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Tuesday 24th October - Wexford Festival Opera 2023 presents Donizetti's Zoraida di Granata
Paul Herriott brings us Donizetti's Zoraida di Granata live from Wexford Festival Opera 2023. Written when the composer was 24 it was premiered at Rome's Teatro Argentina in January 1822, on that evening the tenor originally cast as Abenamet fell fatally ill during rehearsals and with no understudy, Donizetti hastily rewrote and shortened the part for a contralto Adelaide Mazzanti. Two years later Donizetti revised the opera with a much starrier Abenamet which we will hear sung tonight by tenor Matteo Mezzaro. Joining the cast for this production are Claudia Boyle in the title role Zoraida and Rachel Croash as Ines alongside Konu Kim, Julian Henao Gonzalez and Matteo Guerzè with Diego Ceretta conducting the Wexford Festival Opera orchestra and chorus.
Listen below via Opera Night | Watch via RTÉ Culture
Saturday 28th October - Wexford Festival Opera 2023 presents La Ciociara
Paul Herriott presents La Ciociara or Two Women live from the National Opera House in Wexford for this year's Wexford Festival Opera. Tonight's opera is based on the 1958 novel La Ciociara by Alberto Moravia, which was adapted shortly afterwards for the screen, starring Sophia Loren in 1960, to a libretto by Tutoni and Fabio Ceresa. Two Women relates the story of the widowed shopkeeper Cesira (sung by Na'ama Goldman) who shuts up shop in the midst of World War II Rome, seeking passage to safety in the mountains of the Ciociaria region with her adolescent daughter Rosetta (sung by Jade Phoenix). The decision only plunges their lives further into war's criminally abusive ways, their dignity as women ripped from them by war's weapon of rape. This production is directed by Rosetta Cucchi and the Wexford Festival Opera orchestra and chorus is conducted by Francesco Cilluffo.
Listen below via Opera Night | Watch via RTÉ Culture
Saturday 4th November - Wexford Festival Opera 2023 presents Camille Erlanger's L'Aube Rouge
Paul Herriott brings us quite an operatic re-discovery from Wexford Festival Opera with Camille Erlanger's L'Aube rouge or 'Red Dawn'. It just wouldn't be an opera without that inevitable love story and tonight's plot features Olga, sung by Andreea Soare, who was born into a reactionary military family and joins an armed struggle to fight against the unfair treatment of her people. She swears eternal love to Serge sung by Andrew Morstein but alas, as Romeo and Juliet teach us, these star-crossed lovers will not have an easy life. Guillaume Tourniere conducts the Wexford Festival Opera Orchestra and Chorus. This production was recorded on October 25th but will be relayed this evening to Irish listeners and to an audience of over 12 million across the European Broadcasting Union.
Listen below via Opera Night | Watch via RTÉ Culture