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Live Broadcast of Wexford Festival Opera on Lyric FM – October 31st

In case you missed out on the Festival this year or would simply love to have another chance to listen to this year’s trio of Opera productions, which has audiences raving, now is your chance! Live from Wexford Opera House on Saturday October 31 at 8pm, Lyric FM will broadcast a live performance of the Comedy Double-Bill of ‘Une éducation manquée’ by Chabrier and ‘La cambiale di matrimonio’ by Rossini. This is the final performance of this comedy duo, which will have had an audience of nearly 4000 people by the time it closes on Saturday.

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The other 2 Wexford Festival Opera productions ‘The Ghosts of Versailles’ by John Corigliano and ‘Maria Padilla’ by Donizetti, will be broadcast on Lyric FM on November 7 and 28 as part of their Opera Night programme.  The performances can also be listened to on-line at http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/operanight/ and up to 7 days after the broadcast.

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

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 (Giovanni Bellavia), by an eccentric Canadian businessman, Mr. Slook (Vittorio Prato). What follows sees Mill try to marry off his daughter (Pervin Chakar) against her wishes (of course), a heroic attempt to prevent the union by her penniless lover (Giovanni Botta) 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. 

Among the talented cast of this double-bill is Ireland’s own Mezzo-Soprano Paula Murrihy, who also sings in ‘The Ghosts of Versailles’ along with Soprano Kishani Jayasinghe, who makes her debut at Wexford Festival Opera. 

Opera Night on Lyric FM is presented by Bernard Clarke every Saturday evening at 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

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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

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