Carysfort Press – förlag

A biography of an Irish playwright.

In his early twenties Goethe wrote Proserpina for the Weimar court singer Corona Schroter to perform. His interest in presenting Weimar's first professional singer-in-residence in a favourable light was not the only reason why this monologue with music (now lost) by Seckendorff is important. Goethe's memories of his sister Cornelia, who had recently died in childbirth, were in fact the real catalyst: through this work Goethe could level accusations against his parents about Cornelia's marriage, of which he had not approved. Goethe used the melodramatic form to transform private and cultural issues for women of the time into public discourses and so to manipulate public opinion. His work reveals an astute understanding of musical melodrama and the important impact it had on the cultural dynamics of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Whatever the source of inspiration, it is clear that Goethe was very preoccupied with Proserpina.When he returned to this melodrama forty years later he collaborated closely with Carl Eberwein, the court, theatre, and church music director, who composed a new setting which accords with Goethe's clear understanding of musical declamation in 19th century melodrama. In the intensive collaboration which took place while the production was being prepared in January 1815, Goethe was already anticipating the idea of a Gesamtkunstwerk. He paid close attention to every aspect of the production, especially to its music and its staging. When discussing contemporary settings of the poet's works, scholars often lapse into regret that Goethe did not have someone of comparable rank at his side for musical collaborations. Yet Eberwein's willingness to go along with Goethe's wishes was an advantage here: the selfless striving of the young composer to satisfy the poet's intentions is everywhere apparent in the score and it is the nearest thing we have to a 'composition by Goethe'. Despite critics' positive reception of the first performance on 4 February 1815, the work has never been published before.Musically and dramatically this unknown melodrama is a superb work for solo voice, choir, and orchestra, and deserves to be brought before the public today.

Irish theatre has never been so successful, yet at the same time never more in need of rigorous evaluation. Many of the plays by Brian Friel, Thomas Murphy, Thomas Kilroy, Frank McGuinness, Anne Devlin, Sebastian Barry, Conor McPherson, Martin McDonagh (London-Irish), Marina Carr, Billy Roche and Marie Jones have been critically acclaimed and won substantial awards. In addition, Irish directors, designers, actors and administrators have worked at some of the best theatres in the world and with some of the most talented professionals available. In this comprehensive collection of essays, playwrights, directors, journalists, theatre practitioners, critics and academics, from many different countries and backgrounds, give their perceptive points of view. Each contributor takes an approach which is passionate, idiosyncratic, astute, provocative and refreshing. All of the writing, in one way or another, hints at the demands, magic, urgency and ephemeral qualities of good theatre. This extremely valuable collection of accessible essays will promote discussion and is a timely and welcome addition to the critical debate on Irish drama.

These plays make a rich, funny, moving, and theatrically exhilarating collection. In a diversity of stories, styles, and settings they re-define the limits of Irish theatre for the new century. These playwrights create an Irish theatre looking out to the world around it, re-inventing our sense of the past, our connections with others, and our unsettled present. They have all been seen, heard, and acclaimed by Irish and British audiences in recent years. Now coming to you in print, some bearing major awards.

Contents: Susan Youens: Preface - Otto Biba: Goethe's Presence in the Vienna Music Scene of his Era - Lorraine Byrne: Goethe and Zelter: An Exchange of Musical Letters - Claus Canisius: Gothe and Beethowen: Men of Genius between Distance and Affinity - Amanda Glauert: 'Ich denke dein': Beethoven's Retelling of Goethe's Poetry - Moray McGowan: Fidelio and Faust in the German 'Wende' of 1989/90 - Jan Smaczny: Goethe and the Czechs - Briony Williams: Bettina von Arnim, Goethe and the Boundaries of Creativity - Gareth Cox: Blumengruss und Blumenglockchen: Goethe's Influence on Anton Webern - Nicholas Boyle: 'Thealogy': Gods, Goddesses, and Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre - Julian Horton: Schumann's Requiem fur Mignon and the Concept of Music as Literature - Adolf Nowak: Mignon's Exequies and Aesthetic Reflections of the Liturgy in Music - Seoirse Bodley: Mignon und der Harfner.

This work contains 15 essays from a broad international panel of theatre historians, directors, critics and dramaturges on Brian Friel's work. The essays have been collected from the "Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies" and make an important contribution to our understanding of Friel's plays. They explore the ways in which the plays mediate the boundaries of language, culture, and geography and the limits of physical and spiritual disabilities with the healing powers of community ritual and the arts.

Out of History is the first book to appear on the work of award-winning Irish author Sebastian Barry. Barry began publishing at the early age of 25, and his work represents another 25 years of short stories, poems, works for children, and most notably plays and novels. His play The Steward of Christendom became canonical in Ireland on its first appearance in 1995 and was absorbed into the contemporary repertoire abroad. His recent novel A Long Long Way has received the utmost critical attention and was nominated for the Man-Booker prize in London.Barry is recognized as one of Ireland’s greatest living writers and his works now appear regularly on syllabuses in U.S. colleges in Irish Studies and in Drama departments. This book, edited by Christina Hunt Mahony, presents twelve essays that trace the development of the writer’s career and the individual achievement of his works, concentrating largely, but not exclusively, on the plays. The essays address Barry’s engagement with the contemporary cultural debate in Ireland and also with issues that inform postcolonial critical theory.The essays in this volume include contributions from the most prominent of Irish Studies critics from Ireland, Britain, and the United States. Among the contributors are two prize-winning novelists, a historian and recent biographer of the poet W.B. Yeats, a former editor of Poetry Ireland, and several theatre historians and critics. The range and selection of contributors to this volume has ensured a high level of critical expression and an insightful assessment of Barry and his works.

Presents fresh critical perspectives on an Irish Writer.