The Lily of Killarney
The Lily of Killarney is an
Background
Benedict himself approached Boucicault to adapt The Colleen Bawn into an opera libretto in the spring of 1861. Although the two men worked well at first, relations became strained as Benedict asked Boucicault for revisions and reductions of his lengthy spoken dialogue to allow more space for Oxenford's lyrics, while Boucicault increasingly resented his original drama being reshaped into a workable operatic format. After Oxenford and Benedict's deaths in 1877 and 1885 respectively, Boucicault denounced opera in its entirety as being an impossible dramatic genre in the April 1887 issue of
The Lily of Killarney became the most widely performed of Benedict's operas. It has been linked with
Roles
Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 10 February 1862 (Conductor: – Alfred Mellon) |
---|---|---|
Eily O'Connor (the 'colleen bawn') | soprano | Louisa Pyne |
Ann Shute | soprano | Jessie McLean |
Mr. Corrigan | bass
|
Eugene Dussek |
Father Tom | baritone | John George Patey |
Hardress Cregan | tenor | Henry Haigh [7] |
Mrs. Cregan | contralto | Susan Pyne |
Danny Mann | baritone | Charles Santley |
Myles na Coppaleen | tenor | William Harrison |
Synopsis
- Time: Late 18th century.
- Place: In and around Killarney.
Act One
At Tore Cregan, the ancestral home of Hardress Cregan, guests praise the 'bachelor' heir, paying little heed to the fact that Cregan is secretly married to Eily (the 'Colleen Bawn' =
In Eily's cottage, Father Tom urges her to persuade Hardress to proclaim their marriage to the world, but Hardress arrives and asks Eily to give up the certificate of their marriage altogether. Myles and the priest intervene, and Hardress departs enraged.
Act Two
Back at Tore Cregan, Hardress is reluctantly wooing Ann Shute, while Corrigan turns his attention towards Mrs Cregan. Danny determines to resolve the situation by killing Eily. Cregan demurs, but the unwitting Mrs. Cregan is persuaded by Danny to give him one on her son's gloves as a token for Eily's death. Primed with strong drink, Danny goes to put his scheme into execution at Eily's hut. Myles tries to dissuade Eily from going with him, but the sight of Hardress's glove convinces her that all is well. Danny rows her to a lonely cave.
Outside the cave, Danny, thinking that he has Eily at his mercy, tells her that she must either surrender her marriage certificate to him or take it with her to the bottom of the lake. Myles, who uses the cave as a refuge, mistakes Danny for otter and shoots him. He then proceeds to rescue Eily and bear her away with him.
Act Three
Hardress, believing Eily to be dead, is about to be married to Miss Shute. Danny, however, makes a confession on the point of death of the plot against Eily and suspicion falls on Hardress as the instigator of the scheme. On the wedding morning Corrigan arranges that soldiers will come and arrest the bridegroom. Then Myles produces Eily, alive, and Hardress acknowledges her as his lawful wife. Mrs Cregan relates how it was she who gave the glove to Danny. The opera ends with the joy of Hardress and Eily, and the discomfiture of Corrigan. Myles consoles Miss Shute with the reminder that he, too, is doomed to love in vain.
Sources
- Nigel Burton, The Lily of Killarney in Grove Music Online
- The Viking Opera Guide ed. Holden (Viking, 1993)
- J. Walker McSpadden, Opera Synopses (George G. Harrap & Company, 1922)
Notes
- Grove Music Online)
- ^ The North American Review, Vol. 144, No. 365 (April 1887), p. 346.
- ^ Burton, GMO
- ^ Seamus Reilly, James Joyce and Dublin Opera: 1888–1904, p. 6, in Bronze by Gold, the Music of Joyce, edited by Sebastian D. G. Knowles, Garland Publishing
- ^ "Ulysses by James Joyce: The Lily of Killarney", accessed 29 June 2009
- ISBN 9780754652007. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
- ^ See "The moon has raised her lamp above" : duet "sung by Mr Haigh [Hardress Cregan] & Mr Santley [Danny Mann]" – published by Orpheus Music Company c.1875