Trinity College Dublin has announced a panel discussion titled ‘Women and War: Representations in the Creative Arts’ to address topics related to this year's Wexford Festival Opera programme. The event is set to take place on September 19th, 2023, at 6.30pm in the Thomas Davis Theatre, Arts Building. Key speakers for the event include Rosetta Cucchi, the Artistic Director of the Wexford Festival Opera; Lara Marlowe, a foreign correspondent for The Irish Times; and Eve Patten, Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute.

The discussion aims to shed light on the portrayal of women in wartime across various art forms, from literature and film to theatre, music, and visual arts. This year's Wexford Festival Opera, which runs from October 24 to November 5, 2023, will feature operas that focus on the themes of women's experiences during wartime. These operas are Zoraida di Granata by Gaetano Donizetti, L’Aube Rouge by Camille Erlanger, and La Ciociara by Marco Tutino.

In collaboration with the Wexford Festival Opera, the Trinity Long Room Hub is set to delve deeper into how women are represented during wartime. The themes of resilience, resistance, activism, and suffering are to be central to the discussion, especially in the backdrop of the current geopolitical situation in Ukraine. Notably, this is the first time since the 1950s that the Wexford Opera House is incorporating a ‘festival forum’ to complement the themes of their performances.

Rosetta Cucchi, apart from her current role, has a rich history in the world of opera, having served as the Artistic Director of Fondazione and Symphonic Orchestra Arturo Toscanini in Parma. Lara Marlowe has covered various global events for The Irish Times since 1996 and has been recognised with the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur for her contribution to Franco-Irish relations. Eve Patten, with her role at the Trinity Long Room Hub, offers insights into British and Irish literary history, particularly literature centred on war.