A trip down melody lane

Cork 2005: Published on the 150th anniversary of Cork Opera House, Melodies and Memories, written by Dr Alicia St Leger, makes cheerful reading; at its launch party, a jovial Ted Crosbie, chairman of the publishing committee, challenged the critics of Cork 2005 to come and see the culture these pages reflect.

Developed from the original Atheneum lecture hall and assembly rooms of 1855, the Cork Opera House stood for 100 years until destroyed by fire. The new building on the same site was opened in 1965, and this book records the history of both old and new theatres. Opera, obviously, figured largely in the theatre's programmes, but so did gatherings such as the one in 1855 at which Charles Stewart Parnell pronounced: "No man has the right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation." Few such stirring events are recorded before the great fire, although Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt and George Bernard Shaw must have tried their best on that stage to rival Parnell's dramatic impact.

Visiting companies such as the D'Oyly Carte, Rousbey Opera, Benson's Shakespearean Company and of course the Abbey performed here; Nellie Melba and Clara Butt sang here; Carl Rosa, Carl Clopet and the Gate Theatre came for whole seasons, while local groups gradually formed themselves into dramatic, operatic, orchestral and, with the arrival of Joan Denise Moriarty, ballet companies.