THE Wexford Festival has announced details of its opera programme for 1997, writes Michael Dervan. The opening work, Elena de Feltre by Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870), continues artistic director Luigi Ferrari's love affair with early romantic Italian opera. The dramatic tragedy Elena de Feltre from the late 1830s will, he promises, reveal - new aspects of a composer whose last outing in Wexford was through Elisa e Claudio, written in 1821 and staged in Wexford in 1988.

The remaining two composers are new to Wexford. Alexander Dargomizhsky (1813- 1869) is best known for his last work The Stone Guest, a musically innovative working of the Don Juan story. Wexford will be hearing a work of his middle period Rusalka (1855), with a libretto based on Pushkin's version of the well-known water-nymph legend.

The music of Ottorino Respighi (1887-1936) has been experiencing a revival of late and next year Wexford audiences will have a chance to hear a piece from the early 1930s, La fiamma, a "turbulent drama about witchcraft, love and retribution" by a composer prized for the colour and exoticism of his orchestral technique.

The festival press conference saw the launch of Marco Polo's CD issue of last year's Saffo and the opera selected for recording from this year's festival is Meyerheer's L'Etoile du Nord. The length of that piece (which runs until close to midnight) has focused a lot of minds and bodies on the discomforts of the Theatre Royal's seating and heating. Chief Executive Jerome Hynes, who's been in the happy position of having, all three operas sold out since July, revealed that the number of tickets sold this year is expected to reach 28,000.