Literature Network » J. M. Synge

Riders to the Sea

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From: Who's Who in Opera
Date: 19990101
Author:JOYCE BOURNE and MICHAEL KENNEDY

Riders to the Sea ( Vaughan Williams). Text by J. M. Synge; 1 act; f.p. London 1937, cond. Malcolm Sargent.

An island off the west coast of Ireland, early 20th cent.: Nora believes clothes taken from a drowned man belong to her brother Michael. Her sister Cathleen agrees and they hide them from their mother, Maurya , who has already lost her husband and four sons at sea. Her last surviving son, Bartley , is to cross the sea to take horses to Galway Fair. The women try to dissuade him and, when he insists, the sisters coax Maurya into taking him food for the journey. When Maurya ...

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