The main task facing David Agler, the new artistic director of Wexford Festival Opera, is a very clear one. He needs to restore confidence in Ireland's leading opera festival as an event which has a relationship of respect with the musical profession in Ireland. After all, taxpayers' money in the amount of €800,000 per annum is actually what makes the festival as we know it possible in the first instance.
Former artistic director, Luigi Ferrari, opted to build his opera chorus around an existing body from eastern Europe, the Prague Chamber Choir, who have strengthened the choral contributions in operas, and made valuable concert appearances in the wider festival programme. Choral employment at Wexford remains open to Irish singers, as around a quarter of the 40-member opera chorus is recruited by audition on an annual basis. However, the 2001 decision to replace the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Belarus won few friends. The drop in orchestral standards has been an embarrassment. And the en-masse replacement of Irish musicians led to a well publicised opening-night protest by the Musicians Union of Ireland. It remains to be seen how much improvement will be wrought by the hiring of the Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra for this year's festival.
The festival has also come under fire for the neglect of Irish singers, directors, designers and repetiteurs in its productions. Last December, the Arts Council - in granting this year's funding - formally expressed its concern to the festival about its "failure to nurture Irish opera artists and practitioners" and, as a condition of funding, asked the festival "to respond with vigour" to this issue. Yet although Wexford announced a change of opera at the end of March - replacing Bellini's Adelson e Salvini with Mercadante's La Vestale - there is no Irish involvement in the cast or production team that has been announced for the Mercadante.
Wexford has recently sought planning permission for a major building development at a cost of the order of €20 million. It is clear that the festival will be looking to the public purse to assist with this long-mooted project, which received the support of the Taoiseach at the Fianna Fáil Árd-Fheis of 2002. The Irish taxpayer needs to know that investment in the most famous of Irish musical events will not only assist in the presentation of first-class musical experiences to an Irish and international audience, but also nurture career development for opera practitioners and professional musicians in this country as well as for those from abroad.