<<  -- 2 --  Roderic Dunnett    SUMMER OPERA REVIEWS

The summer season concluded with three productions at Wexford, another venue famed for its opera chorus, on the Emerald Isle's South Eastern tip. This year featured the early French Romantic Adolphe Adam (If I were King, a lively comedy set in 16th century Goa which anticipates Chabrier's L'Etoile in making a beggar a king for a day, and particularly notable for the brilliant Polish coloratura soprano Iwona Hossa, who distinguished herself equally last year in Moniuszko's The Haunted Manor); the prolific Italian verismo composer Riccardo Zandonai (Conchita, a Carmen-like story based on Pierre Louÿs' novel, first staged in Milan l9ll, and here conducted by Marcello Rota, with Monica di Siena in the title role and both stage direction and costume design by Corrado d'Elia)-- a follow-up to Wexford's slightly leaden staging last year of another Italian rarity, Umberto Giordano's Siberia ; and -- hot on the heels of Welsh National Opera's breathtaking production of The Queen of Spades -- Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans, based on (amongst others) Schiller.

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