I’m in London on a flying visit and dropped in to the Royal Opera House to grab their programme book for the Autumn 2010 season. The world of opera is small and there are many Wexford connections, not least that current Director of Opera Elaine Padmore at Covent Garden was Artistic Director in Wexford for thirteen years until 1994. There’s three of “our” operas in this season’s programme: Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (Wexford 1953 and 1963 when Dr. Tom Walsh was Artistic Director), Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette (Brian Dickie’s first season in 1967) and a concert version Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles (Wexford 1971, also Brian Dickie). There is Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia; we produced Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia in 1993 when Elaine was Artistic Director (do you remember the controversial costumes?).

If particular interest is Michael Barker-Caven’s production of Linley’s The Duenna for English Touring Opera; in 1989 we produced Prokofiev’s opera of the same name and based on the same story.  Michael will be familiar to Wexford audiences, as his productions of Susa’s Transformations in 2006 and Rodney Bennett’s Mines of Sulphur in 2008 were both awarded Best Opera in the Irish Times Theatre Awards of their respective years.  Who will ever forget the breathtaking drama of Mines, it’s menacing set and dramatic last scene? This production truly exploited the potential of the new Wexford Opera House in its first season. Perhaps we will see Michael’s work in action again in Wexford…..

I managed to escape the bustle of London and lose myself in the calm of Foyle’s Bookshop on Charing Cross Road.

Foyle’s Bookshop, Charing Cross Road London

Sixty years ago, founder of Wexford Festival Opera, Dr. Tom Walsh visited Foyle’s and came across a programme for Aldeburgh Festival.  Aldeburgh was founded three years before Wexford in 1948 by composer Benjamin Britten, singer Peter Pears and writer Eric Crozier.  On the cover of that programme was a picture of some boats.  It occurred to Dr. Tom that their were similarities between the two small towns of Aldeburgh and Wexford in relatively remote areas on the east coast’s of their respective countries, and that if Aldeburgh could run a successful festival, so could the people of Wexford.  At the same time he was in correspondence with Sir Compton Mackenzie, then editor of Gramophone magazine, who encouraged him to produce opera in Wexford.

Sir Compton later became President of Wexford Festival Opera and is now commemorated in Wexford Opera house by the Mackenzie room on the top floor, home of the Skyview Cafe.  Dr. Tom’s bust greet’s you when you enter the Opera House and the entire 1st floor including the Founder’s Room and the Founder’s circle is named in honour of Dr. Tom and his four colleagues; the portraits of Dr. Des Ffrench, Seamus O’Dwyer, Dr. James Liddy and Eugene McCarthy are beside that of Dr. Tom in the Founder’s Room

So the next time you visit Foyle’s remember Dr. Tom and that accidental discovery of the Aldeburgh programme.

Off to the London Friends of Wexford Festival lecture with Ian Fox this evening.

Peter

P.S. – In Foyle’s I bought Donal Sturrock’s Storyteller; The Life of Roald Dahl and Daniel Snowman’s The Gilded Stage; A Social History of Opera. More about them later.

P.P.S – you can read the Royal Opera House blog on http://blog.roh.org.uk/