Artscape: The Wexford Festival has finally signed on the dotted line and accepted an Arts Council grant offer of €950,000 for 2005, writes Michael Dervan.
The festival and the council spent the first six months of the year in a battle of wits over conditions which the council had attached to its offer, which represents a €150,000 increase on the festival's 2004 grant, the first increase which the festival has managed to secure since 2001.
The council has for a number of years been pressurising Wexford over what the council's application report assessment, released under the Freedom of Information Act, describes as "the policy of not engaging Irish opera practitioners". The council notified the festival last December that the first €800,000 of the council's 2005 offer was contingent on Wexford coming up with "a proposal for how the company intends to introduce Irish singers and creative teams to the 2005-2007 festivals, indicating realistic and achievable target figures".
The final €150,000 was conditional on the festival's agreement to engage "an appropriate Irish orchestra" rather than the Krakow Philharmonic, which took over last year after three years during which the festival used the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Belarus. The festival last used the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in 2001, after which it refused to meet the increased costs proposed by RTÉ.
The festival had already agreed terms for next October's festival with its Polish orchestra when the Arts Council made its December grant offer. As a result it requested the council to set aside the conditions and grant it the full €950,000. The council has refused to set aside the conditions, but has softened their impact by requesting instead "a timetable and approach which you consider reasonable and achievable to include Irish artists within the festival (including an Irish orchestra) and the steps that WFO can take in this regard within the next two to three years".
It seems that the festival's new chairman, Paul Hennessy, and the new artistic director, David Agler, have persuaded the council that they plan to approach the relevant issues with the requisite vigour. The council's application report assessment stated that the relationship with Wexford "has been characterised by a lack of openness," while noting also that "the arrival of the new artistic director and the declared willingness of the company's new Chairman to engage with the Arts Council's genuine concerns create a new context with which to engage afresh with this important festival." The Wexford festival's chief executive, Jerome Hynes, is vice-chairman of the Arts Council. He absents himself from the council's deliberations on the festival and participates only on the Wexford side of the table.
Wexford has long made the case for what amounts to absolute independence for its artistic director. The council, however, notes that "it has been made clear to the company that the issue of engaging Irish artists should be central to the company's policy, as articulated by the Board, rather than left to the discretion of any particular artistic director." The chairman and artistic director are both actively involved in moves to secure the future use of an orchestra of Irish musicians, and the members of the Musicians Union of Ireland recently voted in support of the payment rates proposed by the Irish Film Orchestra, which is in known to be in discussion with the festival.
As recently as last October, the Wexford chairman issued a statement saying the festival had "no choice but to look overseas" for its orchestral services, as it required "an established orchestra of at least 60 players". He also claimed that the RTÉ NSO was "currently the only orchestra in Ireland able to meet these requirements". The Irish Film Orchestra was established in 1988, since when it has recorded scores for Hollywood movies, and engaged in other commercial work.
Hennessy now describes the festival as being "engaged with the Arts Council and happy to have the dialogue" as "part of an ongoing process".
The review of the orchestral situation, he says, is "due to conclude over the next couple of weeks". The situation regarding the employment of Irish singers and theatre practitioners, he said, "is being looked at very heavily". David Agler is "continuing to make arrangements to audition as much Irish talent as he can" and he is also familiarising himself with the work of Irish theatre practitioners.
The festival is also engaged in dialogue with consultants, the Office of Public Works and government departments about the proposed redevelopment of the Theatre Royal, for which the festival is hoping to receive substantial support from the public purse. It will become clear "over the next couple of months", he said, where the festival will take place in 2006. If the development project is then underway, the existing theatre will already be a building site.
Opera al fresco
The setting was idyllic on the hottest weekend of the year when Opera A La Carte staged Verdi's La Traviata this month at Monksgrange, family home of Jeremy and Rosie Hill. Dressed to the nines, people carried folding picnic tables and hampers up the drive in sweltering heat and headed for the complimentary wine bar, while musicians tuned up in the marquee, write Kate McMorrow and Colman Morrissey.
The absence of a dedicated opera house means Irish fans are accustomed to getting their opera where they can. Mainstream opera is now often staged in tents and hotel annexes rather than on a conventional stage, apart from the big three: Opera Ireland's two short seasons, the Wexford Festival and Opera Touring Company shows.
Countries less than half the size of Ireland such as Estonia and Latvia have more than one theatre dedicated to opera. Ferrara, a smallish town in northern Italy, for example, has its Teatro Communale which seats almost 1,000. The lack of a national opera house forces promising Irish singers abroad for work, although we are producing more fine female vocalists than ever.
This is one reason why opera in country houses attracts huge audiences to Glyndebourne-style events. Castleward in County Down has been staging summer opera for years, while Loughcrew in Co Meath and the Blackstairs group in Co Wexford have followed suit, staging the same opera on different weekends. This is their fifth season and the most successful, with over 600 people at Monksgrange this month and a superb performance from the Opera A La Carte singers. The 1930s staging was effective and brought Verdi's tragic love story to life for the capacity audience.
La Traviata is so focused on the soprano lead that the performance can suffer if the singer is not up to the part. At Monksgrange, Caroline Childe was excellent in the poignant scenes which are the core of this work. It takes an exceptional singer to move an audience in the first act, but this Childe did in the first scene with Germont père. The other principal singers were effective in their roles, including Irish singer Michelle Sheridan, who made an appearance again this year as Violetta's maidservant Annina.
The six instrumentalists conveyed orchestral colour in this great score despite such small numbers. A standing ovation at the end of the performance was well deserved, although some of the praise was undoubtedly for the Hills, whose philanthropy, courage and beautiful gardens contributed to a memorable evening.