Wexford Festival Opera 2007, which runs from May 31st to June 10th, will include a play with music, a ballet with singers, and an opera in which the title role is a speaking part.
This year's festival is not only unusual for the nature of its repertoire and its shift of season - it's usually in October and November - but also for its location.
Ireland's most famous celebration of opera will this year take place in the grounds of Johnstown Castle, in a specially built "temporary theatre", designed by Joe Vanek.
Speaking at the launch of the programme yesterday, artistic director David Agler explained the unusual line-up as a sample of what audiences might expect to see "outside" of the festival season in the new Wexford opera house, which is due for completion in 2008.
Launching the programme, Minister for Arts John O'Donoghue referred to the festival as "the Cheltenham of opera".
He said the fact that no objections had been raised against the planning applications in respect of the new opera house showed the esteem and affection in which the festival was held.
The completion of the new 750-seat opera house with €26 million of State aid will, he said, "be a development of enormous significance for the town of Wexford, and will be the beginning of a new era for opera in Ireland".
Agler drew attention to the fact that, after last year's curtailed, 12-day event, the new programme has a full, 18-day schedule with recitals, orchestral and choral concerts, and scaled-down, ShortWorks productions in Wexford town.
The Johnstown Castle repertoire includes Kurt Weill's 1933 Der Silbersee (The Silverlake), which will be directed by Keith Warner, designed by Jason Southgate and conducted by Timothy Redmond.
Wexford promises a "landmark restaging of the original version" in an English translation by Rory Bremner.
The names of the cast, who will have as much to speak as to sing, will be announced at a later date.
The commedia dell'arte- inspired double bill of Ferruccio Busoni's 1916 Arlecchino and Igor Stravinsky's 1920 Pulcinella will be conducted by Agler himself, directed by Lucio Dalla, designed by Italo Grasso and choreographed by Luciano Cannito.
Antonin Dvorak's fairytale, water-nymph opera, Rusalka, dates from 1900, and the Wexford production will be by Lee Blakeley with designs by Joe Vanek.
Slovak soprano Helena Kaupová will sing the title role and the conductor will be Dmitri Jurowski, whose older brother Vladimir launched his international career at Wexford in 1995.
The three ShortWorks presentations at the Dún Mhuire Theatre will be Peter Brook's reworking of Bizet, La Tragédie de Carmen, Donizetti's Rita and Poulenc's one-act single-hander for soprano and telephone, La Voix humaine.
The Irish-sourced Orchestra of the Wexford Festival Opera will play for all of the Johnstown performances and provide the ensemble for Carmen.
There are, however, no Irish singers in the cast lists so far announced.
What David Agler calls this "bad year for the Irish" is not a change in the policy that saw a generous use of Irish singers last year.
It is due to the fact that those singers he tried to book were not available for the dates he required.
Full festival details can be obtained from the wexfordopera.com website or by phoning 053-9122240.
