ArtScape: Wexford Festival Opera can clearly expect its new Artists' Development Programme to alleviate some of the heat the festival has faced, from the Arts Council among others, about the low involvement of Irish opera practitioners in the festival's work, writes Michael Dervan.
Wexford has at last openly increased the attention it is paying to Irish singers. The festival this week announced the new programme, "to coach and train talented singers, many of them Irish, who are in the early stages of a professional operatic career". Welsh tenor Dennis O'Neill has been appointed director of the programme, and he has put together an international team of teachers, vocal coaches and language specialists - Gwenyth Annear, Veronica Dunne, Massimiliano Murrali, Michael Pollock, Ingrid Surgenor and Tina Ruta. They will tutor 22 singers, 12 of them Irish, who were selected in a number of ways - by audition, invitation or recommendation.
Speaking at the launch, O'Neill expressed delight at being involved in "establishing a very comprehensive programme with a teaching staff of world renown. We aim to make a real impact on the careers of the programme participants".
He made the point that the Irish singers had "earned their places" and said: "Unless we support our young people we have no future." He also offered the view that "these young Irish singers are as good as any" and voiced the aspiration that the new Wexford initiative might develop into a fully-fledged Irish opera studio.
Of course the new training opportunities won't stem the negative responses to the low numbers of Irish artists in the festival. Only the casting and hiring decisions of artistic director David Agler can do that.
By pitching the new programme at singers from all nationalities and talking up the idea of developing an actual opera studio, the festival is marking out interesting new territory. It is signalling an initiative that could go some way to providing an element of year-round use for the facilities that will result from the long-delayed redevelopment of the Theatre Royal.
The festival's chairman Paul Hennessy wouldn't disclose the cost of the new training programme, nor is he yet in a position to outline a timescale for the rebuilding of the theatre. The daily 11am masterclasses in the Presbyterian Church on Wexford's Anne Street are free to the public. They will run from August 16th to August 24th, with a break on Sunday, August 21st. There are illustrated evening lectures by Norman White, consultant to Nimbus Records' Prima Voce series of early vocal recordings, on August 22nd and 23rd, and an evening masterclass with Dennis O'Neill on August 24th. The programme closes with a gala concert by the course participants in Wexford's Theatre Royal on Friday, August 26th, admission €10. For further details, call 053-22144.
Kilkenny banking on art
The Kilkenny Arts Festival started only last night, but artist Sean Lynch had his Fountain of the Ansbacher Bank up and running inside the festival box office on Wednesday (and nobody's fallen in yet). The miniature wood bank on top of a fountain, in the former Bank of Ireland building on Kilkenny's Parade, invites people to throw the traditional dosh in; Lynch says he's aiming to collect five grand so he can go to the Cayman Islands to open an off-shore account!. So far, however, the coppers don't look like they'll amount to enough. The sculpture is one of a number of architectural installations in the castle grounds as part of the festival. The festival continues all week, with the new Performance Corporation show, The Yokohama Delegation, opening tonight. Deirdre O'Kane performs on Wednesday and there are strong classical and visual arts strands, and plenty of world music. Call 056-7752175 for details or see www.kilkennyarts.ie.
Ó Briain needs a crutch
The funniest sight in Edinburgh's Fringe Festival this year (although in no way funny for the man himself) is the hobbling figure of Dara Ó Briain slouching his way to his show each night at the Assembly Rooms, writes Brian Boyd. As if the Fringe wasn't enough to contend with, Ó Briain has to do a whole month of nightly shows on crutches.
"It began back at the Cat Laughs in Kilkenny in June," says the comic. "I was playing in the annual comics football match [ Ireland v The Rest of the World] and did something to my knee. A few weeks ago I had to have an operation on it and now I'm on crutches for the next three months. This city is not designed for comedians on crutches, believe me. Still, I least I got 10 minutes' material out of it." Plus the sympathy vote.
Incidentally, Ó Briain is ineligible for the Fringe's Perrier Award, because his television work has made him "too high profile a star". But surely in with a shout for a Perrier nomination are Dublin comics David O'Doherty and Andrew Maxwell - both, in the traditionally quiet first week of the Fringe, were playing to full houses.
O'Doherty's brother, the O'-less playwright Mark Doherty, was over in the Scottish capital to see the Galway Arts Festival production of his acclaimed play, Trad, open at the Assembly Rooms. The ex-comic was suitably thrilled by Trad receiving a five-star (that's five out of five) review in the city's List magazine - basically the Time Out of Edinburgh.
In other theatrical news, playwright Tom Murphy was so moved by the new production of his Gigli Concert at the festival that people sitting beside him on one of the show's first dates reported he was in tears at the performance. Tears of joy, presumably.
The Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Co Clare is currently hosting the second Burren annual exhibition, featuring work by six contemporary Irish artists, writes George Keegan. The short history of this not-for-profit independent college specialising in undergraduate and graduate fine art education is not only fascinating but is in many ways remarkable. What was a dream 11 years ago is now a reality. During the 1980s a local couple, the late Michael Greene and his wife Mary, bought and renovated a property with a 16th-century tower house, just outside Ballyvaughan. Michael at the time was involved in his family's hotel business and noticed numbers of people coming from the major cities to draw and paint in the Burren. He was aware that from the seventh to the 17th century the area was an important centre of learning, so he decided to open an art college. In July 1994 president Mary Robinson officially opened the college, and part of his dream was realised. Sadly, Michael Greene died in 2001 but with great courage and tremendous drive his wife Mary kept the dream alive. Three years ago Dr Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh, president of NUI Galway, launched a master of fine art programme in association with the Burren College, operated in association with the Royal College of Art, London, and the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. Last year the college held 10th anniversary celebrations, which were attended by President McAleese, and earlier this year a new complex - comprising 20 studio spaces and a state of the art gallery - was completed. It's here the current exhibition can be seen, and so the remarkable story of BCA continues.
In case anyone was wondering if the picture on the front of the (much more accessible than before) Dublin Fringe Festival programme was a production shot from one of the shows - it's not. The family photo is of a fictitious character making up what they're calling the Fringe Family. Dad likes live art; he's divorced and remarried to Mum, who loves the theatre and likes to be a bit dramatic. Her daughter Daisy is in ballet school, and his two kids are Margot, a champion violinist, and Vinnie, a wannabe photographer who likes visual art. Spot the dog (on the back cover) is the cheeky upstart who's now a loveable part of the family (the Spiegeltent). Which just about covers all the programme options.
The "family" campaign, created by Zinc and the Fringe marketing team - who say it was inspired by both the Royal Tenenbaums and The Addams Family - aims to encourage audiences to be a part of the festival. "There is something for everyone to enjoy if they give it a chance and explore their own inner actor/performer/musician". The Dublin Fringe Festival will arrive earlier this year than is usual, starting on September 12th and running until October 2nd. www.fringefest.com.