Best Week Ever- Wexford Opera Festival

Alright, prepare yourself for a flurry of blogposts. Our community was just graced by a slew of visitors and special events this past week and we have lots to report. Affectionately referred to as “The Best Week Ever” (circa popular VH1 program from a few years back), this week was full of opportunities for fun, prayer, reminiscing, and celebration.

It was also conveniently the week of the Wexford Opera Festival, arguably the most exciting week in Wexford over the whole year. The festival is renowned throughout Europe and brings in some amazing talent to our little town. The town is noticeably more crowded as visitors come in to see one or all three of the operas performed over the eleven-day festival. The streets of the town are all lit up like Christmas, and you can just feel the excitement. One of the most wonderful things about working for the church in a small town is the incredible connections and opportunities we’re given. The “head of house,” Alfred Lacey, helped the three of us get tickets to the dress rehearsal for Ghosts of Versailles the day before our visitors arrived. And when our visitors did arrived we all went down to the quay to watch the spectacular fireworks shot out over the water to mark the opening of the festival. Then we were able to go see the opening night of the “double billed” opera later in the week with Steve and Michele warner, and my parents. We are very grateful to Paul Hennessey, the chairman of the festival, and his wife Angela for helping us get those tickets! We are consistently blessed by the generosity and graciousness of our Clonard parishioners.

The Opera was a great experience for us all. We all got dressed up and went to see some world-class talent. The “double bill” is two shorter operas performed in the same night, so we saw both Une Éducation Manquée and La Cambiale di Matrimonio. However, the fun definitely continued afterwards when we took our “American visitors” down to our favorite local pub, Simon’s. (yes, still in our formal-ware). We had a great night introducing our friends and family from the states to our newly made friends here in Wexford.