The Lily of Killarney

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For films of the same title, see Lily of Killarney.

The Lily of Killarney is an opera in three acts by Julius Benedict. The libretto, by John Oxenford and Dion Boucicault, is based on Boucicault's own play The Colleen Bawn. The opera received its premiere at Covent Garden Theatre, London on Monday 10 February 1862.[1]

Background[]

The Lily of Killarney became the most widely performed of Benedict's operas. It has been linked with Balfe's The Bohemian Girl and Wallace's Maritana as 'The Irish Ring'.[2][3] Its convincing handling of Irish idiom is interesting considering Benedict's German-Jewish origins. Some of the opera's songs – notably The moon hath raised her lamp above and Eily Mavourneen – remain in the repertoire. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce's Ulysses[4] and Djuna Barnes' Nightwood.[5]

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 [6]
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' = Gaelic 'the fair maid'), the eponymous Lily of Killarney. They go off to an impromptu moonlight race between the horses of the two of the guests. Mrs Cregan is now left alone, and to her enters Corrigan, a 'middle man' who holds a mortgage on the Tore Cregan estates. Corrigan threatens to dispossess Cregan and his mother, who have mortgaged their lands to him, unless Cregan marries the heiress Ann Shute. Danny the boatman is now heard singing 'off'. Corrigan informs Mrs Cregan that he is waiting to row her son over the water to visit Eily.

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[]

  1. ^ The date of 8 February often given was in fact the premiere of Balfe's The Puritan's Daughter; Benedict's opera followed on Monday 10th (Grove Music Online)
  2. ^ Burton, GMO
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ "Ulysses by James Joyce: The Lily of Killarney", accessed 29 June 2009
  5. ^ [1], accessed 27 June 2011
  6. ^ 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
Retrieved from ""