The state-of-the-art building was opened in 2008  as a fitting home for the award-winning Wexford Festival Opera, as well as being built as an all-year-round multi-disciplinary performance art-form theatre. 

A state-of-the-art auditorium tactfully inserted into a dense, historic urban plan; a “secret gem” tucked away behind a reinstated street-front.

All walnut-lined auditorium, calling to mind the interior of a stringed instrument. Lighting bridges within the room, precision-crafted to be shown off, like the bridges of a stringed instrument.

Stage and forestage layout and technology allow the presentation of six different performances in a three-day cycle.

Excellent sight-lines, optimised for performance on the forestage, in accordance with the Wexford Festival Opera tradition.

Horseshoe-shaped balconies, where the audiences in the upper levels are brought into better contact with the stage, enhance the performance experience for audiences and performers alike. This layout, which was largely abandoned in 20th Century design, enhances the atmosphere by populating the side walls of the auditorium, making the audience more ‘visible’ to itself.

The operational flexibility given by the orchestra pit lifts, and the stage and backstage facilities, together with the horseshoe-shaped balconies, arguably qualify National Opera House as Ireland’s first fully-specified purpose-built opera house.