The Waterboys Choose Wexford Opera House For An Appointment With Mr Yeats

The Waterboys will be bringing their highly acclaimed show An Appointment With Mr Yeats to Wexford Opera House on Friday, November 5. In what has been described by The Irish Times as ‘a stunning reinvention of Yeats's poetry', Mike Scott has fused the poetic power of WB Yeats and merged it with the visceral music of The Waterboys. An Appointment With Mr Yeats premiered at The Abbey earlier this year, garnering the ten-piece band a series of standing ovations and rave reviews. Now this exciting show plays Wexford Opera House as part of a very limited Irish tour, ahead of their performance dates in the UK.

The Waterboys frontman first picked up on Yeats's work during a tour of Ireland in his 20s. By 1986, The Four Ages Of Man had weaved its way into The Waterboys live sets. In 1997, Mike Scott and his band then teamed up with Shane MacGowan, Christy Moore and The Cranberries for a compilation album of Yeats Songs, Now And In Time To Be. Five years ago, Mike Scott decamped to his music room armed with one of poet's anthologies, determined to create a work inspired by one of Ireland's leading literary figures. He says: ‘I want to do things that I have never done before and what anybody has done.'

RTE said: ‘Everything from the intro music to the epic encore was magic.' Band member Steve Wickham says that Yeats' poetry was a perfect fit for The Waterboys music: ‘They have a great metre, they seem like a song lyric, they sound like a song lyric.'

Younger audience members will hear work featured on the Leaving Cert syllabus as never before, including The Lake Isle Of Innisfree, An Irishman Foresees His Death, and Politics. Indeed, WB Yeats's poetry will resonate greatly with modern Irish audiences. Scott explains: ‘September 1913 was written a hundred years ago about the money-grabbing clergy of the day and the bourgeoisie who were unsympathetic to the plight of the workers.'

An Appointment With Mr Yeats will also include a selection of Waterboys favourites. Don't miss this amazing opportunity to hear Yeats like you have never heard (or possibly danced) to before! See www.mikescottwaterboys.com for further information.

The Waterboys Present An Appointment With Mr Yeats takes place on Friday, November 5 at Wexford Opera House at 8pm. Tickets are €42 and can be purchased online at www.wexfordoperahouse.ie or at the box office at 053 912 2144. No booking fee applies.

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