Fête Galante
Music by Ethel Smyth · at Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Fête Galante is an opera in one act composed by Ethel Smyth to an English-language libretto by Smyth and Edward Shanks based on Maurice Baring's 1909 short story of the same name. It is a tale of late night fête galante involving aristocrats and a commedia dell'arte troupe where jealousy, desire, and multiple masquerades end in the death of one of the characters. Described by the composer as a "Dance-dream", the opera premiered on 4 June 1923 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Fête Galante (Smyth)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (; 22 April 1858 – 8 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas. Smyth tended to be marginalised as a "woman composer", as though her work could not be accepted as mainstream. Yet when she produced more delicate compositions, they were criticised for not measuring up to the standard of her male peers. She was the first female composer granted a damehood. Smyth was involved in the suffrage movement and spent time in Holloway Prison for breaking windows. She also composed the suffragette anthem The March of the Women.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Ethel Smyth", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Ethel Smyth
- Fantasio (1834)
- Der Wald (1899)
- Entente Cordiale (1925)