Two significant Ethel Smyth works: The March of the Women and Mass in D; are to be performed at Sydney Opera House in a concert presented this month by Sydney Youth Orchestra and members from the Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra.
British composer Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) studied music in Germany and enjoyed public performances of her chamber music at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. In 1890 she returned to London for her orchestral debut at the Crystal Palace, formally establishing herself as a composer worthy of programming alongside her male contemporaries. Smyth wrote six operas over the course of her career; her second opera, Der Wald, was the first opera by a woman to be produced in the United States at the Metropolitan Opera on March 11, 1903 (it would be almost a century until the Met would perform another opera composed by a woman: Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin in 2000). Smyth was the first British female composer to be knighted for her services to music.
Elizabeth Scott conducts the Festival Chorus supported by the Sydney Youth Orchestra and members from the Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra in this celebratory concert.
The March of the Women became the official anthem of the Women’s Social and Political Union, and more widely the Women’s Suffrage Movement throughout the United Kingdom.
A famous performance of this work took place in Holloway Prison by the inmates with Smyth conducting it with her toothbrush as a baton. Smyth had been incarcerated for her involvement in the Suffrage movement. Inspired by this experience Smyth later composed her opera The Prison.
Mass in D is perhaps Smyth’s best known choral composition. A renewal of her High Anglican beliefs led to the composition of this mass setting for choir. Smyth found that the Oxford Movement of Anglicanism appealed to her lifestyle and sense of order. The work was written during a stay with Princess Eugenie who became an ardent supporter in her role as composer and suffragette.
Many consider Smyth to be a pioneer in the breaking down of the male dominated area of composition that was evident in England and Germany. Her tireless work no doubt led to compositional opportunities for future female composers including Peggy Glanville-Hicks.
October 26 2024
Sydney Opera House
Sydney, Australia
