stage it, even if Foroni’s music was attractive. When the first conductor of Cristina, Tobias Ringborg, and I arrived in Wexford in October 2013 and attended our first performance we were excited beyond everything. Wonderful world-class singers, amazing playing from the orchestra under Andrew Greenwood and a marvellous staging by Stephen Medcalf. Wexford did it exactly the way an unknown opera should be done: taken seriously, performed with first-class singers, orchestra and production team, and above all, to trust the composer, particularly when he is of this magnitude. The reactions were immediate: prizes came pouring in and were so well deserved!

On 8 November 2014 Chelsea Opera Group organised the next international performance of Cristina at Cadogan Hall in London and the success was repeated. Three singers from the Wexford production 36 | FESTIVAL 2015

Cristina, regina di Svezia. Photo © Clive Barda/ArenaPAL

sang, the others were picked for the London performance, and Andrew Greenwood conducted.

As in Wexford the audience shouted and applauded after most of the numbers. This was a really rare experience for an editor of an unknown opera! In the 2015/16 season Cristina will have its German premiere in Staatstheater Oldenburg.

I also had the privilege to be the editor of one of the operas for the 2014 Wexford Festival: Antonio Cagnoni’s Don Bucefalo, one of the rare true comedies of Italian nineteenth century opera. It was known a little to readers of opera textbooks (it was written by a nineteen-year-old student at Milan Conservatory and performed as his exam piece) but completely unknown when it came to hearing the music. I made the performing edition for the 2008 Valle d’Itria opera festival in Martina Franca, Italy, but unfortunately the production was staged as an opera buffa and the whole essence of the piece was lost, nor were all of the singers of the standard one would have wished. But Wexford did it again! This charming, witty and elegant piece must now have a great future in today’s theatres.

The singers in Wexford were all brilliant singers and actors, the staging was convincing and again, there was a devoted conductor who conducted with taste, art and skill. The production in Wexford really exposed the quality of Don Bucefalo. Wexford is the place to mount unknown operatic masterpieces!

The Delius Trust and Wexford Festival Opera

A Village Romeo and Juliet. Photo © Clive Barda/ArenaPAL

The Delius Trust is delighted to be collaborating again with Wexford Festival Opera. Following the highly successful 2012 Wexford production of Delius’ A Village Romeo and Juliet, 2015 will see a new production of the same composer’s third opera Koanga. Composed in 1895–1897, the action takes place in a plantation on the Mississippi in Louisiana. Sensibilities around race, slavery and oppression make this a challenging work to stage for modern audiences, so the Delius Trust, which is providing significant funding for the production, is excited that the director, Michael Gieleta, intends to take a broad view of the possibilities of the story and its gorgeous musical setting. Many people will be familiar with parts of the opera, particularly La Calinda which is often performed as a separate orchestral number. This production will give opera lovers the opportunity to discover a great, but now rather neglected work.

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In Memoriam

Elizabeth Forbes (3 August 1924 – 22 October 2014)

by Elaine Padmore (Artistic Director, 1982–1994) Elizabeth Forbes, who died on 22 October at the age of ninety, was an opera lover first and foremost. It is not inappropriate that she died on the opening night of the Wexford Opera Festival, which had been a particular favourite of hers until advancing years made the journey to Ireland overlong. She made her name as a journalist specialising in all things operatic, whether reviewing performances at a wide range of destinations at home and abroad, or writing about singers, both historical and present-day.

Her mother was Swedish and her Scottish father, Admiral Sir Charles Forbes, was in charge of the British home fleet during the Second World War. Elizabeth served as an officer in the Women's Royal Naval Service from 1941 to 1946. She then worked in the book trade in Stockholm and London, where she was in the celebrated Curzon Street bookshop, Heywood Hill, described by Evelyn Waugh as ‘a centre for all that was left of fashionable and intellectual London’, and where her many friends included Nancy Mitford, Ian Fleming and Patrick White.

Her career as a music journalist began in the early 1970s when she was asked to write up for the Financial Times a Salzburg Festival performance she had attended. She contributed reviews and articles to numerous newspapers and magazines, particularly the Financial Times and Opera (on whose board she served), and to Opera Canada, Opera News and Opera International. As foreign correspondent she was an indefatigable traveller in Europe, both East and West, making her way undaunted to whatever distant town

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held an opera house she wished to visit. She would say that there was none in Germany or Switzerland she had not attended, and practically none in Italy and France. Her intimate knowledge of the German railway timetables made it possible to construct intricate five-operas-in-three-days weekend visits, for which I joined her on several occasions, happy for her precision planning to assist my own work as Head of Opera for BBC Radio.

Not much given to fancy dressing-up, she had however in her possession a beautiful black Dior-style ball gown given her by a 'starlet' relative in the 1950s. This she gleefully gave me when I became Artistic Director of the Wexford Festival in 1982 so it could see some bright lights and first nights again – which indeed it did.

Elizabeth’s writing was very direct and straightforward.

She was tireless in visiting less-glamorous venues in the interests of catching a rare opera (nineteenth- and twentieth-century French and Scandinavian operas were her particular favourites). She regularly attended and reviewed performances at the London music colleges, understanding the importance of critical attention to young singers. Keenly interested in words as well as music, she made singing translations of many French, German and Swedish operas. She was the author of Mario and Grisi (two nineteenth centuryopera stars), The Observer's Book of Opera and Opera from A – Z. She contributed hundreds of biographical articles on singers to reference works, including The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.

In her final years she was still compiling opera performance statistics for Whitaker’s Almanack and writing obituaries for The Independent, until a series of strokes last year took their toll. She never married but lived happily in later years with her partner Harry Lyons.

Photo by Patrick Browne

Michael Kennedy, CBE (19 February 1926 – 31 December 2014)

by Paul Hennessy (Chairman, 2004–2009) ‘And say my glory was I had such friends’ — W.B. Yeats News of Michael’s death on New Year’s Eve provoked a rush of warm and sincere tributes acknowledging an exceptional life dedicated to music, an outstanding career as a journalist and critic and the passing of one of life’s true gentlemen. And indeed Michael was all of these things.

His writing established him as a world authority on classical music. It was a distinction that rested easily on his shoulders as he remained at all times the most genial, unpretentious and gracious of men.

His early years at the Daily Telegraph distinguished him as a widely respected and trusted reviewer of concerts and operas. His prolific output as a writer included many landmark biographies, historical studies and reference works, all of which confirmed his status as one of the most authoritative voices on music over the last seven decades and earned him both an OBE and CBE, among many other honours.

Remarkably, Michael never missed a Festival and was a much-loved presence in Wexford every year.

He planned his visits to ensure he always enjoyed the total Festival experience, attending operas, ShortWorks, recitals, lectures – the lot! – but always taking care to make time to catch up with friends, colleagues and old acquaintances.

He liked nothing better than to gather over lunch or dinner and talk opera, singers, festivals, travel, family and plans for the future. His knowledge of Wexford was

encyclopaedic and he recalled at will, not just details of past productions and performances, but his engagement with Festival personnel, members of the Voluntary Corps, hotel and restaurant staff and countless others he had encountered during his many visits. His unassuming nature simply endeared him to everyone he met, and as he remembered them, they also remembered him, and always with a great deal of affection.

The truth is he had a genuine interest in people, and it was this that made him an authority on the personalities, as well as the work and lives of those who featured in his biographies.

For me, sharing time with Michael became one of the highlights of the Festival. I looked forward to getting together and catching up on his work and travels, and having the opportunity to discuss Festival matters.

His views on Festival productions were always honest, incisive, objective and thought-provoking; his advice extremely valuable and his encouragement deeply reassuring. I cannot recall a conversation with him that did not raise my spirits and enrich my day.

In recent years as his health failed, he depended more and more on his wife Joyce to get around and maintain his attendance at events which they both cared deeply about. With a passion for music, life and Wexford that rivalled his own they were indefatigable together. And it was together that they enjoyed last year’s sixty-third Festival as they had done so many times before.

Michael’s legacy is rich and abundant. It stands on the bookshelves of music lovers and musicians across the globe. It has become part of the history he helped to capture and chronicle. And it lives in the memories of all those whose lives he touched, whether in Manchester, Glyndebourne or Salzburg, but no more so than in Wexford where so many of us know we have had the privilege of a unique friendship and we have lost an extraordinary friend.

WEXFORDOPERA.COM | 39

Endow a Seat Endow a seat and join our Teatro Friends For a contribution of ¤1,000, Teatro Friends will receive an Ensemble Friends’ Membership and a Seat Endowment at the National Opera House. You can dedicate your seat with a plaque in your own name or that of a loved one. If you would like to become a Teatro Friend please contact our Membership Development Executive, Lucy Durack for more information.

Seat Endowment programme Our Seat Endowment programme is still open and you may dedicate a seat with a plaque in your own name or in the name of a loved one. The cost is ¤850 and further information is available from Lucy Durack: +353 53 916 3525, lucy@wexfordopera.com

Photo by Ros Kavanagh

Wexford Festival Opera Volunteers Award

In 2014, at the first Public Dress Rehearsal of the Festival, Artistic Director David Agler announced the winners of the Wexford Festival Opera Volunteers Award, sponsored by Ecclesiastical Insurance. Scott Hayes, Head of Relationship Management with Ecclesiastical, presented the Awards to Nuala Byrne and Claudine Murphy. Nuala has been a volunteer for forty years, beginning as a member of the Front of House team and later joining the team of Programme Sellers. Claudine’s family roots are in Wexford and although she works for an international music publishing company in London, she devotes part of her annual leave each year to helping out in the Festival press office in Wexford.

Photo by Patrick Browne

40 | FESTIVAL 2015

Ecclesiastical Insurance is Ireland’s leading specialist insurance company serving the education, faith, heritage and charity sectors, and donates a significant proportion of its profits to charity.

Wining and Dining

Pre-Opera Suppers at The National Opera House

Champagne and Canapés

Relax and enjoy a meal in the MacKenzie Room on the third floor of the National Opera House before the performance. The popular Pre-Opera Suppers are served on each performance evening during the Festival except for 1 November. They begin at 6 p.m., except on Sunday 25 October when the Suppers will be served after the 5 p.m. performance.

Treat yourself to a little luxury! There is a Deutz Champagne and Canapés interval reception in the Mackenzie Room at the National Opera House every night during the Festival. Tickets cost ¤25. Friends of Wexford Festival Opera may book their tickets from 28 February at Wexfordopera.com and by telephone (+353 53 912 2144).

Booking for the Pre-Opera Suppers opens on 2 June and full details about making a reservation will be available on the Festival website (Wexfordopera.com).

Public booking opens on 28 March.

Priority will be given to Friends of Wexford Festival Opera.

WEXFORDOPERA.COM | 41

CULTUREFOX.IE

NEVER MISS OUT The Arts Council’s new, upgraded CULTUREFOX events guide is now live. Free, faster, easy to use – and personalised for you.

Never miss out again.

42 | FESTIVAL 2015

Accommodation

Ferrycarrig Hotel Patio. Photo by Lou Metzger

The Ferrycarrig Hotel

Preferred Hotel Partner

The nationally- and internationally-renowned 4-star Ferrycarrig Hotel boasts one of the most inspiring locations of any hotel in Wexford or, indeed, Ireland, with sweeping views across the River Slaney. The hotel is the perfect location for your visit to the 2015 Festival.

For more information call reservations directly: T: +353 53 915 3623 E : reservations@ferrycarrighotel.com W: Ferrycarrighotel.ie

The Talbot Hotel The Talbot Hotel is ideally located in the heart of Wexford town. This is one of the finest hotels in Wexford, boasting panoramic views of the quays and River Slaney.

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

Kelly’s Resort Hotel Whites of Wexford 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.

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

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

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

For further information on accommodation in Wexford and the surrounding area visit Visitwexford.ie | Discoverireland.ie | Irelandhotels.com

WEXFORDOPERA.COM | 43

Wexford Festival Opera Tours

Explore County Wexford It is said that Wexford is known for three things: opera, writers and history. County Wexford is rich in history: home to Vikings, Normans and rebellions. The Wexford Festival Opera Tours, organised by Nicholas Furlong on behalf of Wexford Historical Society, have been a part of the Festival since the early 1950s. In fact Nicholas Furlong could be considered one of the Festival’s original ‘Friends’ when he, like so many other locals, pledged Dr Tom their full support and offered a donation in order for him to get the first Festival off the ground.

The Wexford Festival Opera Tours are led by expert guides and explore places of historical interest in the town and county – some well known, some lesser known. The tours leave the Talbot Hotel car park at 10.30 a.m. sharp and return to Wexford by 1 p.m. – just in time for the Lunchtime Recitals. No car? Don’t worry; people who have cars make room for those without. Another chance to make new friends! The tours are free and are open to all.

Full details of these popular tours will be announced in September. For more information visit Wexfordhistoricalsociety.com

National Opera House Tours Friday 23, Monday 26, Wednesday 28, Friday 30 October – 9.30 a.m.

Tickets ¤5 / ¤4 for groups of 10+ During the 2015 Festival there will be guided tours of the National Opera House on four mornings. Take advantage of this opportunity to find out more about the award-winning architecture of the National Opera House and sample the exceptional acoustics of its two 44 | FESTIVAL 2015

diverse performance spaces, the O’Reilly Theatre and the Jerome Hynes Theatre.

Tours commence at 9.30 a.m. from the Box Office, National Opera House. Booking closes fifteen minutes before the tour start time. No admission without a valid ticket. Children under sixteen years of age must be accompanied by an adult.

Travel

Photo by Paul Holmes

Waterford Airport 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 to Wexford via Dublin Airport.

Travel options to Wexford from Dublin Airport include car hire, train (Iarnrodeireann.ie) and express coach (Buseireann.ie and Wexfordbus.com).

Wexford Bus from Dublin City and Airport Wexford Bus offers the fastest, most reliable bus service between Wexford and Dublin city and airport. It is the ideal option for overseas visitors to the Festival.

With up to twelve daily services each way, a range of great value tickets and free wi-fi on board, Wexford Bus is a comfortable and efficient way of travelling to and from Dublin Airport. For details of the timetable and fares see Wexfordbus.com.

WEXFORDOPERA.COM | 45

WHERE LIFE SOUNDS BETTER 96-99fm | On Mobile | rte.ie/lyricfm 46 | FESTIVAL 2015

Book Your Tickets

Photo by Sean O’ Riordan

Booking Dates

Book Your Tickets Online

— Priority Booking for Friends from 9.30 a.m. on Saturday, 28 February 2015

Friends have the first opportunity to book their Festival tickets online via the Festival website:

— General Booking from 9.30 a.m. on Saturday, 28 March 2015

Wexfordopera.com

Tickets may be booked using the following methods: — Online: Wexfordopera.com — E-mail: boxoffice@wexfordopera.com — Telephone: +353 53 912 2144 / 1850 4 OPERA* — In person at the National Opera House Box Office* — Post: fill out and post attached booking form *Box Office opening hours: Monday – Saturday, 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.

Dress Code In keeping with Wexford Festival Opera tradition, evening dress is strongly recommended for the evening opera performances.

which contains a step-by-step guide to booking your tickets online, including an option to print your tickets at home. From the opening of priority booking you will be able to browse and search our programme of events twenty-four hours a day and choose your own seats from the seating plan.

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

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 (The National 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 may not be available. A charge of ¤1.00 for postage and handling will be applied to tickets sent by post. Card transactions will incur a charge of ¤1.50 (per transaction).

Please note: if you have opted to have your tickets posted, you will receive them a minimum of six weeks prior to the event.

WEXFORDOPERA.COM | 47

Don Bucefalo. Photo by Sean O’ Riordan

Booking Dates Tickets are available in three price bands over the Festival. Prices are based on the most requested Festival dates.

Price Band A

Wednesday 21, Thursday 22, Monday 26, Tuesday 27, Wednesday 28, Thursday 29 October

Price Band B

Friday 23, Saturday 24, Sunday 25, Friday 30, Saturday 31 October, Sunday 1 November

Price Band C

Gala Concert: Sunday 25 October

Pricing Floor Level

Seating Area

Dates & Prices Price Band A Price Band B 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, 23, 24, 25, 30, 29 Oct 31 Oct, 1 Nov

Price Band C Gala Concert 25 Oct

 Circle

Rows A–B

¤140

¤140

¤75

 Circle

Rows C–G

¤85

¤115

¤60

 Circle

Row H*

¤40

¤40

¤60

 Circle Side Stalls

Row I–J

¤35

¤35

¤60

 Circle Boxes (4 seats)**

Boxes A,B,C,D,E,F

¤25

¤25

¤50

 Founders Circle

A3–A26 A1, A2, A27, A28 Rows B–C

¤145 ¤120 ¤145

¤145 ¤120 ¤145

¤80 ¤60 ¤80

 Founders Circle

Side Stalls

¤130

¤130

¤80

 Founders Circle (4 seats)**

Boxes A,B,D,E Boxes C,F

¤50 ¤25

¤50 ¤25

¤50 ¤50

 Main Stalls

Rows A–B Rows C–P

¤90 ¤100

¤110 ¤120

¤60 ¤60

 Side Stalls

1–6, 13–18 7–12, 19–24

¤100 ¤90

¤120 ¤110

¤60 ¤60

*Reserved during all opera performances exclusively for Prelude Friends of Wexford Festival Opera **Restricted view, prices per seat

Please note Information on our Refund/Return Policy may be found on page 50.

In keeping with Wexford Festival Opera tradition, evening dress is strongly recommended for the evening opera performances.

48 | FESTIVAL 2015

Seating Plan O’REILLY THEATRE, NATIONAL OPERA HOUSE

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 H 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2 3 21 G G 1 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 8 7 17 18 6 19 20 4 5 2 3 21 22 F 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 F 1 6 7 19 20 5 21 3 4 22 2 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 9 23 E 8 1 19 20 E 6 7 21 4 5 22 3 23 2 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 8 24 D 19 20 6 7 D 1 21 4 5 22 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 3 23 20 21 11 12 2 10 24 22 23 8 9 C 1 25 C 24 7 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 25 6 10 11 20 21 5 26 4 8 9 27 22 7 3 23 28 6 24 29 2 5 25 30 4 26 B 1 3 27 2 28 1 29 A

H

I 12

BOX

D

J

A

1

14

16

18

20

1

B

21

A

22

A

P

O N 1 M

2

3

1

2

4 3

6

5

4

3

2

1

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

6 7

4 5

3

2

5 4

6

2

O

8

7 6

5

1

P

7

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

N

M

talls

Side Sta

16

lls

14 15

1

Side S

D

4

9 10 11

BOX

5

3 4

B

6 7 8

BOX

9 10

A

13

BOX

8

12 13 14 15 16 4 2 3 17 18 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 C 1 C 10 9 21 22 8 7 23 14 15 13 16 17 12 6 18 19 24 10 11 9 20 5 25 21 8 4 22 7 26 6 23 3 27 5 24 25 4 2 28 3 26 29 27 2 28 1 B

17

I

BOX

3 7

6

5

19

Boxes D, E & F seat 4 each

B

2

15

E

F

8

7

6

5

7

6

5

4

3

4

13

BOX

BOX

2

1

11

BOX

J

A

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

E

6

7

8

C

B

Boxes A, B & C seat 4 each

C

F

STAGE

Circle

CIRCLE

Founders’ Circle

FOUNDERS’ CIRCLE

Stalls

STALLS

Rows A–B Rows A–B

Centre Centre

MainMain StallsStalls

Rows C–G Rows C–G

SideStalls Stalls Side

SideSide StallsStalls

Row H Row H

Boxes

Side Stalls

Side Stalls

Boxes

WheelchairWheelchairaccessible Seat

accessible Seat

Boxes

Boxes WEXFORDOPERA.COM | 49

Tickets – Friends’ Entitlements

Special Needs

Priority booking for Friends opens on Saturday, 28 February 2015 at 9.30 a.m. and early booking is advised during this four-week advance booking period. Bookings can be made online at Wexfordopera.com, twenty-four hours a day (see ‘Book your Tickets’). As we cannot guarantee your first choice of events, we would ask Friends who are making a postal booking to indicate an alternative date on their booking form. Please remember to book before 28 March, when general booking opens.

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

Provision has been made to accommodate up to fifteen wheelchair users and their companions in a variety of locations, each with sight lines 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).

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

Remember that each Friend is also entitled to an allocation of complimentary tickets to the Friends’ Parties, Lunches and Buffet (see relevant section). Additional tickets for the Lunches may be purchased at ¤20 each, for the Buffet at ¤30 each and for the Parties at ¤40 each.

The postage and handling charge for posted tickets is ¤1.

Card transactions will incur a fee of ¤1.50 (per transaction).

If you have opted to have your tickets posted, you will receive them a minimum of six weeks prior to the event.

If you are a wheelchair user and wish to attend Festival events in venues other than the National 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 (depending on date and seat selection)

¤25 – ¤145

ShortWorks (allocated seating, Whites Hotel)

¤25

Lunchtime Recitals

¤25

Refund / Return Policy – now exclusively for Friends

Gala Concert (depending on seat selection) Dr Tom Walsh Lecture

¤10

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 no later than 9 October to qualify for an exchange or refund. No refunds can be given after 9 October due to pressure on the Box Office. Tickets can only be accepted for resale if the performance is sold out and 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 a 15% administration fee. This facility is a Friends-only benefit. Tickets purchased by patrons who are not Friends cannot be exchanged or refunded. If a returned ticket is not re-sold, Wexford Festival Opera reserves the right to allocate the seat to a member of the Festival Company.

Tara Erraught Recital

¤25

Piano Recital

¤25

50 | FESTIVAL 2015

¤50 – ¤80

Friends’ Lunches ¤20 (in addition to the Friends’ complimentary ticket allocation) Friends’ Buffet ¤30 (in addition to the Friends’ complimentary ticket allocation) Friends’ Parties ¤40 (in addition to the Friends’ complimentary ticket allocation) 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 ample time for traffic and parking delays.

Booking Form Photo by Sean O’ Riordan

Name: Address:

Telephone (day):

Telephone (evening):

Mobile: E-mail:

The Operas

Date 1st Choice

Seat Preference*

Date 2nd Choice

Number of Tickets

Total Payable

Koanga Guglielmo Ratcliff Le Pré aux clercs 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

Dates

Time

Number of Tickets

Total Payable

The Portrait of Manon Hansel and Gretel Tosca Lunchtime Recitals Gala Concert Tara Erraught Recital Piano Recital Dr Tom Walsh Lecture Friends’ Parties/Lunches/ Buffet Subtotal

WEXFORDOPERA.COM | 51

Photo by Sean O’ Riordan

Voluntary Donation Total Payable

Any donations to the Festival will be gratefully accepted and acknowledged If you wish your tickets to be posted, please add a postage and handling fee of ¤1

TOTAL Total from the Operas, the Events and Donation (and postage, if applicable)

Payment Method Cheque enclosed

Credit/Debit Card* – Please fill in card details below Expiry Date

Account Number

CVV Visa Credit

Visa Debit

MasterCard Credit

MasterCard Debit

*please note we do not accept American Express Card transactions will incur a fee of ¤1.50 (per transaction)

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

52 | FESTIVAL 2015

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

Discover the Repertoire The Discover the Repertoire CD is an introduction to the 2015 Wexford Festival Opera programme and provides background information on the composers and operas in the 2015 season.

This introductory CD includes commentary

by Ian Fox and excerpts from the three main stage operas. We hope that it will enhance your enjoyment of this year’s Festival.

2015 Discover the Repertoire 64th Festival 21 October – 1 November, 2015

Festival Calendar 64th Wexford Festival Opera Wednesday, 21 October – Sunday, 1 November 2015

Wednesday 21 October Opening Ceremony 8 p.m.

KOANGA

10.30 p.m. Friends’ Party

Saturday 24 October 11 a.m. Dr Tom Walsh Lecture 1.05 p.m. Lunchtime Recital 3.30 p.m. TOSCA 7 p.m. Pre-Opera Talk 8 p.m.

KOANGA

10.30 p.m. Friends’ Party

Thursday 22 October 1.05 p.m. Lunchtime Recital 2 p.m. Friends’ Lunch 3.30 p.m. THE PORTRAIT OF MANON 7 p.m. Pre-Opera Talk 8 p.m.

GUGLIELMO RATCLIFF

Sunday 25 October 11 a.m. THE PORTRAIT OF MANON 12 noon Festival Mass, Church of the Immaculate Conception, Rowe Street 4 p.m. Pre-Opera Talk 5 p.m.

GUGLIELMO RATCLIFF

9 p.m. Gala Concert

Friday 23 October 11 a.m. Friends’ Welcome Reception

Monday 26 October (BANK HOLIDAY) 10 a.m. Friends’ Welcome Reception

1.05 p.m. Lunchtime Recital

11 a.m. Tara Erraught Recital

3.30 p.m. HANSEL AND GRETEL

1 p.m. Friends’ Lunch

7 p.m. Pre-Opera Talk 8 p.m.

LE PRÉ AUX CLERCS

3:30 p.m. HANSEL AND GRETEL 7 p.m. Pre-Opera Talk 8 p.m.

LE PRÉ AUX CLERCS

Tuesday 27 October

Friday 30 October

1.05 p.m. Lunchtime Recital

1.05 p.m. Lunchtime Recital

3.30 p.m. TOSCA

3.30 p.m. TOSCA

7 p.m. Pre-Opera Talk 8 p.m.

KOANGA

7 p.m. Pre-Opera Talk 8 p.m.

KOANGA

Wednesday 28 October

Saturday 31 October

1.05 p.m. Lunchtime Recital

11 a.m. Piano Recital

3.30 p.m. THE PORTRAIT OF MANON 5.15 p.m. Friends’ Buffet 7 p.m. Pre-Opera Talk 8 p.m.

GUGLIELMO RATCLIFF

1.05 p.m. Lunchtime Recital 3.30 p.m. HANSEL AND GRETEL 7 p.m. Pre-Opera Talk 8 p.m.

GUGLIELMO RATCLIFF

10.30 p.m. Friends’ Party

Thursday 29 October 11 a.m. Friends’ Welcome Reception

Sunday 1 November 11 a.m. Friends’ Welcome Reception

1.05 p.m. Lunchtime Recital

11 a.m. TOSCA

3.30 p.m. HANSEL AND GRETEL

11 a.m. Festival Service, St Iberius Church

7 p.m. Pre-Opera Talk 8 p.m.

LE PRÉ AUX CLERCS

4 p.m. Pre-Opera Talk 5 p.m.

Schedule correct at the time of going to print, but may be subject to subsequent change.

LE PRÉ AUX CLERCS

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

Michael D Higgins, President of Ireland Sir David Davies CHAIRMAN Ger Lawlor ARTISTIC DIRECTOR David Agler CHIEF EXECUTIVE David McLoughlin PATRON

PRESIDENT

Editor Sarah Burn

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Design Miles Linklater, 24pt Helvetica

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