Dame Ethel Smyth’s one act opera Der Wald is certainly of some historical interest.  It was the first opera by a woman given at the Metropolitan Opera.   That was in 1903 and 113 years would pass before the Met did another one; Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin in 2016.

It’s about an hour log and in English (sort of).  Musically it’s pretty good but the libretto is rather awful.  The plot concerns a forester and his fiancée, a deer hidden in a well (and anyone who has seen Tosca knows what a good idea that is!), a vengeful aristocrat who happens to be the mistress of the local lord and a peddler.  In a nut shell, the hero Heinrich chooses to be executed for poaching rather than “serve” the lady Iolanthe.  I suppose that’s no dafter than a lot of opera plots but throw in a sort of archaic English that makes the libretto sound like it was written by a drunk Pre-Raphaelite and ’tis pity ’tis so twee.

‘Tis a pity too because, as previously stated the music is pretty good.  It blends two styles.  There’s a sort of lush, tonal style for the normal humans and something a bit edgier and more ethereal for the Spirits of the forest and Iolanthe.  The recording too is pretty good.  Natalya Romaniw (Röschen) and Robert Murray (Heinrich) make an attractive pair of lovers and Claire Barnett-Jones is suitably spooky, imperious and unpleasant as Iolanthe.  There are useful contributions from Andrew Shore (A Peddler), Morgan Pearse (Count Rudolf) and Matthew Brook (Peter).  The chorus, the BBC Singers, are really excellent and the orchestra (BBC Symphony) sounds really good.  Conductor John Andrews pulls things together nicely.

The recording was made in Studio 1, BBC Maida Vale Studios in January 2023.  It was made at 192kHz/24 bit and it’s good.  It’s clear but not especially solid and I don’t think it matches the very best modern recordings.  I was listening to a 96kHz/24 bit mix.  The booklet tough is excellent with lots of information on the work and its performance history plus bios and a full libretto.  It’s available as a physical CD, MP3 and standard res, hi-res (96kHz) and super hi-res (192kHz) FLAC.

If you enjoy Bulwer-Lytton, or even perhaps Walter Scott, the libretto might not bother you as much as it bothered me.  and even if the libretto isn’t great, the music is pretty good and it’s of some real historical importance.

Catalogue number: Resonus Classics RES10324