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. Continue reading →