2005-03-02

RIP-OFF Ireland has reached the opera house. Wexford Festival is hiring an eastern European orchestra because it says that the local equivalent is 150,000 more expensive.
While the government last week established Culture Ireland, an agency to promote Irish art overseas, one of the countrys premier cultural events is now outsourcing its music to Poland and its singing to Prague.
In a memo last year to the Arts Council, which provides almost 1m funding to Wexford each year, the festival said it wouldnt be using RTEs National Symphony Orchestra because of the cost...