Daron Hagen

Music Text
Libretto: Paul Muldoon

Scoring
solo voices: S, Mez-S, T, Bar; String Quartet or Piano

Publisher / Licensing Agent:
Carl Fischer

Territory
This work is available from Carl Fischer for the world.

World Premiere
6 November 2007 The Century Association, New York, NY
Daron Hagen, director
Music Director: Jocelyn Dueck
Company: The New Mercury Collective

Roles
James Joyce (Lyric-B)
John McCormack (T)
May Joyce (Mez-S)
Nora Barnacle (S)

Time and Place
The Antient Concert Rooms, Feis CCeoil on 27 August 1904, Dublin, Ireland

Synopsis
The story told by the opera concerns itself with the 1904 Feis Ceoil competition recital on 27 August 1904 in the Antient Concert Rooms in Dublin, Ireland. Legend has it that John McCormack and James Joyce competed that night in the Tenor singing competition. For the purpose of telling a story about the collision of words, music, performance, sex, death, and nationalism, the authors chose five well-known Irish songs of the period that Joyce and McCormack may have performed that evening, and used them as the musical and textual foundation upon which the piece is built. Consequently, throughout the recital, the characters shift between "performance mode" and the expression of their internal thoughts.

Production Stills
Here

Links
Wikipedia | Score

Selected Notable Performances

• staged academic workshop: 17 April 2005 / The Princeton Atelier / Borromeo String Quartet /Daron Hagen / McCarter Theater / Princeton, NJ
• concert broadcast premiere: 16 June 2007 / Bloomsday on Broadway XXVI / Peter Sharp Theater / Symphony Space, NYC