The Wexford Festival has announced that it will this year use an orchestra of Irish musicians for its productions for the first time since 2000.
A dispute with RTÉ over the terms of use of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra led to the employment of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Belarus from 2001 to 2003, and the Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra in 2004 and 2005.
The employment of the orchestras from eastern Europe was an early instance of the displacement of Irish workers by foreign nationals, initially by performers from outside the European Union. The festival's actions led to friction with the Arts Council, which effectively capped the festival's grant for a number of years. And the Musicians Union of Ireland ran a number of opening-night protests outside the Theatre Royal in Wexford, and called on the Arts Council to withhold further grants due to "the exclusion of Irish-based musicians" from the festival.
The festival has now hired the services of the Irish Film Orchestra, which has an 18-year record of commercial work, including recording the scores for many films.
The festival has also made changes to the repertoire originally announced for next October. Donizetti's L'Ajo nell' imbarazzo (1824) is being replaced by Don Gregorio (1826). The double bill of Falla's El retablo de maese and Stravinsky's Renard is to be replaced by Transformations, a 1973 opera by US composer Conrad Susa. Roberto Recchia will direct Don Gregorio, with designs by Ferdia Murphy. Michael Caven is to direct Transformations, with designs by Joe Vanek.
