The Lily of Killarney
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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]
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 North American Review, where he also recounted his experiences in creating the libretto for The Lily of Killarney as well as his general opinion of the work: "[...] Benedict clung to his affection for the Irish play, and we took John Oxenford into our counsels [sic]. Our names are coupled on the title page of the libretto, but all my share in the business was watching my lamb cut up into a marketable shape [...] All the sentiment, all the tenderness, all the simple poetry was swept away. [...] The glamour, the intoxication produced by the music not only covers and conceals the wretched thing on which it rests, but transmutes the poorest acting into admirable effort. The most wooden of tenors becomes a miracle of tragic passion when he pronounces an upper D from the chest."[2] Boucicault completely dismissed the opera's success, despite Benedict's considerable efforts in creating a believably "Irish" work worthy of its original source, and never took part in writing another opera libretto.
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', though it is musically and dramatically far more sophisticated than either Balfe's or Wallace's operas.[3][4] Its convincing handling of Irish idiom is interesting considering Benedict's German-Jewish origins, but Benedict's training under Weber instilled a strong respect and instinct for appropriate musical atmosphere, and he also included some genuine Irish melodies, notably the 18th-century air "The Cruiskeen Lawn" which he set as a quartet (No. 6 in the opera's vocal score) in Act I. 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[5] and Djuna Barnes' Nightwood.[6]
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 |
