Bücher der Reihe Carysfort Press Ltd.

The book is remarkably well-focused: half is a series of production histories of Playboy performances through the twentieth century in the UK, Northern Ireland, the USA, and Ireland. The remainder focuses on one contemporary performance, that of Druid Theatre, as directed by Garry Hynes

«It was a great pleasure both to host and to participate in an international conference that brought together musicologists, composers, performers, and literary artists in stimulating and thought-provoking discourse. The collaboration of our colleagues from Queen¿s University, Belfast, was particularly welcome and appreciated; they, together with distinguished international Goethians, contributed much to what was a unique 36 hours of intellectual and artistic dialogue.»Professor Gerard Gillen, Chair of Music, National University of Ireland Maynooth & Titular Organist of Dublin¿s Pro-Cathedral«Goethe¿s influence on the musical world is far reaching. While it seems impossible to grasp the full extent of his legacy, a sense of optimism was in the air at the Maynooth conference where we were entertained by a series of highly stimulating papers and concerts, exploring some fascinating details of Goethe¿s world and his unique contributions to music. It was indeed a rare opportunity to have had such a wonderful mix of scholarly exchanges on a literary giant, Goethe, who continues to enrich our lives through his creative output.»Dr Yo Tomita, Reader in Music, Queen¿s University Belfast«I have long been conscious of the modernity of much of Goethe¿s writing and aware of the very direct message it can deliver to a 21st century man or woman. In particular the characters of both Mignon and the Harper in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre speak to us of an all-too-familiar sense of fractured identity. It was therefore with especial pleasure that I undertook the musical setting of Goethe¿s poems associated with these two vivid characters for performance at the conference. What a wonderful opportunity was afforded me to present a first performance of Goethe settings before an audience that included so many distinguished scholars of the great German writer!»Seóirse Bodley, Composer and Emeritus Professor of Music, University College Dublin«Musical performance is a fundamental part of human existence, yet years of learning and preparation lie behind it. The interpretation of music requires decisions ¿ conscious and/or intuitive ¿ about the meaning of musical features as well as knowledge of the historical context in which the music was written. The unique interaction of theory and practice in this conference offered scholars and performers an opportunity to unravel the complexities of performance together, and to bring to light aspects of learning and playing. Each of the authors in this volume is a leading expert in the field, and the performers, who illustrated their lectures with recitals, were of considerable experience and renown. All of these factors ensure that the essays in this volume are vital, cogent, and musically challenging.»John O¿Conor, Pianist and Director of the Royal Irish Academy of Music«Goethe was interested in, and acutely aware of, the place of music in human experience generally ¿ and of its particular role in modern culture. Moreover, his own literary work - especially the poetry and ¿Faust¿ ¿ inspired some of the major composers of the European tradition to produce some of their finest works. What is it about Goethe¿s texts that invites a transformation into music? Perhaps it is his extraordinary combination of emotional immediacy and intense reflectivity. To that combination, and to the perennially fascinating question of what happens in the interplay between words and music, this volume of essays bears abundant witness.»Martin Swales, Emeritus Professor of German, University College London

The book records and interprets key musical developments, appraises the work of major contributors, and captures the activities of all at St Patrick's College up to its incorporation into Dublin City University in 2016. It represents a major scholarly work that details the progress of music at a university college in Ireland

The Gate Theatre is one of Ireland's major theatres. It has plays by such figures as Brian Friel, Conor McPherson, and Denis Johnston - while also premiering significant works including unjustly-neglected female dramatists such as Mary Manning, Christine Longford, and Maura Laverty. It is the very first scholarly essay collection devoted to it.

There remains an unexplored aspect of Goethe's career: his surprisingly significant role in 19th century melodrama. This score, the first edition of Eberwein's setting of Goethe's melodrama, Proserpina, offers an unprecedented examination of Goethe's text and overturns the accepted image of the artist as unmusical.

As well as providing a very readable and comprehensive study of the life and music of John Buckley,¿Constellations also offers an up-to-date and informative catalogue of compositions, a complete discography, translations of set texts and the full libretto of his chamber opera, making this book an essential guide for both students and professional scholars alike.

Lecture proceedings including the essence of theatre; Ireland's contribution to the art of theatre; the potential of drama in the classroom; the relationship between drama and film; and on opera and its history.

Poems 2000-2005 is a transitional collection written while the author - also known to be W. J. Me Cormack, literary historian - was in the process of moving back from London to settle in rural Ireland. It is also a vigorous contribution to the age-old dialogue between Sacred and Profane themes, questioning beliefs and pleasures, guilts and landscapes, poetic methods and prosaic realities.

The author looks at the gospels from a modern angle. Was Jesus a person like us? He investigates these issues conscientiously and opens up a new way in which the modern Christian, despite everything, can confidently be a believer.

This thought-provoking volume of essays, wide-ranging in scope and interdisciplinary in its approach, engages with questions surrounding the many meanings ascribed to death and the memorialisation of the dead.

The Drunkard is a wonderfully eloquent play.'Young Edward Kilcullen's life is blighted by alcohol.

This book is a literary tour de force, where 28 Irish plays are examined and their rich cultural context exposed in a way that educates and excites.

In this edition, the first in which all Beethoven's Irish folksong settings are published together, the late baritone, broadcaster and musicologist, Tomas O Suilleabhain, selected texts, mostly by Burns and Moore, which he felt were more appropriate to the airs and to Beethoven's settings.

The essays collected in Edna O'Brien: New Critical Perspectives illustrate the range, complexity and interest of O'Brien as a fiction writer and dramatist.

This book, edited by Christina Hunt Mahony, presents twelve essays that trace the development of Sebastian Barry's career and the individual achievement of his works, concentrating largely, but not exclusively, on the plays.

Brian Friel's Dramatic Artistry makes an important contribution to our understanding of the work of Ireland's greatest living playwright. The fifteen essays collected here provide us with new perspectives on Friel's most familiar works.

It aims to stimulate further enquiry, research and critical reflection, in sceptical, analytic or celebratory modes, on the riches of Irish literary texts and traditions. The collection discusses texts from the early 18th century to the present.

The central subject of the play is the quest a character at the point of emotional and moral breakdown for some source of meaning or identity.

With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners, Interactions explores and celebrates the Dublin Theatre Festival's achievements since 1957 featuring essays on major Irish writers, directors and theatre companies, as well as the impact of visiting directors and companies from abroad.

In this fascinating reappraisal of the non-literary drama of the late 19th - early 20th century, Christopher Fitz-Simon discloses a unique world of plays, players and producers in metropolitan theatres in Ireland and other countries where Ireland was viewed as a source of extraordinary topics at once contemporary and comfortably remote.

Since the late 1970s there has been a marked internationalization of Irish drama, with individual plays, playwrights, and theatrical companies establishing newly global reputations. This book reflects upon these developments, drawing together leading scholars and playwrights to consider the consequences that arise when Irish theatre travels abroad. Essays discuss some of Ireland¿s major theatre companies ¿ Druid, the Abbey Theatre, Rough Magic, Blue Raincoat, Field Day and others ¿ while also exploring the presence of Irish drama in the UK, the USA, Germany, and throughout Ireland. The volume also presents the views of key playwrights, featuring essays by Elizabeth Kuti and Ursula Rani Sarma, and including a new interview with Enda Walsh.

Ireland on Stage: Beckett and After, a collection of ten essays on contemporary Irish theatre, focuses primarily on Irish playwrights and their works, both in text and on the stage, in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Billy Roche - musician, actor, novelist, dramatist, screenwriter - is one of Ireland's most versatile talents. This anthology, the first comprehensive survey of Roche's work, focuses on his portrayal of one Irish town as a microcosm of human life itself, elemental and timeless.

Articles: «The Cries of Pagan Desperation»: Synge, Riders to the Sea and the Discontents of Historical Time by Christopher Collins; Scenographic Interactions: 1950s Ireland and Dublin's Pike Theatre by Siobhan O'Gorman; Uneasy Bedfellows: Culture, Commerce and the Rise of the «Production Hub» Paradigm in Irish Theatre by Lisa Fitzgerald; Respond or Else: Conor MacPherson's The Weir at the Donmar Warehouse by Eamonn Jordan; Gay Masculinities in Performance: Towards a Queer Dramaturgy by Cormac O'Brien; Perform, or Else! Reflections from an Irish theatre maker by Neil Watkins.

As Ireland changes, how should we think about the works of familiar figures - writers like Synge, O'Casey, Friel, Murphy, Carr and McGuinness? Is the distinction between popular and literary drama tenable in a Celtic Tiger Ireland where the arts and economics are becoming increasingly intertwined.

This informative and incisive collection of essays sheds new light on the literary interrelations between Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic. It charts an under-explored history of the reception of modern Irish culture in Central and Eastern Europe and investigates how key authors have been translated, performed, and adapted.