Organization

Wexford Festival Opera

Singer

Soprano

Anne-Sophie Duprels

Edmea

Stage director

Julia Burbach

Conductor

Francesco Cilluffo

Lighting designer

D.M. Wood

Costume designer

Cécile Trémolières

Set designer

Tenor

Luciano Ganci

Oberto

Conor Prendiville

Fritz

Baritone

Leon Kim

Ulmo

Bass

Ivan Shcherbatykh

Il Conte di Leitmeritz

John Molloy

Il Barone di Waldek

Taljan

Wexford

Ireland

O’Reilly Theatre

Dublin

Long-neglected works from several centuries of operatic history have long been a staple of the internationally acclaimed annual opera festival in the little Irish coastal town of Wexford.Having been forced to take a break last year, the festival has a rediscovered work by the important Italian composer Alfredo Catalani on this year’s programme: Edmea.

17th-century Bohemia:Edmea and Oberto are lovers.But Oberto’s father, Count Leitmeritz, rejects the liaison and tries to force the young woman to marry one of his liegemen instead.The distraught Edmea casts herself into the waters of the River Elbe.She survives her suicide attempt, but falls into a state of madness from which only the sight of her beloved can redeem her…

Alfredo Catalani was hailed as one of the greatest exponents of Italian verismo during his lifetime. That he has since fallen into oblivion probably has to do with his untimely death, for he died of tuberculosis, aged just 39. Only his last opera, La Wally (based on the novel Die Geier-Wally by Wilhelmine von Hillern) is still a regular billing on today’s opera programmes. Edmea, by contrast, which premiered at La Scala Milan in 1886, is almost entirely unknown. The libretto was written by Antonio Ghislanzoni, who also supplied Verdi with the libretti for Aida and La forza del destino.

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