The Limerick Lady 70: Opera Workshop and Limerick's "Banned" Author

What happens when your books, for all the right reasons, are banned? Well sometimes the controversy just drives demand; unfortunately it also often means the author's name is all-but-lost to the mists of time, and relegated to the back of the collective mind.

Such was the case for Limerick's own Kate O'Brien whose 50th anniversary we mark in 2024. O'Brien had two books "Mary Lavelle" and "Land of Spices" banned in Ireland, and she herself was banned from Spain, for expressing some very progressive ideas around politics, women's liberation, and sexual identity. 

On this month's episode we meet Shirley Keane, director of Limerick's Opera Workshop, and Fiona Linnane, composer, to discuss their work-in-progress "Banned" which explores how Kate O'Brien responded to her censorship – the heartbreak it brought her, her ultimate triumph in spite of it, and the impact it will have had on the breadth of her audience today. 

Fiona Linnane is a composer whose compositional practice centres around use of text and includes opera, art song and featuring spoken word.  She is director of Limerick New Music Ensemble and represented by the Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin.

Following a Bachelor of Music Degree from University College Cork and a Masters in Music Technology from University of Limerick, Linnane’s first explorations into composition were through song writing. Over the last 20 years she has established herself as a composer of "Art Song" and operatic works popular with both audiences and performers alike. The work of Kate O’Brien has been a feature of Linnane’s work since 2011 when she began composing her song cycle Songs from Kate O’Brien. The cycle consists of 12 songs – four for soprano, four for contralto and four for baritone – based on poems by Mary Coll depicting characters from O’Brien’s novels at pivotal moments in their development. The Limerick City and County Council awarded her with Individual Arts Bursaries in 2018 and 2019 for work in opera and art song, including the addition of the four songs for soprano to the Kate O’Brien cycle.

Founder and Artistic Director of Opera Workshop, Shirley has had training in both theatre and opera, at Rose Bruford College, Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, London. Shows created and produced for Opera Workshop include The Countess’ Salon, Opera What The Fuss!, The Trouble with Virtue, Abandoned and No 2 Pery Square by Fiona Linnane. In October 2022 Shirley produced and directed Twisted Tales, a production of short, edgy contemporary operas by Fiona Linnane and Luke Byrne.

She has worked as a performer, director, teacher and mentor with companies as diverse as Opera Theatre Co., Opera Holland Park, Basingstoke Haymarket Theatre, Glyndebourne Opera, Live Music Now, Accademia Solti Te Kanawa, Half Moon Young People’s Theatre Co., and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Shirley was also engaged on the Women’s Conducting Programme at the National Concert Hall, led by conductor Alice Farnham. Shirley enjoys regular cover presenter time on RTE lyric fm.

https://limetreebelltable.ie/events/banned-by-fiona-linnane/
https://operaworkshop.ie/

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The Limerick Lady is a grassroots movement based in Limerick, Ireland, with a focus on promoting conversation around gender, visibility, gender balance and the arts. It was founded in 2016 by award-winning (and losing) singer-songwriter Emma Langford, who hosts the podcast alongside fellow award-winning (and losing) Limerick woman, theatre-maker and musician Ann Blake.

Find the Limerick Lady Podcast on all your favourite streaming platforms. New episodes drop once a month, on the third Thursday (or Thirdsday, if you will).

The Limerick Lady is supported by The Limerick Post Newspaper.

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