Tom Walsh, 1951 to 1966 Tom Walsh, an avid opera lover, dreamt of staging an opera production in his hometown Wexford. He started the Wexford Opera Study Circle in 1950, and invited Sir
Compton Mackenzie, the founder of the magazine
The Gramophone and a writer on music, for the inaugural lecture for the circle. The result was that a group of opera lovers (including Dr. Tom Walsh who was to become the festival's first artistic director) planned a "Festival of Music and the Arts" (as the event was first called) from 21 October to 4 November 1951. The highlight was a production of the 19t-century Irish composer
Michael William Balfe's 1857
The Rose of Castille, a little-known opera whose composer had lived in Wexford
. Setting itself aside from the well-known operas during its early years placed Wexford in a unique position in the growing world of opera festivals, and this move was supported by well-known critics such as the influential
Desmond Shawe-Taylor of
The Sunday Times, who communicated what was happening each autumn season. During its first decade, Wexford offered an increasingly enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience such rarities as
Lortzing's
Der Wildschütz and obscure works (for that time) such as
Bellini's
La sonnambula was staged, with
Marilyn Cotlow as Adina and
Nicola Monti as Elvino.
Bryan Balkwill,
Charles Mackerras and
John Pritchard were among the young conductors, working with subsequently famous producers and designers like
Michael MacLiammoir. For the time, the results were astounding, and the festival was soon attracting leading operatic talent, both new and established. Increasingly, it was possible to recruit singers like
Nicola Monti,
Afro Poli,
Franco Calabrese and
Paolo Pedani as well as rising British and Irish stars as
Heather Harper,
Bernadette Greevy,
Thomas Hemsley and
Geraint Evans. Due to the renovation of the Theatre, the 1960 season did not take place, but at its re-opening,
Verdi's
Ernani was presented in September 1961. Problems in obtaining the Radio Éireann Light Orchestra (now the
RTÉ Concert Orchestra) led to the involvement of the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for this one season, while in the next year the Radio Éireann Symphony (now the
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra) moved into the pit, a role it maintained up until 2005. The 1962 ''
L'amico Fritz'' brought the young Irish singers
Veronica Dunne and
Bernadette Greevy to international notice, while other distinguished names from the 1960s included
Mirella Freni in
Bellini's
I puritani. Massenet's
Don Quichotte was another standout in 1965 with the veteran bass
Miroslav Cangalovic as Cervantes' old knight.
Albert Rosen, a young conductor from Prague, began a long association with the company in 1965, and he went on to conduct eighteen Wexford productions. He was later appointed Principal Conductor of the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra and was Conductor Laureate at the time of his death in 1997.
Brian Dickie, 1967 to 1973 In 1967,
Walter Legge, the
EMI recording producer and founder of the
Philharmonia Orchestra was asked to take over the running of the festival, but within a month of the appointment he suffered a severe heart attack and was obliged to withdraw. The 26-year-old former Trinity College student
Brian Dickie took over the running of the Festival. A new era of outstanding singing emerged, with the first operas in Russian and Czech plus a new emphasis on the French repertory as represented by
Delibes’
Lakmé in 1970 and
Bizet's
Les pêcheurs de perles in 1971.
Thomson Smillie, 1974 to 1978 Dickie was persuaded to return to Glyndebourne, but his successor in 1974 was Thomson Smillie who came from the
Scottish Opera. He maintained the three-opera format. Much neglected during this period, Massenet's operas quickly became his favourites, and Smillie staged
Thaïs in his first season, starting a series of the composer's operas which included the rare
Sapho produced in 2001. In 1976,
Britten's
The Turn of the Screw was presented along with a rarity in
Cimarosa's one-man piece
Il maestro di cappella. Other rare Italian operas of the 18th century were presented in 1979 and subsequent years.
Adrian Slack, 1979 to 1981 Adrian Slack concentrated on mainly Italian opera. There were some exception such as
Handel's
Orlando,
Floyd's
Of Mice and Men and
Mozart's
Zaide.
Spontini's
La vestale was memorable for the incident involving the entire company slipping on a steeply raked, smoothly finished stage, as described by Bernard Levin.
Elaine Padmore, 1982 to 1994 Elaine Padmore had been a BBC opera producer and had supervised transmissions of the productions for
BBC Radio 3 and, during her tenure as artistic director, a wide spectrum of music and singers with many remarkable productions made appearances at Wexford.
Sergei Leiferkus was introduced to audiences outside Russia along with many other newcomers such as the American dramatic soprano
Alessandra Marc during her era. Other outstanding productions included newcomer
Francesca Zambello's two productions, the first of
Donizetti's ''
L'assedio di Calais'' in 1991 and
Tchaikovsky's
Cherevichki in 1993. A new idea introduced by Padmore in 1982 was the "Operatic Scenes", the presentation of excerpts from operas. This provided a lower-cost alternative for younger audience members as well as offering more work to the chorus, and the idea proved to be very successful.
Michael William Balfe's
The Rose of Castile, directed by Nicolette Molnár and designed by John Lloyd Davies, was revived in a professional production in early 1991 to commemorate the festival's 40th anniversary.
Luigi Ferrari, 1995 to 2004 In 1995, Padmore was succeeded as artistic director by
Luigi Ferrari, then director of the
Rossini Opera Festival at
Pesaro and later director of the
Teatro Comunale in
Bologna. Naturally, he developed his own style by emphasising Italian and late Romantic works such as
Meyerbeer's ''
L'étoile du nord'' in 1996. In 1994, a four-year series of commercial recordings from the festival was started, in addition to
Raidió Teilifís Éireann broadcasts from the festival. Many seasons have also been broadcast by
BBC Radio 3. In 2001, the fiftieth festival was a special event marked by the introduction of
surtitles.
David Agler, 2005 to 2019 David Agler became artistic director and programmed the 2005 and subsequent seasons. He is an American conductor, previously the music director at
Vancouver Opera and resident conductor at the
San Francisco Opera. One innovation, following up from the original idea of "Operatic Scenes", has been the "mini opera" concept, presenting the more mainstream works in condensed versions, was developed with success.
Rosetta Cucchi, 2020 to present In 2020 Agler was succeeded as artistic director by
Rosetta Cucchi. ==Expansion==