Programme 2026 Overview
15 October to 31 October 2026
17 days
The Best of: one for the head, one for the heart, one for fun
Artistic Director Rosetta Cucchi has announced the programme for the 75th Anniversary Wexford Festival Opera. The Festival will run for 17 days, from Thursday 15 October to Saturday 31 October. It is built around the theme The Best of: one for the head, one for the heart, one for fun.
- Iris - Pietro Mascagni, 1898
- L'equivoco stravagante - Gioachino Rossini, 1811
- The Gambler - Sergei Prokofiev, 1929
All three main stage operas were performed during the Festival’s history before the building of the award-winning National Opera House in 2008. They will all appear in new productions which make full use of the superior amenities available, including space for full orchestra and chorus, in an ideal acoustic and enhanced staging facilities—together with new critical editions reflecting recent scholarship.
Speaking at the announcement of the 75th programme, WFO Artistic Director Rosetta Cucchi said: “The 75th Anniversary is an incredible milestone and a very special birthday for Wexford, and for our Wexford Festival Opera family all around the world. Each opera is a rediscovery, but also a reflection of our own world, where difference can still divide us—and yet, art reminds us that empathy can always unite us.”
Main Stage Operas
Iris - Pietro Mascagni, 1898 | 15, 20, 23, 28, 31 October, 2026
Libretto by Luigi Illica
With considerably enhanced staging facilities together with the larger orchestral and choral forces currently available compared to when the work was previously staged at WFO in 1995, this new production will provide our audience the opportunity to fully experience this unusual Italian masterpiece under the baton of Mascagni specialist Francesco Cilluffo.
Creative Team includes
Conductor - Francesco Cilluffo
Stage Director - Rosetta Cucchi
Set Designer - Tiziano Santi
Costume Designer - Claudia Pernigotti
L'equivoco stravagante - Gioachino Rossini, 1811 | 16, 21, 25, 29 October, 2026
Libretto by Gaetano Gasbarri
Rossini’s L'equivoco stravagante was his first large-scale opera, vanishing from the repertoire after falling foul of the censor due to its subversive libretto.
Wexford Festival was one of the first companies to present this opera on stage in 1968. The performing edition available then contained many substitutions from later Rossini operas, as the original music was believed to be lost. Since then, after much painstaking research, a critical edition of the score has been created. The audience will hear the opera as originally envisaged by the composer.
This production will be brought to the stage thanks to the results of a public vote over the summer. The decision was taken to allow the audience to choose the “fun” opera for the 75th Anniversary. This is the first time in the Festival’s history that an opera has been chosen in this way. Over 1,100 votes were cast from 30 countries around the world, a true celebration of WFO’s participatory spirit.
Creative Team includes
Conductor - Riccardo Bisatti
Stage Director - Max Hoehn
Set Designer - Darko Petrovich
Costume Designer - Massimo Carlotto
The Gambler - Sergei Prokofiev, 1929 | 18, 22, 24, 30 October, 2026
Libretto by the composer after Fyodor Dostoevsky
Last staged at WFO in 1973, the opera has remained on the fringes of the repertoire for the major opera houses and festivals. Set in an imaginary German spa town in 1865, the opera follows the protagonist, Alexei, a young tutor, as he spirals into gambling debt while being obsessed with his employer's stepdaughter, Polina. The opera depicts the moral and financial ruin of a group of Russian characters who are all consumed by their passion for the roulette wheel.
Performed in English translation in 1973, the opera will be performed in its original Russian.
Creative team includes
Conductor - Valentin Uryupin
Stage Director - Ivan Popovski
Set & Costume Designer - Maria Tregubova
Pocket Operas
The choice of Pocket Operas for the 2026 Anniversary programme, reflects the significant role that WFO has played, and continues to play, in showcasing operatic works by Irish composers in an international festival programme.
Stanford and Balfe were two of the main Irish composers to feature at Wexford in the early days. The 2026 programme will include the first of their works ever produced by the Festival.
The Rose of Castile (Michael William Balfe, 1857)
Libretto by Augustus Glossop Harris and Edmund Falconer, after the libretto by Adolphe d'Ennery and Clairville (alias of Louis-François Nicolaïe (1811–1879) for Adolphe Adam's Le muletier de Tolède (1854) .
The opera chosen for the first festival in 1951 was by Balfe, who spent some time in Wexford in his youth. Although not as well-known as the composer’s The Bohemian Girl, the choice of opera was an early indicator of the programming philosophy that established Wexford on the international scene. Like all of Balfe’s operas, the piece is rarely performed today. The 75th Festival is the ideal opportunity to present an under-represented Irish composer to new audiences.
Much Ado About Nothing (Charles Villiers Stanford, 1901)
Libretto by Julian Sturgis after Shakespeare
Following the presentation of another Balfe opera at the 1963 festival, it became WFO’s stated intention to revive additional operas by Irish composers; hence this Stanford piece was staged in the following year. This new production of Much Ado About Nothing builds on the critical success of WFO’s staging of Stanford’s The Critic in 2024.
Creative Teams for both Pocket Operas will be confirmed later in 2025.
Factory Opera
The First Festival (Alberto Caruso, 2025)
Libretto by Colm Tóibín
Set in the local Tax Office in 1951, The First Festival celebrates the joy that erupts in Wexford as word spreads that an opera festival is starting in the town. When a motley crew of international singers and artists arrive in Wexford, singing arias of love and regret, long pent-up passions are unleashed on a town that will never be the same again.
Colm Tóibín, one of Ireland’s leading artistic figures, has a long history with WFO that began when he attended a dress rehearsal of The Pearl Fishers (1971) as a student in Wexford town (750 secondary school students will have a similar experience at the Public Dress Rehearsal of Il Viaggio a Reims in 2025). Colm has seldom missed a Festival since. His enthusiasm for, and enormous knowledge of, music and theatre has inspired Artistic Director Rosetta Cucchi and her creative relationship with Colm is one of most important partnerships of Rosetta’s directorate.
This partnership has already given us the late-night opera Urban Legends (with composer Andrew Synott), scheduled for the 2025 Festival, and two pocket operas – The Master (2022) and Lady Gregory in America (2024)-both composed by Colm’s regular collaborator Alberto Caruso. In celebration of the 75th Anniversary Festival, Rosetta commissioned Colm and Alberto to conclude their trilogy (with reference to great operatic trilogies of the past including the Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy and Puccini’s Il trittico) as a tribute to the Festival that Colm loves so much.
Written specifically for young voices on the Wexford Factory programme, The First Festival is an ensemble work for eight singers designed to showcase their emerging talents whilst challenging their developing skills.
Full Creative Team will be confirmed later in 2025.
Community Opera
Still, life… (Ailís Ní Ríain, 2026)
“A work about the quiet moments that hold everything. The piece is a meditation on what endures when everything else passes: relationships, emotions, landscapes, and time itself.” (Ailís Ní Riain),
First staged in 2023, the Community Opera allows the people of Wexford – children, adults, amateur, and volunteers – to become active participants in the Festival. They are not only spectators, but protagonists, creating a strong sense of belonging.
In 2025, WFO appointed Ailís Ní Ríain as composer-in-residence with a view to working with WFO’s community and Factory singers over two years to deliver an original work for the 2026 Festival. Inviting a composer to create an original opera marks a natural and exciting evolution of the Community Opera. An original work allows the participants to tell a story rooted in Wexford’s identity, while giving the community the pride of premiering a brand-new opera on an international stage. It is both a bold artistic leap and a celebration of how far the Community Opera has come.
Further details of the 2026 Community Opera will be developed during Ailís Ní Ríain’s residency during the 2025 Festival.
Concerts, Recitals, Lectures & Other Events
As in previous years, WFO’s programme of operatic works will be augmented by a wrap-around programme of concerts, recitals, lectures and other events. The additional events for 2026 will include:
The Gala Concert | Sunday 25 October, 2026
One of the most popular events each year for local and visiting audiences, the Gala Concert is a fun journey through much loved opera repertoire and songs, featuring singers from the 2026 main stage operas.
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
A visit from the RTÉ Concert Orchestra is now a regular sell-out event.
Lunchtime Recital
The lunchtime recitals in St Iberius Church and the O’Reilly Theatre are beloved by devoted opera goers and local music enthusiasts alike.
Pop-up Operas
Central to the Festival’s community engagement programme, the hugely popular pop-up performances transform unexpected locations—from cafés and hotels, to bars and shops—into intimate opera stages, offering free live opera shows to audiences who may not otherwise experience it.
Dr Tom Walsh Lecture
The 2026 guest lecturer, who will focus on the impact of WFO’s repertoire on the standard opera canon, has yet to be announced.
Impossible Interview
The Irish Times critic, Michael Dervan, will continue his series of unlikely conversations on the subject of the 2026 Festival theme.
75th Festival Ambassadors
Wexford 75 Ambassadors will include some of the world’s leading opera singers and artists, many of whom already have a connection with Wexford, having performed at WFO early in their careers.
The 75th season Ambassadors are:
- Juan Diego Florez - tenor, (WFO 1996)
- Joseph Calleja - tenor, (WFO 1998/1999)
- Ermonela Jaho - soprano, (WFO 2000/2001/2002)
- Sinead Campbell Wallace - soprano, (WFO 2003/2005/2006)
- Claudia Boyle - soprano, (WFO 2011/2013/2020/2023/2025)
- Mariangela Sicilia - soprano, (WFO 2012/2015)
- Celine Byrne - soprano, (WFO 2020/ 2022/2023/2024)
- Daniela Barcellona - mezzo, (WFO 1996/1997/ 2023)
- Aigul Akhmetshina- mezzo, (WFO 2019)
- Igor Golovatenko - baritone, (WFO 2010)
- Georgi Manoshvili - bass, (WFO 2022/2023)
- Michele Mariotti–conductor, (WFO 2006)
- Damiano Michieletto–stage director, (WFO 2003)
Wexford 75th Festival Ambassadors have agreed to participate in a number of public-facing events and promotions, designed to generate international recognition for the remarkable achievement that is WFO’s 75th Anniversary. Five of the Ambassadors will also participate in the 75th Celebration Concert, as outlined below.
The 75th Celebration Concert | Saturday 17 October
The 75th Celebration Concert will take place in the National Opera House. It will feature the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Francesco Cilluffo, and five of the 75th Ambassadors; Ermonela Jaho, Daniela Barcellona, Joseph Calleja, Igor Golovatenko and Georgi Manoshvili.
Booking Information
Booking for the 2026 Festival opens on the following dates: