Abstract
Dame Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) was one of the leading composers of English opera of her generation. Born into a military family and growing up in Surrey, she determined to train as a composer in Continental Europe, relocating to Leipzig in 1877. Returning to her home country over a decade later, she turned her attentions to large-scale compositions, including a total of six operas: Fantasio (1892–4), Der Wald (1899–1901), The Wreckers (1902–4), The Boatswain’s Mate (1913–14), Fête Galante (1921–2), and Entente Cordiale (1923–4). Other works include her Mass in D (1891), Concerto for Violin and Horn (1927), her oratorio The Prison (1929–30), and sundry orchestral, chamber, vocal, and keyboard pieces. Increasing deafness towards the end of her life led her to develop a parallel career as a writer of memoirs, biographies, and polemical essays on the music profession.