Wexford Opera Festival 2014

Claire Seymour is back from the Wexford Opera Festival. Here is a link to her very detailed review in Opera Today : take your time to savour and enjoy - this review feels almost like being there.

Massenet Thérèse Wexford broadcast

Last year's Wexford Festival  Massenet's Thérèse on BBC Radio 3. Claire Seymour reviewed it for Opera Today (link HERE) :

"Set in Revolutionary France, during the Terror of 1793-94, Thérèse (1907) is a melodrama which pits public against private, loyalty against love. As with Foroni’s Cristina, the eponymous heroine is based on a historical figure, in this case, Lucille Desmoulins who was executed in 1793, eight days after her husband, Camille. In Jules Claretie’s libretto, Thérèse finds herself torn between her allegiance to her husband, André Thorel - a Girondist and man of the people - and her passion for her aristocratic lover, Armand, Marquis de Clerval, who has fled to escape the Revolution. Thorel, the former childhood companion of Armand (his father was the Marquis’ steward), has purchased the Clerval chateau in order that it may one day be returned to his friend. When Armand reappears, still deeply in love with Thérèse, she is torn between her amorous feelings and her fidelity to her marriage vows......."

"....At the heart of the score are the passionate exchanges of Thérèse and Arnaud, and French-Canadian mezzo soprano Nora Sourouzian and French tenor Philippe Do prove that they possess the stylishness, lyricism and sensitivity to convey the poetry of these scenes most beautifully. Do has both the strength, though the voice is never forced, to bring a fierce ardour to the passionate high-points and a floating mezza voce which can modulate the emotional fire with sensitivity and lightness. Thérèse’s Act 2 aria, ‘Jour de juin, jour d’été’ was deliciously sweet and exquisitely phrased. Brian Mulligan, as André, made a considerable impact, demonstrating fine stage presence and singing with an open, burnished tone. Damien Pass was very competent in the small role of Morel. "

Wexford 2013 Discovery - Foroni Cristina Queen of Sweden

Wexford I love because it experiments with operas that are "new" to modern audiences. Some  are obscure for good reasons but every now and then a treasue surfaces. Bu this year's discovery sounds like something very special indeed. Jacopo Foroni’s Cristina, Regina di Svezia, (1849), an opera written for Swedish audiences by an Italian. Please read the report in Opera Today - more informative than anything else anywhere else. This sounds l;ike an opera we need to know about, so it's worth making the effort to find out more.

Also reviewed Jules Massanet Thérèse (1907) and La Navarraise. and Nino Rota The Florentine Straw Hat. 

Coming up - more on Wozzeck, more on Britten Death in Venice (Aldeburgh), more on Les vêpres siciliennes (HD broadcast tomorrow), Sakari Oramo BBCSO , Julian Anderson at the Wigmore Hall and much more. Keep coming back to this site.

Wexford Opera season, Opera Today

Interesting report on the Wexford Opera season 2012 in Opera Today HERE.  It's too long to quote, but please read as you won't often get Cilea's L'Arlesiana, Chabrier's Le Roi malgré lui and Delius's A Village Romeo and Juliet in one sesssion.  Do take time to read the article - very detailed and thoughtful !

Dysfunctional marriages at Wexford Opera

This year's Wexford Opera Festival brings The Telephone by Gian Carlo Menotti. It's a scream! A man wants to propose to his girlfriend, but she's so busy talking on the phone he can't get a word in. Finally he phones her but she still doesn't get it.  Though the opera was written in 1947, telephone OCD is probably even more extreme in the Age of Twitter. Sure beats real life communication! When this pair marry will they tweet in bed? The ultimate in safe sex.

The Telephone or "L'amour á trois" is very fast paced and quite a test for the soprano who has to carry the whole one act opera on her own. She has to be a brittle bimbette while conveying the insanity beneath the charm. It's a wonderful short opera but the role is taxing, which is why it's not performed as often as it should be. Wexford is pairing it with Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, another observation on Perfect but Pathological.

The three main operas at Wexford this year are even rarer. La cour de Célimène by Ambroise Thomas, of Mignon and Hamlet fame. "The neglect of La cour de Célimène......is difficult to understand", says the Wexford press office, "for it is generously endowed in every important area: attractive music, interesting orchestration, good ensemble writing, spectacular vocal solos, drama and duels, a clever and witty plot." Sounds like another vehicle for a soprano who can act as well as sing. Célimène is a widow who manipulates men. There is a CD from Opera Rara but the conductor is Andrew Litton and Célimène is Laura Claycomb.  Joan Rodgers, too, though.

Donizetti's Gianni di Parigi predicates on arranged marriage, and Roman Statkowski's Maria (1903-4) adds murder to the mess. It's based on an 1825 epic poem by Antoni Malczewski. Given the period in which the opera was written, one supposes Russian and Wagnerian influences. Booking starts today for Wexford Opera's 2011 season. For more, visit their website.

What's odd in Wexford ?

For sixty years, the Wexford Opera Festival has pioneered operas rarely heard anywhere else. Serious opera goers, prepared to take a chance on rarities. But a tiny house in distant Ireland isn't a money spinner so compromises have to be made. The question is, what compromises ?

Here's Andrew Clark in the Financial Times : "The job of artists is to dream dreams - and then to find the resources to realise them. When cutbacks kick in, it's money managers who call the tune, and the first casualty is artistic experiment......Wexford has saddled itself with a sugar-sweet aesthetic that sits ill with its reputation as a connoisseur´s haven"

He's referring to a new opera commisioned in St Louis Missouri, based on a Roald Dahl story. Conceptually there's no reason why children's stories shouldn't make good opera (Hansel and Gretel, La Cenerentola) but artistically this one does not seem promising. It's great prestige for the composer to be showcased at Wexford, and the opera will probably do well in St Louis with a generalist audience (and kids). But is it a mismatch at Wexford ? Some of the operas Wexford has staged are obscure for very good reasons but the USP is that sophisticated audiences like exploring specialist repertoire. Casual visitors aren't going to make the trek to rural Ireland so it might not be good business in the long run.

Please read the full story in the Financial Times here and a long, detailed review of the  productions, in Opera Today here.