A television soap "celebrity" was the unlikely star attraction at the opening event of the Wexford Festival Opera last night.
British actor Anita Dobson, best known for her role as pub landlady Angie Watts in the BBC's EastEnders, made her opera debut in a performance of Kurt Weill's Der Silbersee.
The seldom-performed 1933 German opera was presented in English as The Silver Seain a new translation by Rory Bremner and is one of seven major works on the 18-day festival programme.
Dobson played the role of Frau Von Luber in the opera, first performed in Nazi Germany shortly before its Jewish author fled the country. Speaking before going on stage, she said she was "so nervous I could spit blood, but thrilled [that] I am here in Ireland for my first opera".
The audience included US ambassador to Ireland Thomas Foley, Olive Braiden, chairwoman of the Arts Council, and Wexford MEP Avril Doyle.
The production was staged in a temporary €850,000 theatre, in what artistic director David Agler described as "the magnificent surroundings of Johnstown Castle" outside Wexford town.
Described as "the Cheltenham of opera" by Minister for Arts John O'Donoghue, the festival is expected to attract 30,000 visitors and also features a programme of ballet, concerts, recitals, art exhibitions and talks at a number of venues in Wexford town.
At a reception in Johnstown Castle last night, the Minister said that "for over half a century Wexford Festival Opera has been recognised as the world leader in the production of rare opera", and added that "it bedrocks an important part of our international reputation as a major player on the global cultural scene, which consistently punches above its weight".
A new €33 million, 750-seat opera house is under construction on the site of the Theatre Royal, Wexford's traditional town-centre festival venue, and is expected to open next year.
The Government, which provided €2 million for this year's festival, is contributing €26 million towards the cost of the theatre, with an additional €7 million being raised by the Wexford Festival Foundation.
Mr O'Donoghue noted that the new building "is already clearly visible on the skyline of Wexford town and will provide Wexford with, not alone a first-class, state of the art opera house for the 21st century, but also a centre of cultural and arts activity for the people of Wexford, the southeast and Ireland as a whole. The new theatre will be a fitting legacy to the . . . vision of the late Jerome Hynes."
Mr Hynes, a former chief executive of the festival, died in 2005.
