ArtScape:The two previous attempts to put Brian Friel's play Translations on the New York stage may have been short-lived, but Garry Hynes's current Broadway production has made it third time lucky for one of the playwright's most profound and poetic works, writes Gerry Smyth.
While those previous Broadway productions, one with a starry cast including Brian Dennehy and Rufus Sewell 26 years ago, and another in 1995, were ill-fated, this treasure of 20th-century Irish drama has finally cast a spell on New York critics and audiences.
The chorus of acclaim that has greeted this staging - co-produced by Manhattan Theatre Club and McCarter Theatre Center in Princetown University - has ensured artistic and commercial success.
With the United States going through something of a period of soul-searching regarding its role in Iraq, perhaps the moment was propitious to bring a play that deals with "cultural imperialism".
Giving it a lead review, Variety gets straight to, saying, "Hynes's superb production conveys a creeping sense of violation and loss, the drama's resonance amplified by its sobering echoes in the contemporary world".
Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout could hardly go much further with his praise, telling his readers that "instead of reviewing it, I wish I could simply send you a ticket", adding his view that the play is "the very best we have! The cast is beyond praise. The production is exemplary. No artist can do more."
New York Times critic Charles Isherwood calls it "Nothing short of glorious. A beautiful, tender and wonderfully funny play. Directed by the brilliant Garry Hynes, Brian Friel's heart-rending Translations has an extraordinary ensemble." That ensemble includes a number of Irish actors, including Niall Buggy, Susan Lynch and Dermot Crowley.
That this breakthrough for Translations comes on the heels of the accolades handed to Faith Healer earlier in the year should encourage a wider interest in revival of Friel's work on Broadway. Perhaps now, too, those who work behind the scenes to influence the process of selecting candidates for the Nobel Prize will take note of a writer who, as John Simon of Bloomberg News states in his review, has given us "one of the great plays of the 20th century, indeed of all drama in English!". In the meantime, a production of Making History in this 400th anniversary of the Flight of the Earls would be welcome.
Moving times for Instituto
The Instituto Cervantes Dublin (the Spanish cultural institute), has played a very active role in Irish cultural life since its inauguration 15 years ago, writes Aidan Dunne. Now the institute has moved into the heart of the city, taking up residence in a substantial section of Lincoln House, an office block tucked into the curve of Lincoln Place, just across the road from Trinity College. The move brings the institute a lot closer to its European compatriots in Alliance Française and the Goethe-Institut, on Kildare Street and Merrion Square respectively. The core activity of each is the promotion and teaching of the home country's language, as well as spreading knowledge of that country's culture and encouraging cultural exchange.
The events to inaugurate the institute's spacious new home has a strong Spanish-Irish flavour. It includes an exhibition featuring a fine series of etchings made by Sean Scully to accompany poems by Federico García Lorca. Sean Scully will be present at the opening at 11am on Friday.
An hour earlier, the institute marks the opening of its library, which is named after the writer and critic Dámaso Alonso, who translated Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man into Spanish in 1926. A bibliographic exhibition of his work can be seen in the library. At noon on the same day, Stephen Boyd of University College Cork introduces Andrés Soria Olmedo, an academic and Lorca expert, who will deliver a lecture offering a new reading of the work of the poet and dramatist.
After which, stamina permitting, you can take in a concert of Spanish and Irish music from the 17th century onwards, with guitarist Fernando Espí and harpist Javier Sáinz. This celebratory day is flanked by two other events, incidentally. Poet Antonio Gamoneda, introduced by Ciaran Cosgrave, gives a reading on Wednesday (St Valentine's Day) at 6.30pm. Then, on Tuesday, February 20th, novelists Colm Tóibín (whose backlist includes Homage to Barcelona and who has strong links with Spain) and Eduardo Mendoza discuss and read from their work.
Another 'first' for the NCH
The National Concert Hall has announced major changes to upcoming concerts. Conductor Kurt Masur, who fell ill and was unable to complete his last Dublin concert with the London Philharmonic in March 2006, has withdrawn from his scheduled re-appearance on Thursday, April 26th, writes Michael Dervan.
Masur (79), whose international profile extended well beyond music when he led public demonstrations calling for change in the dying days of the German Democratic Republic, has taken the decision to reduce his workload, "effective immediately". The LPO's Dublin concert will now be conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, who credits the launch of his international career to his 1995 Wexford Festival debut in Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night. He has been music director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera since 2001, and becomes principal conductor of the LPO later this year. The orchestra's all-Brahms Dublin programme with violinist Vadim Repin remains unchanged.
Short memories at the NCH have resulted in a claim that Jurowski will be making "his Irish conducting debut" with this concert. Given that he appeared at Wexford in 1996 as well as 1995, his Dublin concert will in fact be his 13th appearance in Ireland. The NCH has an unenviable record of claims for spurious firsts. Back in April 2005 it claimed an upcoming "first appearance at the National Concert Hall" for violinist Sergey Khachatryan, when he had appeared at the hall just two years previously with the RTÉ NSO.
The NCH has also announced changes to the two concerts with violinist Maxim Vengerov directing the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra on May 5th and 6th.
The programmes were originally to have included all five Mozart violin concertos over the two nights, as well as the Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola, and the Concertone for two violins. Due to "global rescheduling problems" the same programme will now be played each night, with Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony, Op 110a, joining three works by Mozart - the Fourth and Fifth Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante.
Dublin was one of only four cities - the others being New York, Vienna and Tokyo - on Vengerov's 14-stop tour to have taken a multi-concert option. The NCH is making full refunds available to ticket-holders unhappy with the changes.
Tax break good news for Fota
Tax-relief measures in the current Finance Bill should mean the return of a significant collection of Irish landscape art to Fota House, writes Mary Leland. A deliberate once-off increase in the ceiling for donations to the Irish Heritage Trust, from ¤6 million to €10 million, has been included to allow what the Bill calls "a collection of fine Irish paintings and furniture" to be purchased specifically for display at the Regency mansion near Cork city.
The increase suggests an awareness of the estimated €4 million value of the collection, privately built up by Cork businessman Richard Wood and installed by him at Fota House when he and architect John O'Connell had it restored as an award-winning museum in 1983. When the Fota Estate was sold in 1987 by University College Cork, the collection was removed to the University of Limerick, but as a result of Wood's involvement in the Bula Mines controversy he has been forced to sell off some of his assets. His 18th- and 19th-century paintings are reputed to be the most important in their field outside the National Gallery.
The initial use of such a tax concession in Cork concerned the €800,000 purchase two years ago of the iconic painting View of Cork by John Butts, which was then donated to the city's Crawford Gallery. It is understood that the same local company involved in that gift is the principal in the Wood collection negotiations and that the sale is nearing completion.
This would bring paintings and furniture (much of which was sourced from sales at other important Irish houses) back to Fota, which for the past 20 years has been in the care of the Fota Trust. There the gardens and arboretum are already owned by the OPW and a consultant was recently appointed to review the status and management of the house with a view to absorbing it into the portfolio of the new National Heritage Trust.
