Toi toi toi to the Vancouver Vixen

Just a quick post to say toi toi toi to all involved with the UBC Opera production of Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen, which has a four performance run from Thursday 26th June through Sunday 29th in Vancouver. As you may recall from an earlier post, these performances are being conducted by our Artistic Director David Agler.

 

Pictured above during a break from rehearsals on Sunday, we see David having lunch with Wexford regular, director Roberto Recchia, who had just completed his very successful Italian Opera summer workshop for UBC. Following their Vancouver engagements, I have no doubt that both David and Roberto will be back into their preparations for WFO14, which is approaching quickly ! 

For a brief preview of The Cunning Little Vixen, and some more details about UBC click on the following link. 

 

 

http://news.ubc.ca/2014/06/23/ubc-opera-keeps-hitting-the-high-notes/

 

The Volunteers

If a stranger was to walk along the Main Street in Wexford and to randomly ask people "who are the volunteers", he or she is likely to receive one of two answers. The respondent will either tell our stranger that the "volunteers" are a local Gaelic football club, or the people who form the backbone of the Wexford Festival Opera. (For the record, the Gaelic football club is officially named St John's Volunteers GAA Club, but is more usually referred to as "the volunteers" or "the vols".)

 

Now that we have established we are talking about the operatic rather than the footballing volunteers, we can once again pose the question, to try establish who are the volunteers. At the last count the volunteer numbers were around 400. These people give their time and energy in almost every possible department of the festival;  Front-of-House, Cloakroom, Stage crew, Wardrobe, Bar, Programmes, Tours, Drivers, First-Aid, the list goes on. Whatever department the volunteer is in, we all have one common goal, to ensure that Wexford Festival Opera continues to present world class performances, and that the patrons and artists have the best possible experience and service that we can give them. Many of the volunteers take holidays from their day-jobs during the Festival to carry out these duties.

As you can imagine with such a large number we are a hugely diverse bunch of people, who come from all walks of life, have a wide range of day-jobs, and some weird and wonderful hobbies, other than volunteering. We are professionals and managers of all sorts, teachers, social workers, literacy coaches, historians. Trust me, the list is long ! As you can imagine with such a group, the free time activities are just as varied, ranging from hill walking, choral singing, sailing, tour guiding, and toasting to life-saving, cycling and more sports than I can remember.

Even after twenty something years of volunteering it still amazes and amuses me in equal measure, the look of surprise on patrons faces when we tell them that whatever we happen to be doing in the Opera house during the Festival is not our main job. Many of us are regularly asked why we do it, and invariably the answers are the same; we love the Festival, the camaraderie, the buzz, meeting new people, and helping to maintain the standards of excellence that Wexford has become famous for.

Wexford Festival 2014 is not that far away, and we have already started our preparations to welcome you in October. This year when you come to the Opera House or any of the other venues, don't be shy. Whatever department we are in,  have a chat with us. We don't bite. Well, most of us don't !!


 

European Friends of Wexford Festival Opera: Paris 23-26 April 2014



 

 

Following on from this year's successful Friends tour to Paris, Kathy Mere, from Switzerland sent this summary of the tour and I am delighted to share it with you all. My deepest thanks to Kathy for taking the time to contribute this wonderful report.

 

No fewer than 22 opera-lovers assembled in Paris for the Wexford Festival's second Friends' Tour arranged through the London-based agency Travel for the Arts. Meeting up in our hotel lobby at 5 pm on Wednesday 23 April we were introduced to each other and to our local Paris guide Fabienne by our Friends' Tour Manager Lucy Durack (Wexford Festival's Membership Development Executive) and by Eamonn Carroll (the Development Manager).
 

Palais Garnier

 

In happy anticipation of our three days together, we set off with Fabienne, our local guide, for an early meal before proceeding to the imposing Palais Garnier for the first of our two opera evenings. In the auditorium we had the most perfect seats in a raised area that in effect forms the rear stalls. The rather OTT staging of 'L'Italiana in Algeri' might not have been to everyone's taste, but the singers (particularly the feisty and vivacious Isabella of Varduhi Abrahamyan) were good. The production involved far too many 'ideas'; did we really need a gorilla, three flamingoes and a zebra?
 



Friends on staircase at the Palais Garnier

We had a  better chance to admire the dazzling interior of the opera house on Thursday morning as Fabienne followed up a short stroll around the Opéra district with a 90-minute tour of the Palais Garnier. With her vivid descriptions, we were transported back a hundred years and more, to a time when carriages would disgorge their elegant passengers actually inside  the north west wing of the opera house, thus ensuring that ladies' gowns and coiffures remained impeccable. This part of the building now houses the box office and it is from here that marble staircases lead upwards to the main entrance, to the sumptuous reception rooms, the bars, the vast balcony looking down the Avenue de l'Opéra and the auditorium itself.

 

After our tour we had some hours of free time for our own sightseeing before reconvening and boarding a small coach to take us across Paris for a distinctly good pre-opera meal at Chez Jenny, a pleasant restaurant with its Alsatian flavour. From here it was just a short drive to the Opéra Bastille, a modern building that is the very antithesis of the Palais Garnier.

Opéra Bastille

Once again provided, thanks to Travel for the Arts, with excellent seats, we enjoyed a musically and visually stunning performance of Bellini's heavenly 'I Capuleti e i Montecchi'. The scheduled Giulietta being indisposed, her South Korean replacement Yun Jung Choi was sublime in the role – sounding terrific and, what's more, even looking like a 16-year-old. Most of us were full of enthusiasm for  Robert Carsen's staging and we all left the theatre with Bellini's long arching phrases still ringing in our ears. It was indeed an evening to treasure. Incidentally, when we visit leading opera houses we often encounter singers whom we have already enjoyed at Wexford: strangely, this was not the case in Paris, although Robert Carsen had directed Bellini's 'La Straniera' in Wexford in 1987.

 

On the Friday morning we had opted out of the organised trip to Versailles - of which we heard appreciative comments - but were reunited with the party in the late afternoon for another highlight – a Reception and Recital at the Embassy of Ireland. Trying hard not to be overawed by the resplendent interior, we mounted the grand staircase to be welcomed by our host Rory Montgomery, the Ambassador and a great fan of Wexford Festival Opera. Drinks were served in a salon overlooking Avenue Foch before we moved next door to another exquisitely panelled room.

The Irish Embassy, Paris

The embassy's very own Steinway (donated by an Irish music-lover resident in Paris) had been set up. Janet Haney, inter alia, Music Director of Balfe's 'The Sleeping Queen' at Wexford last year, proved a very sensitive accompanist for mezzo-soprano Lucia Cirillo who had shone in last year's International Opera Award-winning 'Cristina, Regina di Svezia'. We were treated to a delightful programme: an unfamiliar (to us) Mozart aria K.520 'As Luise was Burning the Letters of Her Unfaithful Lover', Cherubino's 'Voi che sapete', Rosina's 'Una voce poco fa' and finally two songs each by Montsalvatge and Tosti. We were also granted one encore – the Neapolitan song 'A vucchella'. Lucia is one of the singers who was singled out for special sponsorship at the 2013 Festival and it was a joy to hear her once again.

Janet Haney and Lucia Cirillo

Kathy Mere, Brian O'Hagan, Janet Haney

There was time afterwards to chat with the musicians and also to enjoy the lavish selection of canapés organised by the Embassy. It was a delightful evening and we all found it hard to tear ourselves away.
 

 

The general mood was understandably somewhat downcast on Saturday morning when it was time to say goodbye. However, we took comfort in the knowledge that there are only six months to go until this year's Festival.



Victoria Walsh-Hamer

One of the many aspects of this trip that we particularly appreciated was the fact that all of us had at least one thing in common: a passionate love of Wexford Festival Opera. Because of this we all chatted away merrily as we exchanged special memories of past Festivals. Dr. Tom Walsh's daughter Victoria Walsh-Hamer, who was with us for much of our tour, was surely heartened to sense everyone's profound admiration for all that her late father and his friends have created. Long may their Festival continue to grow and give pleasure to us all.

 

Our thanks to H.E. The Ambassador, to Lucy and Eamonn and to our local guide Fabienne – we so enjoyed these three days and look forward to learning what is being planned for next year.

 



Some Friends with Fabienne at Versailles

 



 

The Cunning Little Vixen in Vancouver

                        From Thursday 26th June through Sunday 29th June, University of British Columbia Opera will present 4 performances of Janacek's delightful The Cunning Little Vixen sung in Czech with English surtitles. Usually seen as a fairy tale, this piece also provides us with a revealing insight into nature’s struggle to survive the devastation of the footprint of humanity. You may well be wondering why I am bringing this Vancouver event to your attention. There are actually a few Wexford connections with this event and UBC opera school !

The University of British Columbia Opera Ensemble was founded in 1995, with the appointment of Canadian lyric coloratura Nancy Hermiston as Head of the Voice and Opera Divisions. Beginning with a core of seven performers, Ms. Hermiston has built the program to a 90-member company. The Ensemble's mission is to educate and promote gifted, young opera singers, preparing them for international careers. Some of you may recall that Nancy appeared in two Wexford productions back in 1984, The Kiss by Smetana, and Le Astuzie Femminili by Cimarosa. Nancy is directing this production.

The four performances are being conducted by David Agler, our Artistic Director. David has stepped in at short notice because the original conductor has become unavailable. With the necessary preparations for the WFO in October hotting up, it all means that David is going to be a very busy man over the coming weeks. 

And there is yet another Wexford connection with UBC Opera school this month !
The UBC Summer Opera workshop which is running from June 2nd until June 21st, is being given by director Roberto Recchia, who is a Wexford regular. In this workshop students will work on scenes from Italian opera. All stage directions of the opera excerpts will be given in Italian to give the students experience of the stage language and total immersion in the target language. The chosen operas for this workshop are Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart and La Traviata by Verdi. Roberto will be back in Wexford in October where he will direct Rossini's La Cenerentola in the ShortWorks.

If you are interested, more details of these events can be found on the UBC Opera website.

Casting announced for WFO 2014

Details of the casts for this year's WFO have just been announced. You might think that there is still a long way to go to WFO 2014, but opening night is just 20 weeks away ! And based on the casting news it won't come soon enough !

Some singers from recent festivals who are making return visits this year include Nora Sourouzian, Igor Golovatenko and Alessandro Spina. Irish singers will of course be playing an integral part in WFO 2014. Emerging Irish talents including Kate Allen, Sinead Mulhern, Eamonn Mulhall, Gavan Ring and Jamie Rock plus many others will feature in the 3 main stage operas as well as the ShortWorks.

Full details of the casts and creative teams for the main stage and the ShortWorks are available on the WFO website .

If you have not already booked your tickets for this year's festival, I am sure that once you read the full casting details you will want to do so immediately. To make it even easier click here to see how you can book for WFO 2014.

With such excellent voices and diverse repertoire to look forward to, all I can say is roll on October !