Classical Notes

Dick O’Riordan: Wexford puts magic in the mix for a spellbinding season

Artistic director Rosetta Cucchi has lined up sorcerers, witches and enchanters for this year’s offering

Digging deep: Rosetta Cucchi, artistic director of the Wexford Festival Opera

Wexford Festival Opera has provided many nights of magic down through the years. But never have so many sorcerers, magicians, witches, enchanters and necromancers been lined up for duty than in this year’s sparkling season.

Artistic director Rosetta Cucchi has dug deep to source material from the oriental age of opera (mostly tagged as “Peking opera”), when European audiences were mesmerised by exotic culture while composers specialising in spellbinding adventures flourished without hinder.

Sub-titled Music ...