An Irish world premiere, a tenth Massenet and two co-productions

There is a distinctly Irish flavour to the 2019 Wexford Festival Opera programme as it features not just one, but two Irish composers on the O’Reilly Theatre stage of the National Opera House

Wexford stages the world premiere of a newly-commissioned opera by Irish composer Andrew Synnott, ‘La cucina’, presented as a companion piece to ‘Adina’ by Gioachino Rossini.

The programme also includes a concert performance of ‘The Veiled Prophet’ by the Irish composer Charles Villiers Stanford, presented by Wexford Festival Opera in association with Heritage Music Productions, founded and produced by pianist and broadcaster, Una Hunt and conducted by David Brophy.

This year’s main evening opera programme also features the first Baroque opera to be performed at Wexford Festival in over 30 years, Dorilla in Tempe by Antonio Vivaldi.

Revealed early in the year as a replacement for the originally announced ‘Der Freischütz’ by Carl Maria von Weber, Dorilla in Tempe is being presented in association with the prestigious Venice opera house, Teatro La Fenice.

Meanwhile, the Festival continues its long association with Massenet, presenting ‘Don Quichotte’, its tenth opera production by the French composer.

To date the Festival has presented nine Massenet operas, making a significant contribution to the revival of interest in this remarkable French composer. Massenet labelled Don Quichotte a La cucina composer Andrew Synnott. comédie-héroïque, as the book had gone through a number of transformations, the end result being not quite the same as Cervantes’ original.

Premiering in Monte Carlo in 1910, it proved to be a huge success and the opera was soon seen in Paris, London, New York and many other European and American capitals. Two years later Massenet died and the First World War soon followed. By the time normality was restored, Massenet was part of the old romantic past and no longer in favour.

A few productions have been produced in Europe since then and despite the 1965 production in Wexford, which ignited a renewed interest in this composer’s works worldwide, this opera has still only been staged occasionally.

Nominee in the ‘Best Director’ category at the International Opera Awards 2019, director Rodula Gaitanou (Vanessa - 2016, L’oracolo/ Mala vita - 2018) will join forces once again with conductor Timothy Myers (Vanessa 2016, Margherita 2017) for this production.

Famous for being one of the most productive composers in music history, Antonio Vivaldi wrote over 50 operas, though is he is probably best remembered for his orchestral works.

However, Dorilla in Tempe was reputedly one of Vivaldi’s own favourite compositions and in the score, notably the opening chorus, there includes a reworking of part of the ‘Spring’ movement from his celebrated The Four Seasons, which was published just shortly before the premiere of this opera in 1726.

It tells the story of the obstacles faced to the blissful union of Dorilla (a princess) and Elmiro (a shepherd), whose rival Nomio turns out to be the disguised god Apollo.

Dorilla in Tempe will mark the return of director Fabio Ceresa (‘Best Director’ International Opera Awards 2016) and costume designer Giuseppe Palella, the key creative team behind the critically acclaimed operas Guglielmo Ratcliff (2015) and Maria de Rudenz (2016). Presented in association with Teatro La Fenice (Venice). A scene from the Teatro La Fenice production of Dorilla in Tempe in Venice.

Irish composer Andrew Synnott’s La cucina (The kitchen) marks the world premiere of a newly commissioned opera. It is being performed as a companion piece with Adina, a co-production with Rossini Opera Festival

Adina is one of Rossini’s lesser-known works. The opera was composed in 1818 in the aftermath of his greatest creative period, which could be why it has often been overlooked.

The plot is a variation on the classic ‘escape from the harem’ story so popular among opera composers of the time.

All is well in the end however, when it is discovered that the beautiful slave girl Adina is indeed the caliph’s daughter.

This one-act farsa will be prefaced with the world-premiere of La cucina (The kitchen), with a libretto by the director and Wexford’s Artistic Director designate, Rosetta Cucchi.

The opera itself is composed by the Dublin-based composer, Andrew Synnott, who is no stranger to the operatic stage. His first opera, Breakdown, was followed by a pair of short operas, Counterparts and The Boarding House, based on two short stories from James Joyce’s Dubliners, which received its world-premiere in Wexford in 2017.