Bring on the caped crusaders

THE woman fell out of the train and onto the bus, fur coat slipping off her shoulder, glasses askew and treated her fellow passengers to an impromptu rendition of "We're here because we're here because, we're here." No one joined in, so she stopped. The Opera Train which brings festival goers from Dublin to Wexford and treats them to a delicious meal and any amount of wine had claimed its first casualty of the opening night evening.

Everyone else who disembarked on Thursday for the first performance in this year's Wexford Festival Opera were as decorous in their behaviour as in their attire. And it certainly was a very glamorous evening, though for once at a black tie event it was the men who looked like they'd made the most effort. Guinness, one of the festival's main sponsors, held a "most appropriately dressed man competition" which was won but only just by a very dapper Ralph McDarby, a partner in Deloitte & Touche who arrived wearing a full opera rigout, including cape and top hat. In fact capes seem to have replaced cummerbunds as the must have male fashion accessory with London banker Maxwell Ulfane who comes to the festival every year and Lord Rosse leading the caped crusade.

David Davies from the London based company Johnston Mat hey was another regular visitor from abroad. He organised a very lively party which included his stylish wife Lynda and the legendary BBC broadcaster John Julius Norwich. The Davies family is set to spend even more time in Ireland last year they bought Abbeyleix House, one the finest of our country house estates.

Bishop Noel Willoughby and his wife Valerie were there and he was on the receiving end of many good wishes as he has just announced his retirement.

The Opera Train is one of the festival's most popular traditions but for locals an even more enduring ritual is the pre-show drinks party at the bishop's house. Bishop Comiskey was just one of the local dignitaries spotted later in the front row of the stalls beside Avril Doyle TD, Brendan Howlin TD, the festival's dynamic chief executive Jerome Hynes and his wife Alma, Liam Griffen, the popular manager of the victorious Wexford hurling team and his wife Mary, and the festival's chairman John O'Connor, who was wearing a bow tie in the Wexford colours.

On the opening night young people well, anyone under 35 were very thin on the ground, but apparently once the corporate entertainment side of the event is over and real opera buffs start coming the age profile evens out a bit. In any case, all IS nights of the festival are entirely booked out and have been since July. The success of the Wexford Festival Opera seems assured way ahead of the announcement of next year's programme, both the Ferrycarrig and White's Hotel reported that they've already starting taking bookings for this time next year.