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
Saturday afternoon at 27 North Sherbourne Rachel Krehm and Janelle Fung presented an art song recital entitled The Enticing Sky. The material chosen was interesting with a heavy bias to women composers, living composers and Canadian composers; sometimes all three at once.
Details are now available for Opera 5’s double bill Suffragette featuring the works of Dame Ethel Smyth. The show will feature two works; Fête Galante, a rather grim “dance dream”, in a somewhat Stravinskian style, and the feminist opera The Boatswain’s Mate, which makes extensive use of folksong tunes. In her day Smythe tended to be written off by the critics for being too masculine so it will be interesting to see how the works have fared with time.
operaramblings 