Saturday October 18th: Wexford Festival Opera 2025: Handel's Deidamia Live from the National Opera House in Wexford
Paul Herriott brings us a production of Handel's Deidamia. Achilles (sung by Bruno de Sá), disguised as a young girl named Pyrrha, is hidden on the island of Skyros to avoid being sent to the Trojan War. There, he falls in love with Deidamia (sung by Sophie Junker), daughter of King Lycomedes (sung by Petros Magoulas). Their secret romance is threatened when Ulysses (sung by Nicolò Balducci) and the Greeks arrive, determined to find Achilles. Ulysses exposes his true identity by tempting him with weapons. Though torn between love and destiny, Achilles chooses glory, leaving Deidamia heartbroken. Blending comedy and drama, Handel's Deidamia explores love, deception, and fate in a world where duty triumphs over personal desire. George Petrou conducts the Wexford Festival Opera Orchestra and Chorus in tonight's production.
Saturday October 25th: Wexford Festival Opera presents Delius' The Magic Fountain
A ship off the coast of Florida is becalmed, and the sailors are heard voicing their fears as the Spanish nobleman Solano (Dominick Chenes) sings of his obsession with the fountain of youth he has learned of and come to discover. Thunder announces the approach of a storm that hurls the ship to destruction. On the Florida coast, the young American Indian girl Watawa (Axelle Saint-Cirel) finds Solano, seemingly the sole survivor, and very weak. And so, the story unfolds as Francesco Cilluffo conducts the Wexford Festival Opera Orchestra and Chorus in this production which was recorded on Sunday 19th October in the National Opera House in Wexford.
Saturday November 1st: Irish National Opera presents Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore
Donizetti's heartwarming comedy features some wonderful bel canto singing as the spunky landowner and the hapless peasant search for love. Radiant soprano Claudia Boyle sings the role of Adina, trading barbs and embraces with tenor Duke Kim as Nemorino. John Molloy as the outlandish rogue 'doctor' Dulcamara. Baritone Gianluca Margheri is Belcore and soprano Deirdre Higgins is Adina's friend Giannetta. L'elisir d'amore is conducted by Erina Yashima and directed by Cal McCrystal
