Wexford Festival Opera 2026: The Rose of Castile
The Rose of Castile. Image uncredited.
*****
It might be a 19th-century opera, but under Heather Hadrill’s excellent direction, Michael William Balfe’s The Rose of Castile gets a generational facelift. The Irishman’s 1857 opera, chosen for the inaugural Wexford Festival Opera in 1951, transformed into a 1920s Hal Roach, Laurel and Hardy-style comedy. A Depression-era love story of queens and commoners, flappers and disguises, comic misunderstandings and political intrigue that’s joyously irresistible. Hadrill’s brilliantly abridged and divinely directed pocket opera, one of two celebrating Irish composers, possibly the best 70 minutes you’ll have this festival.
With more twists and turns than a case full of corkscrews, the plot doesn’t thicken so much as send you white-water rafting. Surfing events like soprano Eleri Gwilym effortlessly surfs the scales. Gwilym’s singing infectious, her comic timing excellent. Gwilym's commanding presence owning every inch of stage as Queen Elvira of León setting out to trick her betrothed. A prince she has yet to meet, who, allegedly, is out to play a trick on her. Elvira a mistress of trills and thrills in Gwilym’s stunning performance.
Meanwhile, a sub-plot sees Elvira desperate to outwit baritone Rory Musgrave’s power-hungry Don Pedro. Who, along with his two lackeys, tenor Jonah Halton’s Don Sallust and bass-baritone Conor Cooper’s Don Florio, is determined to seize Elvira’s throne. Merriment ensues, with mezzo-soprano Erin Fflura as maid-in-waiting, Donna Carmen, adding fuel to the fun. Elsewhere, tenor Eamonn Walsh’s mysterious and handsome Manuel leaves you wondering whether he really is a prince, a commoner, or something else altogether? The amorous Manuel, more Bertie Wooster than dashing prince, oozing boundless charm. Thankfully, a clever narrative device in the guise of a relentless newspaper reporter ties everything together. Peter McCamley terrific at generating low-life pizzazz as a muckraking hack. All the while musical director Rebecca Warren delivers lively piano accompaniment, with several moments, like the laughing trio, or songs about wine and love or not being a saint, simply superb. Mezzo-soprano Myrna Tennant as Beatrix rounding out a terrific singing cast.
If Gwilym is unquestionably the star of the show, Hadrill is its unsung heroine. Like Lisa Krügel’s sumptuous and smartly layered set, using picture frames and oversized playing cards to excellent effect, Hadrill is all about precision, flow and detail. Expression, gesture, composition all perfectly balanced. Central action forever supported, whilst never distracted from, by peripheral performers. The whole, beautifully lit by Cian Redmond, creating the illusion of natural effortlessness. Right down to props. From held-up newspapers to a fold-out crown, a rosary bead gift to a playful feather duster; all inform the immediate action and never just serve to add colour. Hadrill’s impeccable marriage of singing, staging and superb performances ensuring The Rose of Castile is an operatic and theatrical delight. Not to be missed.
The Rose of Castile by Michael William Balfe, libretto by Augustus Glossop Harris and Edmund Falconer, after the libretto by Adolphe d’Ennery and Clairville (alias of Louis-François Nicolaïe, 1811–1879) for Adolphe Adam’s Le muletier de Tolède (1854), runs at the Jerome Hynes Theatre, National Opera House, Wexford, as part of Wexford Festival Opera 2026 on 16, 20, 22, 24, 26, 29 and 31 October.
For more information visit Wexford Festival Opera
