Profile

Biography

Áine Sheil studied Music and German at Trinity College Dublin and Historical Musicology at King's College London. Her PhD thesis (2004) was on the performance and reception of Wagner's Meistersinger von Nürnberg during the Weimar Republic. She subsequently worked for three years in the Publications Department of the Royal Opera House, London, where she became very interested in opera production and the effects of arts policy on artistic practice.

In 2006 she joined the Department of Drama at Trinity College Dublin as a postdoctoral research fellow. Here, she taught an introductory course on opera and carried out research on Irish arts policy and its effect on the theatrical arts in Ireland. She also developed an interest in theatre and performance theory, and continues to explore ways in which these can be applied to music. As a Lecturer in Music at University College Cork (2008-2009) she taught several undergraduate courses ('Critical Theory and Music', 'Music Theatre and Politics', 'Exploring Opera') and contributed to several modules in the MA in Music and Cultural History.

Research

Overview

• The Staging of Opera
  
• Theatre and Performance Theory
  
• Reception Theory
  
• Arts Policy
  
• Wagner
  
• Music and Gender
  

Grants

• Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship (2006) Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences
  
• PhD research awards: Arts and Humanities Research Board, University of London Academic Trust Funds Committee, German Academic Exchange Service
  

Publications

Selected publications

• ‘Opera production in Ireland: no place for politics?’, in Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland 5 (2009–2010), 31-54.
  http://www.music.ucc.ie/jsmi/index.php/jsmi/article/view/66
• With Joshua Edelman: ‘Internationalization and the Irish State’s Relationship with Theatre and Opera’, in Global Changes, Local Stages: How Theatre Functions in Smaller European Countries, ed. J.J. van Maanen, Andreas Kotte and Anneli Saro (Amsterdam: Rodopi/International Federation for Theatre Research, 2009), 146-75.
• ‘A Question of Identity: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Weimar Germany’, in Music, Theatre and Politics in Germany 1848–1933, ed. Nikolaus Bacht (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), 93-112.

Selected Papers

• International Workshop on Opera and Video: ‘The opera director’s voice: DVD “extras” and the question of authority’ (Valencia, Spain, 2010)
• Royal Musical Association Annual Conference: 'What can Opera Studies learn from Performance Studies?' (Dublin, 2009)
• Society for Musicology in Ireland Annual Conference: 'Opera production in Ireland: no place for politics?' (Waterford, 2008)
• Project on European Theatre Systems: 'To what extent are Irish opera structures influenced by the Irish State?' (Debrecen, Hungary, 2007)
• Irish Society for Theatre Research Symposium: 'Opera in Ireland: a case of cultural dissonance?' (Belfast, 2007)
• Royal Musical Association Annual Conference: 'Was musicology right to ignore the Sonderweg debate?' (Birmingham, 2004)

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Staging Opera: History and Practice
  
• Music and Gender
• Alternative Perspectives: Interdisciplinary Ideas About Performance
  

Postgraduate

• Critical Studies