Opera Scotland

Ethel Smyth Suggest updates

Dame Ethel Smyth.

Born Marylebone, London, 23 April 1858.

Died Woking, 9 May 1944.

English composer.

Ethel Smyth came from a military background. Like a number of her talented musical contemporaries, including Sullivan and Mackenzie, she studied at the Leipzig Conservatoire. She was quickly recognized to be a great talent, and a number of her compositions were premiered in Germany, including her first three operas. In Britain, she was a renowned activist in the suffrage movement, famously reported to have conducted  her 'March of the Women' sung by a chorus of fellow-prisoners in Holloway by using her toothbrush as a baton.

Operas performed in Scotland are shown in bold:

01   Fantasio (1892-94; Weimar 1898) (Brewster & cpsr)

02   Der Wald (1899-1901; Berlin 1902) (Brewster & cpsr)

03   The Wreckers (1902; Leipzig 1906) (Brewster & cpsr)

04   The Boatswain's Mate (1913-14; London 1916) (cpsr)

05   Fête Galante (Birmingham 1923) (Shanks & cpsr)

06   Entente Cordiale (London 1925) (cpsr)

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