About
The Wexford Festival Opera 2026 invites audiences to discover the magic of opera through the lens of rediscovery, imagination, and artistic exploration. From 15 to 31 October 2026, the historic town of Wexford in Ireland celebrates the 75th anniversary edition of one of the world’s most distinctive opera festivals — a festival famous for bringing forgotten masterpieces back to life and presenting them with exceptional creativity.
For decades, Wexford Festival Opera has built its international reputation on a unique mission: to reveal hidden treasures of the operatic repertoire. The 2026 anniversary season continues this tradition under the artistic direction of Rosetta Cucchi, presenting works that combine historical significance, theatrical imagination, and the freshness of discovery.
The heart of the festival is a programme of three major main-stage opera productions, each returning to Wexford’s history in a newly created staging. Pietro Mascagni’s Iris opens the season with its exotic atmosphere, powerful emotions, and richly coloured orchestral writing. The production is conducted by Francesco Cilluffo, a specialist in the Italian operatic tradition, with staging by Rosetta Cucchi.
Gioachino Rossini’s L’equivoco stravagante brings the brilliance, humour, and rhythmic energy of the young Rossini to the stage. This rarely performed comic opera receives a new production conducted by Riccardo Bisatti and directed by Max Hoehn, offering audiences the opportunity to experience the work in a form closer to the composer’s original vision.
The third major production is Sergei Prokofiev’s The Gambler, a dramatic and psychologically intense opera based on the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Its powerful exploration of obsession, fate, and human vulnerability adds a darker and more modern dimension to the festival programme.
Alongside the main operas, the 2026 edition features a rich selection of additional events, including concerts, recitals, pocket operas, and special anniversary projects. Highlights include the 75th Anniversary Gala Concert, The Factory Concert showcasing emerging artists, and The First Festival — a world premiere created for young singers of the Wexford Factory programme.
The festival also presents the world premiere of Still, life… by composer Ailís Ní Ríain, a community opera created with the participation of the people of Wexford. This project reflects the festival’s belief that opera is not only a performance, but also a living connection between artists, audiences, and local communities.
The 2026 programme brings together outstanding artistic personalities, including conductor Francesco Cilluffo, conductor Riccardo Bisatti, director Max Hoehn, and artistic director Rosetta Cucchi, whose creative visions shape the festival’s anniversary season.
About the Wexford Festival Opera
Vision, determination, talent, bravery and innovation. This is the story of how Wexford Festival Opera has grown from small local beginnings to our current status as a leading international opera festival. What a journey!
Compton Mackenzie, the renowned novelist and founder of Gramophone magazine, suggested to Tom Walsh that he stage an opera in Wexford, few could have imagined where the idea would lead.
But since the first ‘Festival of Music and the Arts’ took place in October 1951, Wexford Festival Opera has grown into one of the world’s leading opera festivals.
Creating extraordinary experiences, from the beginning, the Festival has made a name for itself by introducing audiences to unjustly neglected works, many of which have since found a place in the canon. It shine a light into the shadows to celebrate the masterpieces that slipped through the net of public consciousness. Through a process of discovery and reimagination, it reveal their beauty and truth to new audiences, enabling them to live and flourish. Each year it delve into the operatic archive for forgotten masterpieces.
Breathing new life into these forgotten masterpieces, for two weeks in late October and early November, Wexford Festival Opera stage a world-class festival of opera and performance, in our purpose built National Opera House and selective venues around Wexford town bring thousands of opera-lovers flocking to Wexford from all over the world.
But it hasn’t stopped there. Since Tom Walsh first guided the Festival to international success, Wexford Festival Opera has been blessed with a succession of talented and passionate artistic directors, all of whom balanced tradition with bold innovation.
In 2020 the Festival appointed Rosetta Cucchi as Artistic Director. Rosetta, an internationally-renowned pianist and director, who has had a regular presence at the Festival for more than 25 years as Assistant to the Artistic Director, first under Luigi Ferrari and later under David Agler. Her passion, knowledge and respect for Wexford and the Festival, places her in the fortunate position to honour Wexford’s traditions while simultaneously introducing a new and innovative vision.
But of course, the Festival’s success is due in no small part to Wexford itself and the hundreds of local, dedicated volunteer force who complete the Wexford experience.
