Page 241 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

MODERN 1900–1950 239

drama” based on a short story of Wreckers, at least at first hand.
the same name by Smyth’s friend Yet his first opera, Peter Grimes,
Maurice Baring. premiered in 1945, has almost
Where Smyth led the way, many uncanny parallels with Smyth’s
others have followed. In Britain work. Both operas are set in remote
alone, a generation of female Miss Smyth is one of the coastal areas, where a pair of
composers born in the decade that few women composers one protagonists find themselves
The Wreckers was composed and can seriously consider to at odds with the rest of the
first performed included Elisabeth be achieving something community, which is in the grip
Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy, and valuable in the field of of evangelical religion and set on
Imogen Holst. The work of Lutyens musical composition. violence against them. Both employ
included nearly 200 scores for film Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky the device of the protagonists
and radio, as well as the operas singing onstage while a chorus of
The Numbered (1965) and Isis and villagers perform a hymn offstage.
Osiris (1969). Best known for her And both include powerful
13 string quartets (1933–1984), orchestral evocations of the sea,
Maconchy also wrote five operas, endowing it with a personal
including The Sofa (1957) and The presence and force so great that
Departure (1961). Holst, only child Musgrave include Mary, Queen the watery element becomes a
of Gustav Holst, while a less prolific of Scots (1976), and Simón Bolívar key presence in the work.
composer, proved a tireless (1995), while the successes of Whether Britten was aware
assistant to Benjamin Britten. In Judith Weir include A Night at of The Wreckers or not, Smyth’s
the late 20th century, the work of the Chinese Opera (1987), The work clearly played some role in
two Scottish composers won world Vanishing Bridegroom (1990), revitalizing a distinctively British
acclaim. The 10 operas of Thea and Blond Eckbert (1994). tradition of opera, both in terms of
music and subject matter. In this
Male heirs sense, major male composers of the
Dressed in red, the title character of It is not only female composers 20th century, such as Britten and
Judith Weir's opera Miss Fortune takes
center state at the United Kingdom who were influenced by Smyth. Michael Tippett, can be counted
premiere of the work at the Royal Opera Surprisingly, Benjamin Britten among the inheritors of Smyth's
House, Covent Garden, in 2012. seems not to have known The musical mantle. ■

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