Ever since childhood I, like Charlie, get excited when unwrapping a chocolate bar. Last Wednesday I got the chance to unwrap a whole chocolate factory, not just any factory, but Willy Wonka’s.

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For years Wexford Festival Opera has used the phrase – "Enjoy a Rare Experience" to describe itself. As someone who has ‘experienced’ the festival from many perspectives and throughout many stages of parenthood, I think this is an accurate assessment of Wexford.

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All this talk about public ‘support’ for the Arts – it usually is associated with money (and the lack of it). Yes, this is very important, but money alone doesn’t make it thrive. Despite funding going up or going down, I am still overwhelmed by the generosity of the community to make it all happen.

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One thing about the Arts is that it is made up of a community of transients. The travelling Gypsy lifestyle is still alive and well and affects us all, including our beloved inaugural-blogger - ‘Ambloggador’ Justin. Justin’s love for Wexford Festival Opera was and still is evident, but his passion for the Arts ultimately led him to pack up his caravan, props & costumes and move along to the next town. We wish you well Justin. You are always welcome at the dinner table. And so the search for a new Blogger began – and ended quickly - as there is was no difficulty in finding people who share a warm affinity for Wexford and its beloved Festival of Opera; people who know the Festival and want to see it continue to be discovered. So when the music stopped – I was the lucky one that sat in the chair first!

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Hello! No sooner had it started when it seemed to be ending. It only feels like yesterday when I was writing about opening night. But yes, we are winding up our 2009 Festival on Sunday night with the final performance of Maria Padilla. There have been lots of highs and very few lows, thankfully. Everyone who works on the Festival works really hard and of course you have your off days and days that never seem to end and the pressure can make you snap at those around you but it’s because you want the best all the time. We strive for the optimum standards across the board and that is evident in the success and smooth running of this year’s Festival. Anyone who attended this year will undoubtedly concur.

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Hello folks! After many, many hours of rehearsals, music coaching, prop making, dance classes, meetings, set turnarounds, wig preparation, costume making etc it finally arrived; Opening Night. From quite early in the evening you could see ladies and gentlemen in their gowns, tuxedos and long coats going to preshow dinner’s, striding the cobble-lock streets and steadily making their way to the Opera House for the Ghosts of Versailles. Unfortunately, the rain didn’t stay away but the misty atmosphere only added to the magic. The limousines and high end cars all queuing up outside to deposit another impeccably turned out opening nighter with their drivers jumping out, umbrellas aloft, to save the occupier from the rain. There was also the slightly more eclectic styling of a few attendees, but its opera not ‘Gok Wan’s Fashion Fix’; you have to love it for that! Inside, there was the click-clack sound on the wooden floors, exclaims of happiness when people met each other, the clink of glasses and the exuberant chatter all around. Along the quayside, fireworks shot through the skyline to celebrate another Festival, with the public cheering and clapping as they tumbled and flipped through the air, coming down with as much insistence as the previous showers.

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The ‘R’ word. Recession. I shall say that word once and only once. From now on I’ll call it ‘Fred’! Fred is here, dossing down in our spare rooms, eating all our food and not really trying too hard to get himself out of the doldrums. But we have to get on with our daily lives as best we can .Yes; we are currently in an economic state of change and uncertainty. We are constantly bombarded with stories of job losses, the increasing live register, factory closures, interest rates and negative equity and it did get me thinking about money again recently. Money and the theatre. Walking through the Green Room of the Opera House lately, it has become like what the 80’s would have called a Tupperware Party, but with the food included. I mean, lots of people are now bringing lunch from home and on long rehearsal days even dinner is in there too, the second plastic container in the bag. Now I know this is far from a new phenomenon and only one example, but the increase is amazing. There’d be a queue for the microwave, followed by vying for a place at the table and a steady stream of plate scrubbers and cutlery rinsers, all ready for the next Tupperware toting, hungry punter. I am party to this myself too. A little group of us decided “ok, enough of this €10 everyday, we’re going to make our own”! So every fifth day, your time comes around to bring in lunch for the other 4 as well and it’s great. Every day is a surprise and we’ve gotten to taste a little bit of Germany, Italy, and America and of course egg and onion ‘funeral sandwiches’ from Ireland! We also don’t see artists laden down with shopping bags to beat the band so much either. It’s been quite noticeably a more frugal season all round.

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Hello! Week one down. Written, printed and sold! We had a very successful week of rehearsals here at the Opera House. The Ghosts of Versailles was first to have their four sessions onstage over the weekend and will continue in rep with the other productions. The Double Bill is onstage over the next two days and then Maria Padilla. This, to anyone who knows the process at WFO, is always the case. The artists were very excited to get a chance to do this, as you get a much better sense of space, the blocking requirements can get adjusted at an early stage, acoustic qualities can be monitored, vocal needs, etc. than just being in a rehearsal room.

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Hello again! Well, it has to be said; we had a very successful first day of rehearsals. The Management team and Artistic Director were waiting at the stage door to greet everyone and guide all the artists, conductors, directors etc to their respective locations. Nobody was late, everyone was in great spirits, enthusiasm was high and the morning session kicked off without a hitch. For the most part the first part of the morning dealt with model-box showing and a briefing about the artistic vision of the creative’s. Then the sound of singing and laughter could be heard gradually all around the building and passing the Band Room just down the street, more thrilling notes churned and turned in the crisp September air.

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So, I arrived down to Wexford last night after a Dublin Fringe Festival show I’d been working on, to officially start today. Ah yes, arrivals weekend! From the four corners of the world, people will catapult into this little town over the next couple of days to begin their hard work on this year’s season. I was greeted by two colleagues who were waiting for me at the stage door today and we headed off for the compulsory coffee and a catch up before the time for catching up gets caught up somewhere else entirely. It was great to see them and hear all that’s been happening since they got stuck into things a while ago. And amazingly, only three phone calls in the 15 minutes we were in the cafe. But that was short lived as the work won’t do itself!

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