The Silver Tassie (opera)
| The Silver Tassie | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Mark-Anthony Turnage | |
| Librettist | Amanda Holden |
| Based on |
The Silver Tassie by Seán O'Casey |
| Premiere | 16 February 2000 English National Opera, London |
The Silver Tassie is an opera in four acts by the English composer Mark-Anthony Turnage. The English libretto was written by Amanda Holden based on the 1927/28 play of the same name by Seán O'Casey. The opera was composed between 1997 and 1999.
The Silver Tassie was commissioned by English National Opera (ENO) while Turnage was their Composer in Association and benefited from being worked on at the ENO Studio. It was part funded by Dallas Opera.
In an interview for the programme for the ENO production, Turnage talks about treating the four acts as the movements of a symphony with a dance finale. He also discusses how the studio workshops helped him thin out the orchestral textures to make the voices clearer. Although the libretto leaves things vague, Turnage makes it clear that he had a Dublin setting in mind with references in the last act to an Irish jig as one of the dance movements and the use of fiddles in the off-stage band. Turnage includes references to dance and other music contemporary to the setting in his score. In particular, he quotes the Robert Burns folk-song from which the opera gets its name.
The Silver Tassie was first performed on 16 February 2000 by ENO at the London Coliseum Theatre. The opera won the South Bank Show Award and Laurence Olivier Awards for its original ENO run. ENO have released a live recording of the original cast. This production was broadcast on BBC television and radio and the film was shown at a Turnage weekend at the Barbican Centre organised with the BBC. The production was revived with a different cast in 2002.
Performances of The Silver Tassie were given in Dublin during 2001 by Opera Ireland.
The opera was due to receive its North American premiere by Dallas Opera in 2003 but this was cancelled "due to financial considerations and political sensitivities in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center."
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