Golden ticket in October air at Wexford

ARTSCAPE:THE ARTS COUNCIL yesterday wrote to its clients about its grants for 2010. But one of those clients, Wexford Festival Opera, seems to have had a tip-off, writes Michael Dervan. The festival is in an upbeat mood, and last year's gloom – which saw a contraction from 18 days to 12, and drop its strand of small-scale, ShortWorks, productions – has lifted.

The good news is that next October's festival will have an increased run of 15 days, with the extended fortnight running from October 16th to 30th. And artistic director David Agler has named the three main operas as Mercadante's Virginia, first presented in Naples in 1866, Smetana's Hubicka (The Kiss), first seen in Prague in 1876, and Peter Ash's The Golden Ticket, a new work, coming to Wexford after its world première by Opera Theatre of St Louis in June.

The extra days are not the only expansion. Agler says there will be “a return of a new version of the popular afternoon short opera performances” (previously called “ShortWorks”), the Dr Tom Walsh lecture will be restored, and other surprises will be announced later.

It all looks like a brave move at a time when research shows Irish consumers are moving down-market and buying less. But then, Wexford is a premium brand, and it has a well-established track record for attracting opera lovers from abroad. And, in truth, the biggest risk is probably nothing to do with the expansion, nor even the change in policy which is seen in a repeat of The Kiss(presented in English in 1984, but this year to be sung in Czech). Instead, it is the inclusion of an opera, The Golden Ticket, by someone whose name is likely to be unfamiliar to most opera-goers. Peter Ash, its composer, and Donald Sturrock, its librettist, are the directors of Music Link International, a London-based organisation "dedicated to new music, new drama, and new audiences," with a focus on "new works based on Roald Dahl's stories, aimed at bringing new generations . . . into both concert hall and opera house".

The Golden Ticketis based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and its librettist Donald Sturrock is also the author of the authorised biography of Roald Dahl that is due to be published in March. The Wexford production will be directed by James Robinson (who did last year's Ghosts of Versailles), with sets by Bruno Schwengl and costumes by Martin Pakledinaz.

Music Link International’s website quotes Trevor Nunn praising the work’s ambitious imagination and attractive melodies, and Simon Rattle saying “It’s an impressive achievement, full of musical imagination, colour and invention. I love it. It should make the perfect family opera.” Whether families will be able to afford it at Wexford Festival ticket prices remains to be seen. Full details will come in late April, and booking will open on June 1st.

Aside from this, opera has been generally in the air of late. A new, Dublin-based national opera company is to forge ahead under the aegis of the Minister for Arts, and the Arts Council’s proposed forced merger of the functions of Opera Ireland, Opera Theatre Company and Wexford Festival Opera now seems dead in the water. But another arts council, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI), has managed to succeed where its Dublin counterpart failed. ACNI has announced the creation of Opera Company NI. The new company, with Roy Bailie as chair, was incorporated in December, and will bring together “the best resources from Castleward Opera and Opera Fringe to form a robust new creative enterprise”. And to show it is serious, ACNI has put an extra £150,000 on the table as well as preserving the level of grants previously received by Castleward and Opera Fringe. Its other opera provision, of tours by Opera Theatre Company and Belfast visits of full-scale productions from Welsh National Opera, Opera North or Scottish Opera, will be unaffected by the new development.

- This time last year, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) was looking at the prospect of amalgamation with the National Gallery of Ireland and the Crawford Art Gallery Cork, writes Aidan Dunne. Launching the museum's programme for 2010, the Minister of State for the OPW, Martin Mansergh, noted this was no longer on the cards as the Minister for Arts, Martin Cullen, had decided Imma should retain its independence. The amalgamation of the National Gallery and the Crawford would go ahead – although, he added, the Crawford would stay in Cork. Among those in attendance, Crawford's director Peter Murray managed a smile.

Imma’s 2010 programme is, Mansergh said, “ambitious, imaginative and wide-ranging – all characteristics which are now synonymous with our Irish Museum of Modern Art.” He paid particular tribute to chairman Eoin McGonigal and director Enrique Juncosa as well as the staff and the board. Juncosa agreed about the quality of the programme, but one felt the problem he had faced was how to square the circle. He said Imma was determined to maintain the breadth and quality of programming despite economic constraints.

He was pleased special funding had come through for one of the year's anticipated highlights, Vertical Thoughts, which opens at the end of March. It focuses on the renowned 20th century American composer Morton Feldman and some of the artists associated with him, including Philip Guston, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. Among other highlights are shows featuring the work of the quietly influential Irish artist Anne Tallentire, who teaches at St Martin's in London, the Belgian Francis Alÿs, the Cuban-American Jorge Pardo and the start of a major exploration of Imma's collections, The Moderns, which tracks Irish art from the early 1900s to the 1970s, in October.