Informationen zu "Two Pieces from the Wreckers"
Komponist/Autor: Ethel Smyth
Verlag: Broekmans & van Poppel
Verlagsnummer: BRP 4702
Beschreibung
Preface Ethel Smyth was a General’s daughter whose father did not want her to concentrate on music. Nevertheless, her strong will prevailed and she studied at the Leipzig Conservatory with Carl Reinecke, and then privately with Heinrich von Herzogenberg. She was thus never part of the British musical establishment, though she became a close supporter of Sir Arthur Sullivan (also trained at Leipzig) in his old age. Apart from anything else, she wrote six operas – not a genre that Britain was known for – of which The Wreckers was the third. Moreover, the libretto was in French (as Les naufrageurs). This was because she thought there was a better chance of a performance in France than Britain. But Smyth was wrong – after many attempts no-one in France would perform it. She returned to Leipzig, where at last it was given its first performance – in German, as Strandrecht – on 11 November 1906. It was not an ideal performance because Richard Hagel, the conductor, made substantial cuts in the third act that made the story nonsensical. Nevertheless, the opera was given 13 curtain calls at its premiere. But Hagel refused to restore the cuts he had made, so Smyth personally collected the score and parts from the orchestra pit and went to Prague, hoping for better treatment! She did not receive it for the rehearsals were very disappointing and the project never ‘took off’. However, back in England Ethel Smyth had gained the support of Thomas Beecham, who eventually conducted it (in English, as The Wreckers) in London in June 1909. And even more hopefully, she heard from Bruno Walter (Gustav Mahler’s assistant at the Vienna State Opera) that Mahler was interested in producing it. This came to nothing, though, because Mahler had to give up his post in Vienna. There have been occasional performances over the years, including one in a new German translation as Strandräuber. After Beecham’s performance of the opera two orchestral excerpts began to appear in concert programmes, the Overture and the Prelude to Act 2, ‘On the Cliffs of Cornwall’. In fact one or other has been played at Promenade Concerts almost 30 times till now. The influence of Wagner is strong and hardly surprising for someone trained in Leipzig. But there is also a quality that looks forward to Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, for this is ‘sea’ music. The ‘wreckers’ were partly-legendary folk who deliberately lured ships to their doom by using false beacons. The purpose, of course, was to steal the cargo. Such robbers were supposed to have been active where the stormy Atlantic Ocean washes the coasts of Cornwall. There is not much evidence that this ever happened (at least not often) but the idea has inspired writers, painters and musicians. Ethel Smyth was a formidable woman, a leading figure in the Suffragette movement, a volunteer radiographer with the French army in WW1, and a larger-than-life personality who could never be ignored. She was made Dame Ethel Smyth (the equivalent of a knighthood) in 1922 – the first time a female composer was so honoured. She is remembered as much for her feminism as for her music. Phillip Brookes, 2022
Inhalt
Overture - On the Cliffs of Cornwall
