One more year in the hotseat

WEXFORD Festival Opera will have a new Artistic Director in 2020 after David Agler announced earlier this year that he plans to retire following the 2019 international event.

Festival management began the search for a new director in June with a July 20 deadline set for the receipt of applications and it is expected that the name of the successful candidate will be announced by the end of this year, according to a spokeswoman.

Mr. Agler will continue to be the Artistic Director for the 2019 Festival when he will be shadowed by the new incumbent who will then take over in 2020.

American-born Mr. Agler, a former conductor with Australian Opera and a former director with Vancouver Opera in Canada, has successfully led Wexford Festival Opera for the past 13 years, having arrived in 2005 to take over the helm from former Artisti Director Luigi Ferrari.

At the time he took up the position, he was quoted as saying: ‘I don’t know why one becomes attracted to a place. Sometimes you just go to a place and you say I feel comfortable here I like it here.

‘Part of the attraction is that you’re in a situation where you don’t have to produce Carmen and Bohème over and over for purposes of balancing budgets and box office, etcetera.

‘I’ve always liked the experi-

ence of finding new people to present; in other words, not to have to go and find an established, well-known singer with a little bit of box-office appeal. People come to Wexford wondering whether they’ll hear anybody interesting.

‘I liked it because it was so multicultural. Although it was in an Irish setting and I would argue it is identifiably Irish, it’s still a very international place.’