Wexford Festival Opera Announces 2009 Programme

"Ghosts" of the Past to Open 58th Wexford Festival Opera

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Wexford Festival Opera Announces 2009 Programme

“Ghosts” of the Past to Open 58th Wexford Festival Opera

Festival dates: Wed October 21 - Sun November 1, 2009


Chair of the Arts Council, Pat Moylan speaking at the launch

Wexford Festival Opera ambitiously launches into its 2nd season in the state-of-the-art Wexford Opera House, with a stunning new programme. Combining spectacular operas with dynamic artistic teams, both new and known to Wexford audiences, the 58th Wexford Festival Opera continues its reputation as a unique and rare experience. This year the 2009 Festival will run from Wednesday, October 21st - Sunday, November 1st.


Guests enjoying the 58th Wexford Festival Opera launch

Commenting on his 5th Season as Artistic Director of Wexford Festival Opera, David Agler said, “Every season is special for me. Last year saw the opening of this magnificent venue - Wexford Opera House. This year it is special to me for two reasons. This will be the 1st time since I became Artistic Director in 2005 that Wexford Festival Opera will perform in the same venue for 2 years running! It is also very special to me because I have the great honour of offering Wexford audiences the European première of the new performing version of John Corigliano’s ‘The Ghosts of Versailles’.

The Ghosts of Versailles by John Corigliano (Oct 21, 24, 27 & 30) melds together the worlds of Marie Antoinette, the French Revolution and the theatrical world of Beaumarchais’ Figaro, in an award-winning opera by the Oscar and Grammy winning composer. The Ghosts of Versailles will also feature 2 Irish singers. Baritone, Owen Gilhooly, who was part of the 2008 Wexford Festival Production of ‘The Mines of Sulphur’ which recently won the Irish Times Theatre Award for ‘Best Opera Production’, and Mezzo-Soprano, Paula Murrihy, who last appeared with Wexford Festival Opera in 2006, in another Wexford award-winning production, ‘Transformations’. The Ghosts of Versailles is a co-production with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the first of, what is hoped to be, an ongoing artistic relationship with the acclaimed American Opera company.


Justin Murphy and Olga Conway pose for the press launch in The National Gallery

A double bill of Une éducation manquée by Emmanuel Chabrier & La cambiale di matrimonio by Gioachino Rossini (Oct 22, 25, 28 & 31) brings comedy to the stage, with a musical score that sparkles with wit, vivacity and melodic spontaneity. They are both directed by Wexford-regular Roberto Recchia, who has directed many times for Wexford Festival Opera: ‘Don Gregorio’ in 2006 and ‘Suor Angelica’ in 2008, being 2 of his most critically acclaimed works. The one-acts are described as two enchanting portrayals of the consequences and comedy of innocent young love - in short, the perfect marriage.


Guests were invited to ‘take their seats…..and eat them too’!

Gaetano Donizetti’s melodrama, Maria Padilla (Oct 23, 26, 29, & 1st Nov) is a tale of family honour and tragedy. Written as a season opener for La Scala, Maria Padilla is one of the neglected gems of Donizetti’s mature period, showing the composer at his most dramatic. No better to direct this Italian Melodrama than Marco Gandini, protégé of film and opera director, Franco Zefferelli. Artistic Director, David Agler, takes to his natural home in the orchestra pit to conduct this masterpiece.

Alongside these rarely produced opera gems, are a wealth of other events to choose from, including the ever-popular lunchtime recitals, The Gala Concert and the Prague Chamber Choir Recitals. New additions to the programme this year include a performance by acapella phenomenon, Anúna and a piano recital by the winner of AXA Dublin International Piano Competition Winner, to be announced at the end of May. To complete the experience for the enthusiast, there is also a vibrant fringe festival with art exhibitions, traditional music and many other events taking place throughout the festival.

Pat Moylan, recently appointed Chair of the Arts Council, officially launched the 58th Festival in the Wexford Opera House Tuesday evening. She commented, “I’m delighted to be here for our first chance to discover all we have to look forward to this October in the 58th Wexford Festival Opera. As we all know, it takes time to settle into a new home; to discover what works best and where. It takes time to get a feel for a place. So I wonder if there isn’t a feeling amongst organisers that this year is their chance. This year, they get to show what they can really do. I have to admit, a quick glance through the 2009 programme reveals David Agler and his team as being on track for delivering a 58th Wexford Festival Opera that again is sure to match the expectations of its knowledgeable and experienced audience”.

Chairman of Wexford Festival Opera, Paul Hennessy, added, “While the current difficult economic environment has resulted in a reduced Festival programme this year, there will be no compromise on quality. Our 2009 Festival will be as exciting, enjoyable and memorable as always and we look forward to welcoming patrons back to Wexford Opera House for another great Festive occasion.”

Priority Booking begins Tuesday, May 5, 2009 for Friends of Wexford Festival Opera. General booking commences Tuesday, June 2, 2009. Tickets can be purchased on-line at http://www.wexfordopera.com or through Wexford Opera House box-office , telephone: Lo-call 1850-4-OPERA or (053) 912 2144. Tickets from €25.

If you do one special thing this year - visit Wexford Festival Opera.

Press information

Elizabeth Rose-Browne / Media Relations Manager / Wexford Festival Opera
Tel: +353 53 912 2400 / +353 87 211 6903 .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Gerry Lundberg / Sinead O’Doherty / Gerry Lundberg Public Relations
Tel: +353 1 679 8476 / +353 87 259 1070 / +353 86 259 1070 .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Highlights of this year’s programme include:

THE GHOSTS OF VERSAILLES

John Corigliano (b. 1938)

Grand opera buffa in two acts to a libretto by William B. Hoffman based on La mère coupable (1792) by Beaumarchais. First performed New York, Metropolitan Opera House, 19 December 1991. Performed in a newly revised version by the composer and produced in co-operation with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Sung in English.

Corigliano’s oeuvre is nothing if not eclectic, marrying classical and popular, contemporary issues and age-old musical forms.

Who better, then, to be awarded the first commission in a quarter century from New York’s Metropolitan Opera? The Ghosts of Versailles was commissioned in 1980, completed in 1987 and enthusiastically received at its premiere at the Met four years later, with a cast including Renée Fleming, Teresa Stratas, Gino Quilico and Marilyn Horne.

Corigliano’s only opera to date, The Ghosts of Versailles spans three worlds: the historical milieu of the French Revolution, the realm of the spirits haunting Versailles, and the theatrical world of the third play in Beaumarchais’s ‘Figaro’ trilogy, from which the opera takes its cast. Beaumarchais himself stars as one of the ghosts who, having fallen in love with Marie Antoinette, attempts to divert the course of history and prevent her execution by writing a new play, La Mère coupable - only to be foiled by Figaro, a jaded revolutionary. Through music that parodies operatic conventions, combining pastiche of historical idioms (particularly Mozart and Rossini) with serial techniques and timbral counterpoint, The Ghosts of Versailles presents a rich narrative: not only a love story but also a meditation on revolution, love, and the costs of personal and social change.

Artistic Team
Conductor: Michael Christie
Director: James Robinson
Set Designer: Allen Moyer
Costume Designer: James Schuette
Video Design: Wendall Harrington
Choreographer: Sean Curran

Cast
Marie Antoinette (s): Maria Kanyova
Beaumarchais (bar): George von Bergin
Figaro (bar): Christopher Feigum
Cherubino (s): Paula Murrihy
Rosina (s): Kishani Jayasinghe
Patrick Honoré Bégearss (t): Mark T Panuccio
British Ambassador(bar): Owen Gilhooly

Performance Dates: Oct 21, 24, 27 & 30 - 8pm

DOUBLE BILL

UNE ÉDUCATION MANQUéE (A Defective Education)
By Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)

Operetta in one act to a libretto by Eugéne Leterrier. First performed Paris, Cercle de la Presse, 1 May 1879. Sung in French

LA CAMBIALE DI MATRIMONIO (The Marriage Contract)
By Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)

Farsa comica in one act to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi

First performed Venice, Teatro S Moisé, 3 November 1810

Sung in Italian

Une éducation manquée is set in eighteenth-century Paris and tells the story of Gontran, whose education has been remarkably thorough - except in one important arena: having just married his fiancée Hélène, Gontran finds himself unsure of what is supposed to happen next!

Artistic Team
Conductor: Christopher Franklin
Director: Roberto Recchia
Set Designer: Lorenzo Cuturi
Costume Designer: Claudia Pernigotti

Cast - Une éducation manquée
Gontran de Boismassif (s): Kishani Jayasinghe
Helene de la Cerisaie (ms) raspberryaula Murrihy
Maitre Pausanias (b): Luca Dall’Amico

The catalyst for the events of La cambiale di matrimonio is the blank matrimonial bill of the title, which is sent (unsolicited) to the English merchant, Tobias Mill, by an eccentric Canadian businessman, Mr. Slook. What follows sees Mill try to marry off his daughter against her wishes (of course), a heroic attempt to prevent the union by her penniless lover, and the arrival of Slook, who increasingly wishes he had just stayed at home as the plot hurtles towards its denouement. Impressively paced and composed with vivid invention, La cambiale di matrimonio shows Rossini already developing the virtuosic trademarks of his later masterpieces.

Cast - La cambiale di matrimonio

Tobias Mill (b): Giovanni Bellavia
Fanny, (s): Chakar Pervin
Edward Milfort (t): Giulio Pelligra
Slook (b): Vittorio Prato
Norton (b): Luca Dall’Amico
Clarina, (ms): Annie Gill

Performance Dates:Oct 22, *25, 28 & 31 - 8pm (* Sunday, Oct 25 - 5pm)

MARIA PADILLA

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
Melodrama in three acts to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi and Donizetti after François Ancelot’s play of the same name (1838).

First performed Milan, Teatro alla Scala, 26 December 1841.

A tragic tale of family honour, Maria Padilla features the wooing and attempted abduction of its heroine by King Pedro the Cruel of Spain. George Bernard Shaw famously suggested that Italian opera plots are invariably about a soprano and a tenor who want to make love, and a baritone who wants to stop them. But here it is the tenor, Maria’s aged father Don Ruiz, who presents the obstacle to the marriage that the baritone Pedro promises Maria. Maria Padilla also features some telling examples of Spanish local colour, but is at heart a dark opera with a dramatic climax worthy of Lucia. Sung in Italian.

Artistic Team
Conductor: David Agler
Director: Marco Gandini
Set Designer: Mauro Tinti
Costume Designer: Silvia Aymonino

Cast
Donna Maria Padilla (s): TBC
Donna Ines Padilla (s): Ketevan Kemoklidze
Don Ruiz di Padilla (t): Adriano Graziani
Don Pedro (bar): Marco Caria
Don Ramiro (b): Vittorio Prato
Francisca (ms): Annie Gill
Don Luigi (t): Paulo Paulillo
Don Alfonso di Pardo (b): TBC

Performance Dates: Oct 23, 26, 29, 8pm, Nov 1 - 5pm

Lunch-time Recitals

St Iberius Church
Performance Dates: 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 Oct (13:05)
Prague Chamber Choir Recitals

Rowe Street Church

Performance Dates: Monday 26, Oct (11:00) and Saturday, 31, Oct (15:30)

The Gala Concert
Wexford Opera House
Performance Date: Sunday 25 Oct (21:00)

Piano Recital

Winner of AXA Dublin International Piano Competition
Wexford Opera House
Performance Date: Sunday, November 1 (11:00)

Anúna

Rowe Street Church
Performance Date: Saturday 24 Oct (15:30)

*All cast and programming correct at time of print, however changes may occur.

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