The Classical Music Book

234

W

omen were writing

opera from the form’s

first days. The earliest

known opera by a woman, La

Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola

d’A l c i n a (The Liberation of Ruggiero

from the Island of Alcina), by

Francesca Caccini, was first

performed in Caccini’s native city

of Florence in 1625. For Ethel

Smyth, however, writing a three-

act “grand opera”—serious in

theme, with no spoken dialogue—

at the turn of the 20th century

was an ambitious undertaking,

both because she was female and

also because she was English,

British opera having been almost

extinct since Henry Purcell.

Life beyond the piano

For much of the 19th century,

female composers were associated

with piano and chamber music

suited to the domestic sphere.

Composers such as Louise

Reichardt (1779 –1826), Clara

Schumann (1819 –1896), and Fanny

Mendelssohn (1805–1847) were

known for “art songs,” or Lieder

(poems set to music for voice and

piano). Toward the end of the

century, female composers began

to spread their wings. Cécile

Chaminade (1857–1944) and

Augusta Holmès (1847–1903), both

French and near contemporaries

of Smyth, wrote major orchestral

works, as did Amy Beach (1867–

1944), who was the first American

woman to write a symphony—the

Gaelic Symphony (1896).

Some women also wrote opera.

Thirty years older than Smyth,

the French aristocrat Marie de

Grandval (1828–1907) was a prolific

composer whose works included

a symphony (now lost), an oratorio

(Stabat Mater), and seven operas,

the last of which, Mazeppa, based

on a poem by Byron, was staged

with some success in Bordeaux in

1892. Three years later, Augusta
      Holmès’s third and final opera,
      La Montagne noire, was produced
      at the Paris Opéra. Smyth was in
      the French capital at the time and
      saw the work. In common with
      many others, she was disappointed

FEMALE COMPOSERS

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Female composers

BEFORE

1644 The Venetian composer

and singer Barbara Strozzi

publishes her first book of

madrigals (Il primo libro

di madrigali).

1850 In France, the premiere

success of Louise Farrenc's

Nonet for wind and strings

allows her to negotiate equal

pay as professor of piano at the

Paris Conservatoire.

AFTER

1913 French composer Lili

Boulanger is the first woman

to receive the Prix de Rome for

her cantata Faust et Hélène.

2000 Finnish composer Kaija

Saariaho premieres her five-act

opera L’Amour de loin (Love

From Afar), based on the

12th-century troubadour Jaufré

Rudel, at the Salzburg Festival.

I feel awfully full of

power—deadly sure of

what I am doing—I love

to see how I am

getting to orchestrate

better and better.

Ethel Smyth

Letter to librettist Henry Brewster

The audience prepare to leave after

watching an opera at the Royal Opera

House, Covent Garden, London, in

1910—the year The Wreckers had its

first performance at the venue.

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