Wexford Festival Opera teams up with RTÉ for live broadcasts

This year, a trio of main stage operas are in the spotlight

Le Maschere by Pietro Mascagni (18th October, from 8pm)

Le Maschere is Mascagni’s homage to Rossini and to the Italian opera buffa and commedia dell’arte traditions. It was premiered simultaneously in six Italian opera houses but, apart from Rome, the reception was subdued. While it has often been held that Mascagni was a 'one opera man’ who could never repeat the success of Cavalleria rusticana, this verdict has already been debunked by Wexford’s four previous Mascagni productions, most recently Guglielmo Ratcliff in 2015.

The Critic by Charles Villiers Stanford (19th October, from 7.30pm)

Both Stanford and librettist Richard Brinsley Sheridan were born in Dublin but pursued their careers in England; Sheridan as a prominent playwright and one-time owner of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and Stanford as Professor of Music at the Royal College of Music and the University of Cambridge as well as a composer best remembered for his choral works.The Critic was the penultimate of nine operas by Stanford and considered one of his best, having been well received initially and later revived by Thomas Beecham.

Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali by Gaetano Donizetti (26th October, from 7.30pm)

The opera was originally a one-act farsa which premiered at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples in 1827, before Donizetti revised it as a two-act work with added recitatives and other material. Inspired by two comedies written by Antonio Simone Sografi between 1794 and 1816, it follows the theatrical traditions of Goldoni, Gozzi and Metastasio, subjecting the bad habits of the operatic world to biting criticism. Convenienze has appeared in a number of translations and under various titles such as Viva la Mamma and Viva la Diva.

Wexford Festival Opera runs from 18th October – 2nd November - find out more at this year's programme here.