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Lennox Berkeley’s delightful 1954 comedy A Dinner Engagement was expressively accompanied on the piano by Adam Burnette, nicely designed by Kate Guinness, and directed without fuss or pretension by Caitriona McLaughlin, a theatre director from Donegal making her debut in opera. Paul Dehn’s plain amusing text involves decayed aristocrats in postwar England trying to hitch their daughter Susan to a wealthy sort of royal, Prince Philippe of Monteblanco. It all happens, including the blooming romance and a lot of oven smoke, in the kitchen of Lord and Lady Dunmow — and what pleased me was not just the well calculated tuneful music, but also the chance to enjoy a promising young cast’s singing and acting (all chorus members in the main operas) with a feelgood happy ending about the money.
It’s not only in Ireland that operatic opportunities for young singers are few. Kristin Finnegan as the Dunmows’ formidable staff Mrs Kneebone (presumably not live-in) left Glasgow’s conservatoire eight years ago and has just been Mistress Quickly at Iford (ideal casting). Raquel Luis, the Glasgow-trained Grand Duchess whose son is the Dunmows’ hoped-for financial salvation, has worked in Lisbon and Bayreuth. Adam Gilbert as the Earl is still at Guildhall, and the lovely Laura Sheerin as his daughter trained at the Royal Northern. Alberto Sousa, a sterling tenor Prince from Portugal, was also at the Guildhall. All deserve a breakthrough. With text properly used and story well told, Berkeley’s warm-hearted comedy was much better than the main festival works. That should worry Wexford’s board of directors and incoming chairman Ger Lawlor.
Artistic director David Agler has had eight years here, but frankly the choice of directors for Cilea’s L’Arlesiana and Chabrier’s Le roi malgré lui stank. Rosetta Cucchi did not live up to the promise of her Braunfels’s Prinzessin Brambilla in 2004. Rather than focus on the verismo narrative about a man in love with a dream woman, she opted to show us physically what the bonkers tenor Federico was thinking — never a good idea. Worst of all Cucchi had Dmitry Golovnin’s poor Federico crouched on a table for his big aria (recorded by Caruso and many since — the reason this opera survives), so mega-stressed rather than intriguingly passionate, and instead of jumping out of a high window he cut his throat. Buoyant-flavoured conducting by David Angus and impactful singing by Mariangela Sicilia as Vivetta and Annunziata Vestri as her godmother Rosa Mamai (who hopes she’ll marry and save Federico) helped — but not enough.
Thaddeus Strassberger, director of Wexford’s extravagant overcomplicated Chabrier staging, won Opera Europa’s opera-directing prize in 2005 which encourages very bad habits. Winners must sell a concept to the judges, which encourages self-advertising ‘Look how clever I am!’ work and leads to performers being treated as puppets. Chabrier’s comedy about the future Henri III’s reluctance to accept his election as king of Poland has much classy music. But Strassberger, instead of clarifying and relishing the intrigue-full plot, sets it in a television studio making folksy variety programmes. Liam Bonner brought charisma (and stature) to the role of Henri. Luigi Boccia as Henri’s friend Nangis sounded charming despite a cold. Best musical moment was a thrilling duet for the two rival sopranos, Mercedes Arcuri as the serf Minka and Nathalie Paulin as French chamberlain Fritelli’s wife Alexina.
Stephen Medcalf’s stylish Delius staging was boldly conducted by Rory Macdonald, but did not visually evoke the dreamy romancing of John Bellemer’s ringing Sali and Jessica Muirhead’s forcefully delicate Vreli. The funfair provided colourful stage detail, with acrobats and clowns plus women traders in bizarre costumes. Delius’s atmospheric meandering sits awkwardly beside a shapeless frustrating drama and dull text. Neither world nor characters come alive.
Three duds is too many. Will next year’s programme — The Florentine Straw Hat by Rota, Cristina, regina di Svezia by Foroni, and a Massenet double bill — fare better? Wexford’s gem of a theatre cries out to be used. Why not operetta in the summer and baroque opera in the spring? Wexford should be like the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and up its game as a culture destination. Its opera house is a gift horse, but needs more vision and hard work than Agler and co. can muster.
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