Page 239 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

MODERN 1900–1950 237

The sea in opera

The whole English
attitude toward women
in fields of art is ludicrous …
There is no sex in art. How
you play the violin, paint, or
compose is what matters.
Wagner, The Flying Dutchman, 1841 Bizet, The Pearl Fishers, 1863 Ethel Smyth
The atmosphere of the North Sea breathes The changing moods of the sea reflect the
throughout. The sea is there to be conquered ups and downs of the relationship between
but ultimately emerges victorious. two friends and their ultimate reconciliation.

lovers Thirza and Mark, torn
between passion and moral
responsibility, strike a new, raw
note in British operatic music.
Ethel Smyth, The Wreckers, 1904 Vaughan Williams, Riders to the Sea, 1932 The premiere
The orchestration evokes Cornish seascapes. The impressionistic music captures the Her work completed, it then took
Powerful but impassive, the sea brings both power of wind and ocean in this lament for
prosperity and discord to the village. sons lost at sea set in an Irish fishing village. Smyth two years to get The
Wreckers staged. The premiere,
when it eventually came, was in
Leipzig’s Neues Theater, Brewster’s
libretto having been translated
into German. To Smyth’s fury
the director had made cuts to the
third act, although the first-night
Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, 1945 Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd, 1951 audience greeted the “mutilated”
Four Interludes each represent a different The sea represents an implacable backdrop version with thunderous applause.
mood of the sea. The sea is a metaphor for to the turbulence of human affairs and a After the director refused to
the struggle of the individual. final, peaceful resting place.
reinstate his cuts for subsequent
performances, an enraged
British character in its setting late 19th and early 20th centuries. Smyth stormed into the theatre
and themes. The hymns and other Although imperfectly worked out, early the next morning and
choruses sung by the villagers, for the basic drama of the opera is removed all the scores she could
instance, bear the clear imprint of compelling with strong characters find in the orchestra pit. There
the English oratorio tradition. and situations. It takes on serious would be no more performances
Derivative though the music themes of greed, love, moral of The Wreckers in Leipzig.
is in many ways, Smyth had conflict, and religious fanaticism. Smyth then caught a train to
nonetheless achieved her objective At its best, as in the prelude to Prague, where another performance
with The Wreckers. She had written the second act, “On the cliffs of was scheduled. This proved an
a viable British opera that could, Cornwall,” the music is colorful even greater disaster, since the
for the first time, bear comparison and atmospheric. Although orchestra had not rehearsed
with the works of the major indebted to Wagner’s Siegfried, properly, leading to damning
continental opera composers of the the second-act duets between the reviews in the local press. The ❯❯

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