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Irish Independent
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Wexford students invited to follow in Colm Tóibín's footsteps and enter revived opera festival essay competition
Wexford People Today at 23:00 After a hiatus of over 50 years, the students of Wexford are once again being offered the chance to share their thoughts on the Wexford Festival Opera, and to win a generous cash prize of €250 plus publication in the Festival Supplement of the Wexford People. Wexford Festival Opera is running an essay competition for its 74th anniversary. Inspired by the theme for this year's event, Myths & Legends, the subject of the essay is: 'Wexford Festival Opera – A Myth or a Legend?' All senior cycle (TY, 5th and 6th year) students in County Wexford are invited to participate. The Festival last held an essay competition in 1972 which makes a revival more than overdue. Back then, the title was 'Wexford Festival Opera – Vanity or Prestige?' There were four prizes and a young Colm Tóibín was among the winners. Where are the remaining three winners? Or, indeed, the other entrants? WFO would love to hear from anyone who knows anyone who entered, or was placed in, that competition. Best of all would be to find copies of those essays! A long list of writers hail from Wexford, a tradition celebrated every September since 2016 at the Write by the Sea Festival in Kilmore Quay. Whether it is due to the sea air or the extra dose of sunshine that lights up the 'sunny south east', music and words seem to flourish in this corner of the island. It is also an area rich in history and folklore which could feed into ideas for this year's essay title. How to separate myth from legend and where to place WFO on that scale is an interesting question. Does the Festival impinge in any meaningful way on the lives of younger members of the community, acquiring legendary status for them, or is that a cosy myth? The organisers of WFO are eager to learn how the senior cycle cohort views the Festival and whether, or how, it might be made more meaningful to that generation. For teachers this could be a rewarding and very worthwhile class project, especially in transition year, when several students will have the opportunity to work with the Festival. Other students may have family members who have been, or are still, involved at some level. There are many dimensions to the Festival, from the opening night fireworks to the general buzz around town, from themed window displays to the sometimes outlandish glamour of opera goers, exhibitions, fringe and community events, each offering a different angle on, or line of approach to, the subject. I rarely wish I was sixteen again but this is one occasion when I wouldn't mind reversing the years, just to have a crack at such an exciting competition. Competition Details: Wexford Festival Opera – A Myth or a Legend? All students in Senior Cycle (TY, 5th Year and 6th Year) in County Wexford secondary schools are eligible to participate. Prize: €250 Rules and Conditions 1. Entries must be the original work of the entrant and should not have been previously published in any format, online or print, self-published or paid. 2. Entries must be typed, double-spaced in Microsoft Word, 12 point, Times New Roman font. 3. All entries must be in English and submitted by email to essay@ Closing date for receipt of entries is Monday September 22 at 5.00pm. 4. The decision of the judges is final, no correspondence/contact will be entered into, and no feedback will be given to individual entrants. 5. Entrants can submit only one entry. Entries must not exceed 2,000 words. 6. Wexford Festival Opera reserves the right to publish any of the entries as full essays, or extracts thereof, to promote Wexford Festival Opera on its website and in other media.
Irish Independent
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Colm Tóibín teams up with Wexford Festival Opera for new work inspired by town's Main Street
Colm Tóibín, author of award-winning novels including The Master, Brooklyn, and Long Island, has collaborated with composer Andrew Synnott, marking the second time the Wexford-born writer has worked with the festival. This new work, Urban Legends, will commence on October 19 and will be performed as late-night operas at 11pm in Green Acres Art Gallery in Wexford town. Each performance will last approximately 20 minutes. This follows Mr Tóibín's and Alberto Caruso's collaboration for WFO 2024 with their Pocket Opera (Opera Beag) Lady Gregory: In America. Libretto for this new work is by Mr Tóibín while music is by Mr Synnott, a long-time friend of the festival. The work is inspired by the urban legend that if you walk from one end of Wexford's Main Street to the other end, you will pass the person you are going to marry. Two young lovers set out from either end of the Main Street at noon and – according to legend – are destined to meet and get married. Both are single, both are in search of love. Will they meet? And if they do, will they fall for each other? Each night, we find out more clues of when and where – at what point on the street – they will finally meet and sing a love duet. These three different short late-night operas explore this legend over three separate nights at Green Acres Gallery. Each 20-minute stand-alone performance will be presented twice during the festival and can be enjoyed individually or as part of the series. Artistic Director Rosetta Cucchi said: 'I am so delighted that Colm Tóibín and Andrew Synnott have come together to create this special new work. This project began with an initial conversation that Colm and I had last year. Wexford Festival Opera is so intrinsically linked with Wexford town itself. Creating a work around one of the urban legends here seemed to fit so beautifully into the overall WFO theme this year of myths of legends and I can't wait to experience it myself during WFO 2025.' Booking is now open at for the 74th Wexford Festival opera which explores the theme of Myths and Legends will run from October 17 to November 1.
RTÉ News
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Ancient tales, modern voices: Wexford Festival Opera returns
As general booking opens for the 74th Wexford Festival Opera, Artistic Director Rosetta Cucchi introduces this year's programme, which is built around the theme of Myths & Legends. This year for Wexford Festival Opera 2025, we journey into a world where music and myth merge, where the legends of old are brought to life by the soaring power of the human voice. Lyric opera, a timeless art form, has long drawn inspiration from the myths and legends that shape our collective imagination. It is a vessel through which ancient stories are renewed, reinterpreted, and reborn. The 74th Wexford Festival Opera, will feature 3 main stage operas: Conducted by Marcus Bosch and directed by Ben Barnes, Le Trouvére by Giuseppe Verdi is a rare chance to hear Verdi's French version of Il trovatore - around the rivalry for the love of the young Leonora between the troubadour Manrique and the Comte de Lune. George Petrou will conduct and direct Deidamia, George Frideric Handel's last Italian opera before he turned to oratorio, an unjustly neglected tragi-comic masterpiece. Francesco Cilluffo will return to Wexford to conduct The Magic Fountain by Frederick Delius, which will be directed by Christopher Luscombe. A lyric drama in three acts The Magic Fountain is set in a mythical, exotic location and centres around the legend of a magical fountain that grants eternal youth. This production is supported by The Delius Trust. Alongside these there will be a performance by the Wexford Factory artists of Il Viaggio a Reims by Gioachino Rossini. The Community Opera this year will be The Little Midsummer Night's Dream and the Pocket Operas will be La Tragédie De Carmen by George Bizet sung in French with English dialogue and The Dwarf (Der Zwerg) by Alexander Zemlinsky in a Wexford commissioned English translation. Another treat for Wexford audiences will be a new WFO commission, late night event Urban Legends by Colm Tóibín and Andrew Synnott. Why do we keep returning to these ancient stories? Because they remain relevant. All of these are brought together under the theme of Myths and Legends. Myths and legends are the beating heart of human storytelling. They explain the unexplainable, personify our dreams, and confront our fears. They speak of gods and mortals, of love and betrayal, of triumph and tragedy. From the timeless epics of Greece and Rome to the heroic sagas of Northern Europe, these stories remind us who we are and who we aspire to be. Why do we keep returning to these ancient stories? Because they remain relevant. They address universal themes: the power of love, the inevitability of loss, the clash between destiny and free will. They speak to us now as they did centuries ago. And in lyric opera, these themes become visceral, unforgettable. As we immerse ourselves in the myths and legends brought to life through the magic of opera, let us remember: these are not just stories of the past. They are stories of the present, told in music that transcends time. They call on us to reflect, to dream, and to feel deeply. And above all, they remind us that we, too, are part of a greater story—one that spans generations, cultures, and the ages.
