WEXFORD FESTIVAL Opera turned 60 yesterday, not meekly or gently, but with a bang. Or, rather, with a series of the thrilling explosive flashes and vivid colour displays that constitute a festive firework display.
The town shut down to normal traffic from 5pm, with the closure of the bridge across the River Slaney, and crowds, estimated at 20,000, gathered not only along the quays, but at a range of vantage points near and far, at places likely and unlikely, in fields with good sight lines to the harbour and on the balcony at the rear of the Wexford Opera House.
The formal opening was carried out by Taoiseach Enda Kenny who praised the festival, for having “gone from strength to strength” and adding “immensely to Ireland’s reputation for culture and creativity”.
“Our reputation as an island of artists and entrepreneurs,” he said, “is a source of goodwill and investment across the globe. There are so many good things that the arts deliver as well as being an important local employer.” He paid tribute “to all those involved in bringing this magnificent festival to a wide audience, and to the many volunteers who give so much to make this festival so special”.
The festival also creates international bonds. This year's production of Roman Statkowski's rare opera Mariabrings a number of Polish singers and a Polish conductor to Wexford, following a concert performance that took place in Poland in 2008. Gaetano Donizetti has long been Wexford's favourite Italian composer, and his Gianni di Parigiadds to the already considerable lead he has over his rivals. And Frenchman Ambroise Thomas's La Cour de Célimène, being staged for the first time since 1855, features rapidly rising Irish soprano Claudia Boyle in the lead role.
Festival guests included the Mayor of Wexford Cllr Davie Hynes, Minister for Public Sector Reform and Expenditure Brendan Howlin, the French ambassador to Ireland M Emmanuelle d'Achon, the European Broadcasting Union's head of Euroradio/ Classics Pierre-Yves Tribolet as well as Clare Duignan, managing director of RTÉ Radio, and the head of RTÉ lyric fm, Aodán Ó Dubhghaill. The festival is not just heard by the audiences in the award-winning Wexford Opera House, but is also transmitted to millions around the world via radio and online. The festival has had to adjust to the belt-tightening times, with 12 mainstage opera performances this year, following on from last year's 15, and the 18 of 2008. But the festival's optimism is reflected in the fact that those 12 performances are spread over 16 days. After all, the festival's forward-looking founders took a huge leap into the dark in presenting Irishman Michael William Balfe's Rose of Castilein 1951, at a time when the country was still in the throes of post-war rationing of tea, sugar and butter.
The current hard times are reflected in the dropping of the secrecy surrounding next year's main operas. Time was when the names were held over to the very end of the festival. This year, they're temptingly listed on the back cover of the printed festival programme book, Emmanuel Chabrier's Le Roi malgré lui, Frederick Delius's A Village Romeo and Julietand Saverio Mercadante's Francesca da Rimini.