Opening at Wexford Library on September 22nd. Sponsored by Creative Ireland.
An exhibition of rarely seen photographs of the early years of the Wexford Festival will open at Wexford Library on Wednesday, September 22nd , next.
The eighteen black and white photographs capture background scenes of the inaugural ‘The Wexford Festival’ in 1951, when Dr. Tom Walsh and his committee staged The Rose of Castile in the Georgian Theatre Royal.
Among the photographs are stage designs and preparations for the William Balfe opera, and portraits of the very first Wexford volunteers.
The exhibition, supported by Creative Ireland, pays homage to the men and women who put their shoulder to the wheel in the early years of the 1950s, and helped the festival take root.
It is largely because of their vision and endeavour that Wexford is in a position to mark the seventieth anniversary of a festival which, many decades later, won the highly coveted Best Festival category at the International Opera Awards in 2016.
After The Rose of Castile, the young Festival believed that its future lay in its ability to present little known operas, specifically Italian. In its first decade, Wexford would stage eleven works by five Italian composers: Donizetti, Bellini, Puccini, Rossini and Verdi.
The exhibition reflects the burgeoning relationship between the small Irish town and Italy in the 1950 and which continues to this day.
Comments