Book contents
- Ireland, Enlightenment and the English Stage, 1740–1820
- Ireland, Enlightenment and the English Stage, 1740–1820
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction Staging an Irish Enlightenment
- Part I Representations and Resistance
- Part II Symbiotic Stages: Dublin and London
- Chapter 4 Midas, Kane O’Hara and the Italians: An Interplay of Comedy between London and Dublin
- Chapter 5 Trading Loyalties: Sheridan, The School for Scandal and the Irish Propositions
- Chapter 6 Sydney Owenson, Alicia Sheridan Le Fanu and the Domestic Stage of Post-Union Politics
- Part III Enlightened Perspectives
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 4 - Midas, Kane O’Hara and the Italians: An Interplay of Comedy between London and Dublin
from Part II - Symbiotic Stages: Dublin and London
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2019
- Ireland, Enlightenment and the English Stage, 1740–1820
- Ireland, Enlightenment and the English Stage, 1740–1820
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction Staging an Irish Enlightenment
- Part I Representations and Resistance
- Part II Symbiotic Stages: Dublin and London
- Chapter 4 Midas, Kane O’Hara and the Italians: An Interplay of Comedy between London and Dublin
- Chapter 5 Trading Loyalties: Sheridan, The School for Scandal and the Irish Propositions
- Chapter 6 Sydney Owenson, Alicia Sheridan Le Fanu and the Domestic Stage of Post-Union Politics
- Part III Enlightened Perspectives
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
One of the works of the 1764 season at Covent Garden was a new burletta called Midas. Midas was, though, not ‘new’; it was only new to London: an early version of the work had its first staging privately in 1760 in Lurgan near Belfast, and the first professional version was at Dublin’s Crow Street Theatre in 1762. The professional version was prepared in response to the appearance in Dublin of an Italian burletta company, a company that had previously performed in London and would do so again after its Dublin engagement. This interplay of repertory between the two cities - of which Midas was the most obvious product - resulted both in a new genre and a tangling with Italian opera troupes. Midas was the product of a group of Irishmen, of whom Kane O’Hara, the librettist, was the most important and the most enigmatic; this chapter explores his role in the cross-currents of drama between the two cities. In so doing, Burden’s chapter re-contextualises the history of the burletta and offers a powerful demonstration that theatre historians cannot and should not write about London’s theatre in isolation: regional influences were important tributaries to the Georgian capital’s culture.
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- Ireland, Enlightenment and the English Stage, 1740-1820 , pp. 101 - 127Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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