Page 109 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2019. Vloga nacionalnih opernih gledališč v 20. in 21. stoletju - The Role of National Opera Houses in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 3
P. 109
opera in ireland – a continuing struggle for acceptance
at all. However, operatic productions could also be supported through sev-
eral more general categories such as “Project Awards”, “Annual Funding”
or “Festivals and Events Scheme” (although the sums awarded in categories
such as “Project Awards” tend to be comparatively small). It is impossible
to anticipate how much financial support for opera commissions (and their
production) may be available in future years, or even what the relevant cat-
egories will be. Of course, this applies as well to the production of “older”
operas – apart from Irish National Opera (which the Arts Council will cer-
tainly support for a number of years), other companies and festivals have
to try their luck every year anew, applying in ever-changing categories for
awards of regularly changing sizes.
Appendix 3 lists new operas that have either been commissioned in
Ireland or written by Irish (and Ireland-based) composers and performed
in Ireland since 2013 (while it excludes Irish operas from before 2013 and re-
cent operas by non-Irish composers that have been performed at the Wex-
ford Festival Opera or elsewhere). There were eighteen operas altogether, or
three per year on average. They were written by eleven composers, with one
of them (Brian Irvine) providing three works and five others (Gerald Barry,
Donnacha Dennehy, Evangelia Rigaki, Eric Sweeney, Andrew Synnott) two
each. Gerald Barry’s operas were both commissioned (and premiered) out-
side Ireland, but all the other ones are home-grown. Only two of the eleven
composers – Siobhán Cleary and Evangelia Rigaki – are female.
It is interesting that – unlike in the early 1900s – rather few of these
eighteen operas deal with Irish topics, Irish history and mythology. Barry’s
The Importance of Being Earnest is based on a source by an Irish writer (Os-
car Wilde), but it is set in England. Rigaki’s Antimidas is a reaction to the
economic crash which an Irish audience can well relate to, but it too contains
no specific reference to anything Irish while the crash affected many other
countries as well, of course. Deane’s The Alma Fetish relates to an episode in
the life of Oskar Kokoschka, Synnott’s Breakdown to authentic episodes in
the lives of three other, more recent artists, and Doyle’s Heresy to the life and
death of Giordano Bruno. Dennehy’s two operas portray relationships be-
tween individuals and could be set anywhere. This is a general characteris-
tic of contemporary Irish opera (with Synnott’s “setting” of two short stories
from Joyce’s Dubliners, Irvine’s The Oldest Woman in Limerick, Sweeney’s
Ulysses: An Opera and Rigaki’s The Pregnant Box as a response to the Irish
abortion debate forming exceptions) – it regards itself as international, en-
gaging with the human condition in general and drawing its inspirations
107
at all. However, operatic productions could also be supported through sev-
eral more general categories such as “Project Awards”, “Annual Funding”
or “Festivals and Events Scheme” (although the sums awarded in categories
such as “Project Awards” tend to be comparatively small). It is impossible
to anticipate how much financial support for opera commissions (and their
production) may be available in future years, or even what the relevant cat-
egories will be. Of course, this applies as well to the production of “older”
operas – apart from Irish National Opera (which the Arts Council will cer-
tainly support for a number of years), other companies and festivals have
to try their luck every year anew, applying in ever-changing categories for
awards of regularly changing sizes.
Appendix 3 lists new operas that have either been commissioned in
Ireland or written by Irish (and Ireland-based) composers and performed
in Ireland since 2013 (while it excludes Irish operas from before 2013 and re-
cent operas by non-Irish composers that have been performed at the Wex-
ford Festival Opera or elsewhere). There were eighteen operas altogether, or
three per year on average. They were written by eleven composers, with one
of them (Brian Irvine) providing three works and five others (Gerald Barry,
Donnacha Dennehy, Evangelia Rigaki, Eric Sweeney, Andrew Synnott) two
each. Gerald Barry’s operas were both commissioned (and premiered) out-
side Ireland, but all the other ones are home-grown. Only two of the eleven
composers – Siobhán Cleary and Evangelia Rigaki – are female.
It is interesting that – unlike in the early 1900s – rather few of these
eighteen operas deal with Irish topics, Irish history and mythology. Barry’s
The Importance of Being Earnest is based on a source by an Irish writer (Os-
car Wilde), but it is set in England. Rigaki’s Antimidas is a reaction to the
economic crash which an Irish audience can well relate to, but it too contains
no specific reference to anything Irish while the crash affected many other
countries as well, of course. Deane’s The Alma Fetish relates to an episode in
the life of Oskar Kokoschka, Synnott’s Breakdown to authentic episodes in
the lives of three other, more recent artists, and Doyle’s Heresy to the life and
death of Giordano Bruno. Dennehy’s two operas portray relationships be-
tween individuals and could be set anywhere. This is a general characteris-
tic of contemporary Irish opera (with Synnott’s “setting” of two short stories
from Joyce’s Dubliners, Irvine’s The Oldest Woman in Limerick, Sweeney’s
Ulysses: An Opera and Rigaki’s The Pregnant Box as a response to the Irish
abortion debate forming exceptions) – it regards itself as international, en-
gaging with the human condition in general and drawing its inspirations
107
