FINNEGANS WAKE 100
A CENTENARY PROJECT ADAPTING JOYCE AS OPERA
BY ALASTAIR WHITE & GEMMA A. WILLIAMS
FINNEGANS WAKE 100 is a series of works leading to the centenary of the book’s publication in 1939 — designed by the Scottish composer Alastair White and Irish curator Gemma A. Williams.
SCHEDULE:
Designing Finnegans Wake for Irish Design Week 2025, 17-23rd November at the Thomas MacDonagh Museum. Supported by the DCCI.
Prologue for Bled Contemporary Music Week 2026. World premiere 24th June in Castle Bled, performed by the .abeceda String Quartet.
Here Comes Everybody for the London Irish Centre. World premiere 5th September 2026, performed by Roger Redgate and Ensemble Exposé. Supported by IrelandsEye Knitwear.
PRAISE:
“Masterfully embraces the more consonant, as well as more dissonant, sides of the Schoenbergian tradition in its struggle with a fearsomely intellectual agenda.” — The Wire
“By abandoning polite constraints, the piece reclaims the wild heart of Joyce’s masterpiece. It shows that beneath our social facades and fears of disgrace, life is not a code meant for scholars to decipher. Life is not polite, tidy or genteel; it is an energetic, cyclical celebration best enjoyed on its bright, joyous surface. Rather than telling a linear story, the event functions as a massive, musical mosaic of human history, guilt, memory, and myth, all experienced inside a dream. Ultimately, White’s adaptation reminds us why Joyce’s masterpiece continues to resonate nearly a century later.” — Cent Magazine
“Challenging and refreshing.” — Planet Hugill
Finnegans Wake 100 