The story behind Irish-language opera Eithne (1910)
About
Lecture by Dr Maria McHale
‘New and old, Gaelic and modern’: Irish opera and the Gaelic Revival
Among the collections at the Princess Grace Irish Library is a copy of Robert O’Dwyer’s Irish-language opera, Eithne (1910). The work was performed in Dublin to great acclaim in May 1910. What is remarkable about the score is that it contains many signatures dated 21 May 1910, among them Robert O’Dwyer’s along with an array of singers. This score captures some of the excitement of that particular night at the Gaiety Theatre. The work would not be heard again in Ireland until 2017, when a concert performance of Eithne took place at the National Concert Hall, Dublin.
Dr McHale's talk will include play excerpts from the opera Eithne as there is a live recording online of the 2017 performance.
Although Eithne was billed as the first opera in the Irish language, some seven years earlier, another Irish composer, Thomas O’Brien Butler, had written an opera called Muirgheis, which he also described as the first opera in Irish. This talk will consider both works and how each composer could make this claim. It will also consider discussions and debates around the works at the time and situate them in the cultural context of the early twentieth-century Gaelic Revival.
About the speaker:
Location
Princess Grace Irish Library, 9 rue Princesse Marie-de-Lorraine, 98000, Monaco-Ville Monaco
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All proceeds support the cultural activities of the Princess Grace Irish Library, under the aegis of the non-profit Fondation Princesse Grace in Monaco.