Next year's news

Wexford Festival Opera, which is in full swing and runs until the November 2nd, has announced the names of the three main operas of its 1998 programme, writes Michael Dervan. The festival will open with Fosca, an Italian-language opera by the little-known Brazilian composer Carlos Gomes (1836-1896). The other two works are from the 20th century. Pavel Haas's Sarlatan was first performed in 1938 - Haas (1899-1944) is one of the composers who died in the Terezin concentration camp during the second World War. His work, along with the work of other composers suppressed by the Nazis, is currently being highlighted in recordings on Decca's Entartete Musik (Degenerate Music) series. The final work is by the Italian composer Riccardo Zandonai (1883-1944). Zandonai is usually seen as a one-work composer, after the success of his Francesca da Rimini. Wexford, however, is staging the later I cavalieri di Ekebu which was premiered in Milan in 1925.