On Sunday, May 6, 2007 at 3:15:20 AM UTC-7, alanwa...@aol.com wrote:
> Dame Ethel Smyth's opera The Wreckers is to be performed at the State
> Theatre Giessen on May 20 in what is billed as a new production. The
> conductor is Carlos Spierer and there are two further performances
> planned for June.
> My guess is that this is the first fully professional opera house
> performance of The Wreckers for many, many years. Cornwall opera
> staged an acclaimed performance last year with a mix of professional,
> semi-pro and students and with a very reduced orchestra.
> Details of that and a synopsis can be found here:
> http://tinyurl.com/ynrbak
> Mr Spierer and the house obviously like investigating less usual works
> as the 2006-7 season also included two works by Peter Maxwell-Davies
> and performances of Il Giuramento by Mercadante.
> The Wreckers was written between 1902-4 and is the strongest of her
> operas in my opinion. I have never heard a performance although I
> have read the score. Orchestrally she is obviously influenced by
> Wagner, although not slavishly so, and much less so in the vocal
> writing. The strongest Acts are the last two (again an opinion based
> on reading it on the page, which is not always the same as hearing
> it).
> The first two performances were conducted by Thomas Beecham and Bruno
> Walter. Beecham promised Dame Ethel between the Wars that he would
> revive it but reneged on that for whatever reason and had to endure
> the wrath of the formidable Dame Ethel, shutting himself in a cupboard
> on one occasion while leaving his Secretary to deal with her arrival.
> The powerful Overture has had occasional outings and was in the
> repertoire of the late Sir Alexander Gibson who recorded it.
> Dame Ethel died in 1944, her last years plagued by deafness. There
> are arguments that The Wreckers is her greatest achievement although
> some would place her Mass in D Major ahead of it. In either case, she
> was certainly an accomplished writer for vocal forces. Sir Adrian
> Boult revived the Mass in a BBC broadcast performance and later
> regretted not performing more of her music although he did record some
> short pieces in the 78 era.
> I organised the first broadcast performance of her Concerto for
> Violin, Horn and Orchestra which makes considerable demands on both
> soloists and which was given by the Philomusica of London. We
> attempted to get it recorded but no company was interested. It has
> subsequently been recorded much more recently for the Chandos label if
> any are interested in exploring it.
> Kind regards,
> Alan M. Watkins

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220720-ethel-smyththe-rebel-composer-erased-from-history