One group of performers in Wexford Festival Opera, which opens tomorrow night, have faced a special challenge over the past few weeks - combining rehearsals with attendance at school and learning to sing in Czechoslovakian into the bargain!
Twelve members of the local youth choral group, The Young Wexford Singers, aged between 9 and 15, are playing village schoolchildren in Jakob∅n, the Anton∅n Dvorβk opera.
"They're thrilled with the experience", said director, Mr Eanna McKenna.
"It's a brilliant opportunity for them to be singing in a professional opera. Getting them familiar with Czech has been one of the most difficult things".
The skies over Wexford town will light up with an extravagant fireworks display tomorrow night to celebrate the official opening of the 50th year of the festival, an event which brings artists and audiences from all over the world.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, open the festival, giving the signal to French pyrotechnics company, Groupe F, and Nationwide Fireworks of Ireland to start a spectacular fireworks show, choreographed to the sound of operatic arias, on the town's quayfront.
The display, costing approximately £50,000, has been partly sponsored by Wexford Corporation, which increased its support for the opening ceremony to ensure that the standard set over the past three years by the State-funded Millennium Festivals Ltd, was maintained.
For Co Wexford residents, the fireworks display is one of the most popular events of the opera festival and tomorrow night's 50th anniversary celebration is expected to draw thousands of spectators.
It will begin 18 days and nights of musical and artistic activity outside the mainstay opera programme, including recitals, concerts, art exhibitions, plays, lectures and historical tours.
This year's 19 operas - Alessandro Stradella, Jakob∅n and Sapho - will feature 170 performers and stage personnel from 15 countries who have been rehearsing for the past month.
"It has all been coming together for the past four weeks", said Festival chief executive, Mr Jerome Hynes. "The last piece of the jigsaw is the arrival of the audience on Thursday night".
The last two opening nights in Wexford have been disrupted by the unwelcome arrival of twittering starlings into the Theatre Royal during the performances.
But the festival organisers are determined it won't happen again - a huge crane has been employed to carry out roof repairs on the building, which dates back to 1832.
"We've made every effort to ensure there is no distraction and that the focus of everyone will be on what is taking place on the stage", said Mr Hynes.
All opera performances and many of the official festival fringe events are already sold out, in keeping with the box office trend since 1996 of hitting 100 per cent capacity well in advance of the opening night, but that shouldn't stop anyone trying to get a ticket.
"It is always worthwhile contacting the box office because we do get cancellations from people who can't attend for whatever reason", the chief executive explained.
This year, audiences at Wexford Festival won't have to be multi-lingual to understand what is being sung about on stage. For the first time, a computerised "surtitle" system is being introduced, whereby the English translation of the operas will appear on a screen above the stage.
For the first time since 1951, when the festival was founded, the RT╔ Symphony Orchestra won't be associated with the event. Instead, the orchestral accompaniment will be provided by the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Belarus.