THE INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED Wexford Festival Opera has revealed high demand ahead of its 61st event – with ticket sales topping 90 per cent capacity weeks ahead of opening.

The 2012 Wexford Festival Opera will run for 12 days from Wednesday, 24 October until Sunday, 4 November, with a total of 54 daytime and evening events being presented.

“It is a heartening endorsement of the Festival by our most important stakeholders, ie our audiences, that ticket sales have reached such a high level and have almost booked out so far in advance of the event itself,” said Chief Executive of Wexford Festival, David McLoughlin.

“However, with only a few tickets remaining, the oft repeated advice of book now to avoid disappointment could never be more apt”.

Opera-lovers who want to attend the Festival have been advised there is remaining availability for 25 October and 4 November.

This year’s programme includes three  mainstage opera productions:

• L’Arlesiana by Francesco Cilèa
• Le Roi malgré lui (The King in Spite of Himself) by Emmanuel Chabrier
• A Village Romeo and Juliet by Frederick Delius

Two daytime ShortWork operas (A Dinner Engagement by Lennox Berkeley and The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) will also be included.

Wexford Opera is one of the final eight Irish cultural organisations selected by the Arts Council’s pilot RAISE initiative, which awards funding with the aim of strengthening development capacity in order to achieve greater success in securing future philanthropic funding.

A new report by the Arts Council, Assessment of the Economic Impact of the Arts in Ireland, has shown the arts sector is a ‘major’ employer in Ireland – with Council supported jobs generating an annual turnover of €184 million.

Read: Arts provide significant direct and indirect employment to economy – report>

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