The fully online ‘Waiting for Shakespeare… The Festival in the Air’ will take place from 11 – 18 October and feature performances, interviews, recitals, a gala concert, lectures and pop-up events.
Audiences from home and abroad will be invited to experience the magic of Wexford Festival Opera from the comfort of their own homes as the power of music digitally brings together opera lovers and the wider worldwide community of regular Wexford-goers.
The festival will open with Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, dedicated to victims of the coronavirus pandemic, and close with a live concert from the National Opera House featuring renowned American lyric coloratura soprano Lisette Oropesa, with the Wexford Festival Orchestra, conducted by Francesco Cilluffo.
The online celebration of music will encompass many of the ambitions set out by Artistic Director Rosetta Cucchi in the previously announced programme, with the inaugural Wexford Factory, a professional development academy for young Irish and Irish-based singers, being retained.
Academy singers will be mentored by professional opera singers such as tenor Juan Diego Flórez and will also perform scenes from Verdi’s Falstaff from the National Opera House, which will be streamed online.