Category: Opera

Wexford Opera House launches

architects' rendering of opera house

architects' rendering of opera house

It would have been tough to miss all the coverage over the weekend of the fabulous new Wexford Opera House opening! First there was Pat Kenny & the Late Late crew broadcasting live from the new venue on Friday, then a feature by Irish Times architecture critic Frank McDonald:

The new opera house, with 7,235sq m of floor space, is three times larger than the old theatre, but although its flytower rises to the equivalent of eight storeys, it is barely visible above the ridge-line of High Street. Thus, the “surprise and delight of discovery”, as McGahon puts it, is still there.

The smart-looking foyer leads up to a much larger atrium that links the three levels of the auditorium. Box-balustered staircases in dark Canadian walnut are offset against white walls, creating a great space for people-watching – a stage set for the flâneur before and after performances.

[…]

THE NEW THREE-TIERED auditorium is a revelation. With its walls, ceiling, floors and bow-shaped balconies entirely clad in dark walnut (from sustainably managed forests), it almost seems to be hewn out of a huge block of timber. It has a cave-like quality, which is slightly off-putting until you get used to it.

Keith Williams likens this extraordinary interior to a stringed instrument.

“We echoed the sensuous curves of a cello to make this room,” he says. “Even the curved steel lighting bridges are analogous to the technical bits of the cello.

The new space looks set to be a triumph for the architects and the OPW involved on the project, and will set off the Wexford Opera festival in style when it launches on 16 October with the opeara ‘Snehurochka, The Snow Maiden‘ (already fully sold out!)

Getting your Fringe on

My highlight of the autumn kicks off with the Fringe Festival launching this Saturday! Over the years I’ve seen lots of productions, from brilliant to disastrous (more of the former and less of the latter), but I’m really excited this year about the staging of events in the Iveagh Gardens and the programme of street theatre (especially the opera Bastien and Bastienne). It’s Wolfgang Hoffman’s swan song after four years of running the festival, and the lineup looks like another stellar mix of theatre, dance, visual art and music.

MA programme alumnae Jenny Jennings is Programme Director for the Fringe and was interviewed in Saturday’s Irish Times about the upcoming festival and its drive to highlight new Irish talent:

Programme director Jennifer Jennings says that the strength of this year’s Irish element of the programme is more than accidental. It is a strategic part of Dublin Fringe Festival’s development over the past few years, and one that both Jennings and the festival’s outgoing artistic director, Wolfgang Hoffman, have been committed to fostering.

“We work as a platform for new artists,” Jennings explains. “I suppose you could say we are a producing partner, giving support ‘in lieu’ to emerging artists – from inviting them to use office facilities to giving them a place in the festival programme to, more recently, providing workshops for developing work.”

(yay Jenny!)

The Fringe website looks great too, with blogs and reviews (although it’d be great if they’d add an rss feed). This year tickets can be purchased from Filmbase and the Iveagh Gardens box office located on Hatch Street– the full programme pdf can be downloaded here.

Opera’s bringing sexy back

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The Arts Council’s Public and the Arts Survey (2006) tells us audiences for opera are in decline: what gives? According to Peter Conrad in The Observer, arts marketers are seeking out new ways of seducing listeners back into seats… (more)