As busy shoppers milled around Wexford’s Main Street, Wexford Parish Administrator Fr Billy Swan and Mr Peter Hudson of the Church of Ireland took their place on the steps of St Iberius Church.
There is simply no better place to be in Ireland in October than Wexford, when the town becomes a hive of cultural activity to celebrate the annual Wexford Festival Opera. Now in its 72nd year, Wexford Festival Opera continues to amaze and delight in equal measure, when operatic performers from all over the world convene at the National Opera House for two weeks of world-class opera.
Wexford Festival Opera: Curtain up on a historic 70th year Director Rosetta Cucchi is looking forward to anniversary celebrations after a tough lockdown
Tue, May 11, 2021, 08:00
It’s been a tough 13 months in the arts, not just in Ireland, but also in Italy, where Wexford Festival Opera’s artistic director, Rosetta Cucchi, lives. “With the theatres closed it hasn’t been easy,” she says. “But, actually, I’ve recently completed a very exciting project. We made an opera movie, of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur. ” The opera, which dates from 1902, is named after the 18th century French actress Adrienne Lecouvreur, who was celebrated for the naturalism of her style. “We put together the worlds of opera and theatre. We were working in the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and we decided to use not only the stage but the whole theatre. We turned the whole space into our set, the corridors, the boxes, the foyers. We made a real movie in the 18th century theatre. It was a s