Page 95 - 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. 95
opera in ireland – a continuing struggle for acceptance
even edited. Klein estimates that Irish composers wrote ca. 280 operas
between 1780 and 1925 – that is on average about two per year.2 Among
the earliest ones are:
– Charles Thomas Carter, The Milesian (1777)
– Tommaso Giordani, Genius of Ireland (masque, 1784)
– Tommaso Giordani, The Island of Saints, or The Institution of the
Shamrock (pantomime, 1785)
– Johann Bernhard Logier, Brian Boroihme, or Maid of Erin (1809)
– Thomas Simpson Cooke, The First Attempt (1807)
– John A. Stevenson, The Patriot (1809)
– Thomas Simpson Cooke, Thierna-na-Oge, or The Prince of the
Lakes (1829)
– Samuel Lover, Il Paddy-Whack in Italia (1841)
Klein concludes from this that “the absence of an Irish opera house was
no handicap to the development of opera in Ireland”.3 As an aside he men-
tions an unsuccessful attempt by the Dublin-based Tommaso Giordani and
the English singer Michael Leoni to establish an “English Opera House” in
Dublin in 1783 – it had to close after seven months as it was too small to be
sustainable and never generated a profit.4
Most of the operas by Irish composers did not survive for long on
the stages. Balfe and Wallace were the first Irish composers to achieve
lasting success not only in Ireland but also abroad, not least with the so-
called “Irish Ring” consisting of Balfe’s The Bohemian Girl (1843), Wal-
lace’s Maritana (1845) and Julius Benedict’s The Lily of Killarney (1862).
Interestingly, only the London-based German Benedict engaged with an
Irish subject matter while the two Irish composers placed their operettas
in Bohemia (Balfe) and Spain (Wallace), respectively. There is no contin-
uing story or thematic link between these three works; the “Ring” mon-
iker derives entirely from the fact that they were regularly staged togeth-
er in cyclical fashion.
2 Axel Klein, “Stage-Irish, or the National in Irish Opera, 1780–1925,” The Opera
Quarterly, 21/1 (2005): 27–67: 34.
3 Ibid., 48.
4 Ibid., 34.
93
even edited. Klein estimates that Irish composers wrote ca. 280 operas
between 1780 and 1925 – that is on average about two per year.2 Among
the earliest ones are:
– Charles Thomas Carter, The Milesian (1777)
– Tommaso Giordani, Genius of Ireland (masque, 1784)
– Tommaso Giordani, The Island of Saints, or The Institution of the
Shamrock (pantomime, 1785)
– Johann Bernhard Logier, Brian Boroihme, or Maid of Erin (1809)
– Thomas Simpson Cooke, The First Attempt (1807)
– John A. Stevenson, The Patriot (1809)
– Thomas Simpson Cooke, Thierna-na-Oge, or The Prince of the
Lakes (1829)
– Samuel Lover, Il Paddy-Whack in Italia (1841)
Klein concludes from this that “the absence of an Irish opera house was
no handicap to the development of opera in Ireland”.3 As an aside he men-
tions an unsuccessful attempt by the Dublin-based Tommaso Giordani and
the English singer Michael Leoni to establish an “English Opera House” in
Dublin in 1783 – it had to close after seven months as it was too small to be
sustainable and never generated a profit.4
Most of the operas by Irish composers did not survive for long on
the stages. Balfe and Wallace were the first Irish composers to achieve
lasting success not only in Ireland but also abroad, not least with the so-
called “Irish Ring” consisting of Balfe’s The Bohemian Girl (1843), Wal-
lace’s Maritana (1845) and Julius Benedict’s The Lily of Killarney (1862).
Interestingly, only the London-based German Benedict engaged with an
Irish subject matter while the two Irish composers placed their operettas
in Bohemia (Balfe) and Spain (Wallace), respectively. There is no contin-
uing story or thematic link between these three works; the “Ring” mon-
iker derives entirely from the fact that they were regularly staged togeth-
er in cyclical fashion.
2 Axel Klein, “Stage-Irish, or the National in Irish Opera, 1780–1925,” The Opera
Quarterly, 21/1 (2005): 27–67: 34.
3 Ibid., 48.
4 Ibid., 34.
93
