''The Antient Concert'' is a sixty-minute-long English language

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

in one act by Daron Hagen with a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

by Paul Muldoon. Hagen describes it as a "dramatic recital for four singers".

Background and performance history

Hagen and Muldoon developed the opera as part of the Princeton Atelier at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. The process culminated in Hagen conducting the Borromeo String Quartet and student performers at the

McCarter Theatre McCarter Theatre Center is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. The institution is currently led by Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg. ...

in a fully staged workshop production directed by five student directors. After serving as the centerpiece of the 16 June 2007 "26th Annual Bloomsday on Broadway" at

Symphony Space Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Pe ...

in New York City (during which it was broadcast live on

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that di ...

and streamed on the Internet), it had its staged world premiere, directed by the composer, on 6 November 2007 in New York City. Hagen's fourth and final opera with Muldoon, Hagen has described it as "our slender ''Capriccio''", and "a story about the collision of words, music, performance, sex, death, and nationalism".Hagen, Daro
The Antient Concert
, ''Notes: a Composer's Life'', 31 January 2011 Chronology *Princeton Atelier staged workshop (7 April 2005), The Princeton Atelier, McCarter Theater, Princeton, New JerseyPrinceton Independent
retrieved 2 April 2013. *Concert broadcast premiere (16 June 2007), Bloomsday on Broadway XXVI, Peter Sharp Theater, Symphony Space, New York City *Staged world premiere (6 November 2007), The Phoenix Players,

Century Center for the Performing Arts The Century Association is a private social, arts, and dining club in New York City, founded in 1847. Its clubhouse is located at 7 West 43rd Street near Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. It is primarily a club for men and women with distinction ...

, New York City

Roles

Synopsis

''The Antient Concert'' revolves around the reputed showdown in the 1904 ''

Feis Ceoil Feis Ceoil ( ; "Festival of Music") is an Irish music organisation which holds an annual competitive festival of classical music. It was first organised in Dublin in 1897 by Dr. Annie Patterson and Edward Martyn for the purpose of stimulating musi ...

'' between John McCormack and

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

. "It took place on 27 August 1904 in the Antient Concert Rooms in Dublin, Ireland. Legend has it that they competed that night in the Tenor singing competition. There is no documentary evidence of this; however, Joyce did win the Bronze Medal that year (it is said that he did not agree with the stipulation that competitors demonstrate their musicianship by doing some sight-reading, and left the stage). Many believe it was McCormack's 1903 win of the Gold Medal that launched his career." The musical score consists of

variations Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individuals ...

on five traditional

Irish ballad The following are often-sung Irish folk ballads and folk songs. The songs are arranged by theme under the categories "Politics and soldiering" and "Non-political" and are not necessarily contemporary to the events to which they relate. Songs ma ...

s, the libretto of variations on the lyrics of those ballads. The five songs referenced are: " Salley Gardens", "The Harp that Once", "You're as Welcome as the Flowers in May", "Tho' the Last Glimpse of Erin", and "

The Croppy Boy "The Croppy Boy" is an Irish ballad set in 1798 rising relating to the despair of a doomed young "croppy" or rebel. Broadside versions Versions of the ballad first appeared shortly after the rising sung by street pedlars and there are several bro ...

". "Consequently," wrote Hagen, "throughout the recital, the characters shift between 'performance mode' and the expression of their internal thoughts."

References

Notes

External links

''The Antient Concert'': A Note on the Story and the Five Traditional Ballads
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antient Concert, The Operas by Daron Hagen Operas set in Ireland English-language operas 2007 operas Operas