The Emerald Isle

This article is about the comic opera. For other uses, see Emerald Isle (disambiguation).

Louie Pounds: Molly in disguise as the "Fairy Clena"

The Emerald Isle; or, The Caves of Carrig-Cleena, is a two-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and Edward German, and a libretto by Basil Hood. The plot concerns the efforts of an Irish patriot to resist the oppressive "re-education" programme of the English, which has robbed the Irish of their cultural heritage. A quirky "Professor of Elocution" who is hired by the English to continue this "re-education" of the Irish switches sides to help the Irish defend their culture. Romantic complications cause a confrontation between the Irish patriots and the superstitious English at the supposedly haunted caves of Carric-Cleena, and disguises are employed to hold the English off; but the professor ultimately comes up with a solution that works out happily for all.

The opera premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 27 April 1901, closing on 9 November 1901 after a run of 205 performances. The opening night cast included such Savoy regulars as Robert Evett, Walter Passmore, Henry Lytton, Rosina Brandram, Isabel Jay and Louie Pounds. The opera was given a production in New York City at the Herald Square Theatre for 50 performances, opening on 1 September 1902 and closing on 18 October 1902. The New York cast included Kate Condon as Molly and Jefferson De Angelis as Bunn.[1] It was revived in 1935 at the Prince's Theatre (now the Shaftesbury Theatre) in London.

Modern professional productions of the work have been rare. The Prince Consort (an Edinburgh-based performing group) recorded the piece in Britain live in performance at the fringe of the Edinburgh Festival in 1982.[2] The piece was also given in Edinburgh and then Torquay, England, in 1998. Another live recording (with dialogue) was made in 2001 as a centenary production at the Alexander Theatre of the Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia, by the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Victoria (now known as Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Victoria).[3] Amateur groups in Britain produced the piece regularly through the 1920s and occasionally thereafter.[4] A concert of the opera was performed by Valley Light Opera in Amherst, Massachusetts on 8 March 2008 with a narration written by Jonathan Strong. This was the first known U.S. performance of the opera with full orchestra since 1902.[5]

  1. ^ "The Emerald Isle", Internet Broadway Database, accessed 11 January 2013
  2. ^ Shepherd, Marc. The Emerald Isle, the Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 30 October 2001, accessed 10 January 2016
  3. ^ "The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Victoria's The Emerald Isle", Edward German Discography, accessed 11 January 2013
  4. ^ Bond, Ian. "Rarely Produced Shows" Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine. St. David's Players, accessed 22 July 2010
  5. ^ The Emerald Isle, Valley Light Opera, Amherst, Massachusetts, 2008