Wexford festival head to depart

Wexford Festival Opera and its chief executive, Michael Hunt, are expected to part company, The Irish Times has learned.

Wexford Festival Opera and its chief executive, Michael Hunt, are expected to part company, The Irish Times has learned.

Neither Mr Hunt nor the festival would comment on the situation but it is expected that a statement will be issued next week.

The festival is in the biggest transition in its history, with a new €33 million opera house due for completion next summer on the site of the old Theatre Royal.

Since his appointment last July, Mr Hunt has managed two festivals of opera in Wexford. The first involved a refit of the Dún Mhuire theatre last October. The second, which finishes tomorrow, saw the erection of a large temporary theatre in the grounds of Johnstown Castle.

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The current festival is projected to achieve average attendances greater than 90 per cent of its capacity. Both this year's attendances and box-office takings are expected to exceed those of the last full festival at the Theatre Royal.