Star-studded opening night at the opera

WEXFORD’s 66th Opera Festival opened in style at the National Opera House last Thursday night.

There may not have been any fireworks on the Quay, but there were more than a few fast-beating hearts in the production crew when a power cut threatened the performance of Medea.

In the event, the festival’s contingency plans worked and the show went on, with a generator providing the power during the cut, even if the lights in the auditorium flashed on and off a couple of times during the performance.

Before Cherubini’s Medea got under way, artistic director David Agler had taken to the stage to warn that there may be problems with the electricity supplies in the aftermath of the hurricane force winds generated by Storm Ophelia.

That warning proved prophetic, even if the other warning about the bad weather which prompted the postponement of the fireworks proved wrong, with the Quay at its calmest for days at the time the rockets should have been soaring into the sky.

However, with public safety paramount, it was better to be safe than sorry, even if a trip on the stage during Medea proved a step too far for one of the principals.

Probably the best kept secret of the opening night was the absolutely fabulous appearance of Joanne Lumley, not on the stage, but sitting back in the stalls, a couple of rows behind opera director Fiona Shaw, as her husband Stephen Barlow conducted the opera.

Festival press officer Elizabeth Rose-Browne said: ‘ This is Mrs Barlow’s (Ms Lumley’s) first visit to Wexford. When Stephen conducted here in 2015 she was filming the AB/FAB movie and was unable to attend.’

Elizabeth said Stephen had intimated that his wife might attend, but it was only confirmed last week and remained one of the best kept secrets until Thursday night when Joanna was warmly welcomed to the town by many of the opera-goers surprised to see her in their midst.

Other VIP guests were the Italian Ambassador to Ireland Giovanni Adorni Braccesi Chiassi; Eithne Healy (the daughter of Liam Healy, formerly of INM); Victoria Walsh-Hamer (daughter of Dr Tom Walsh, the festival’s founder); Katherine Licken, secretary general at the Department of the Arts; Sheila Pratschke, chair of the Arts Council of Ireland; Simon Taylor, chief executive of National Concert Hall; and John Berry, formerly of the English National Opera.

(by David Tucker)