Love's Old Sweet Songs – An Irish Variety Concert from the Songbook of James Joyce
Bloomsday in Melbourne
A light-hearted celebration of the Joyce of Music to mark the last of 5 special events for the centenary year of publication of Ulysses. Hear the much-mythologised story of how Joyce might have been the next John McCormack had he not fluffed a sight-reading test. This missed opportunity was literature's gain, and he lost no opportunities to parade his love of music - of all kinds - in his fiction. Bawdy ballads, the sacred and the sacrilegious, and ranging from opera to music hall. He was not averse to musical burlesque either.
The concert is under the musical direction of Mary O'Driscoll. Tref Gare is theatre director and MC who will variously impersonate the Italian adjudicator at the Dublin Feis (eisteddfod) of 1904 on the eve of Joyce's departure with Nora Barnacle for Europe, and as well a Music Hall impresario. Merryn Hughes and Torsten Strokirch will sing Molly and Blazes, and other performers will tackle the patriotic repertoire. The Tatty Tenors (Qld) will take us into Dublin-style Music Hall.
The Concert is made possible through the generosity of Hawthorn Arts Centre, the Rotary Club of Balwyn and the Embassy of Ireland, Canberra and the Irish Government.
More information about this event and a dinner that will follow it are to be found at www.bloomsdayinmelbourne.org.au.
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