Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)
Der Wald (1899-1901)
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Orchestra/John Andrews
rec. 2023, Studio 1, Maida Vale Studios, London
Text included
Resonus RES10324 [66]

Confession time. This disc has been sitting on my desk for some time now. My colleague Jonathan Woolf appraised the release when it came out. I could not help but see his review when it appeared and, rightly or wrongly, after a bit of preliminary listening I decided to put the disc to one side for a while so that I could do my level best to forget his comments about both the work and the performance in order to reach my own judgements independently. Sadly, other reviewing assignments then caused me to forget the disc, for which I can only apologise to both the label and the performers. Recently, however, I’ve been reading Leah Broad’s fascinating book, Quartet. How Four Women Changed the Musical World. Ethel Smyth is one of Dr Broad’s quartet and reading what she has to say about Dame Ethel’s life and music in general, and about Der Wald specifically, prompted me to return to this premiere recording of the work.

I said that I had tried to put Jonathan Woolf’s comments from my mind but that’s not entirely true. On one point I can only echo his views: I too have had variable experiences when it comes to the music of Ethel Smyth. It seems I admired The Prison (1930) rather more than Jonathan did, though, like him, I found difficulty with the over-earnest libretto, which I felt hobbles the work (review). I’ve also heard The Wreckers, in Odaline de la Martinez’s fine recording made live at the 1994 Proms. (Originally released on Conifer Classics, now on Retrospect Opera RO004). I don’t think that work is flawless, but it is interesting and dramatically it is largely convincing. The libretto has its issues, notably (for me at least) the length of the Act II duet between Thirza and Mark which plays for some 23 minutes and seems inordinately long, even when as well sung as it is by Anne-Marie Owens and Justin Lavender on the Martinez recording. Possibly Smyth’s best-known work these days is her Mass in D (1891). I wasn’t by any means convinced about the work from hearing the first recording of the work, nor was my view significantly altered by hearing a live performance in 2018. However, an excellent recording conducted by Sakari Oramo subsequently caused me to revise my opinion (review). Might the same be true on coming back to Der Wald?  

As Peter Avis mentions in his useful booklet essay – and Leah Broad discusses in more detail in her book – Der Wald was Smyth’s second opera. Her first such venture was Fantasio, which was premiered in Weimar in 1898 following what Dr Broad describes as “a gruelling, four-year campaign” by the composer around German opera houses. She states that the opera received a “relatively amiable reception” but Smyth was dissatisfied and accepted the view of one of her friends that the issue was that the libretto was unsuited to the music. Smyth determined to address this with her next opera by writing her own libretto. In the event, it was her close friend Harry Bennet Brewster (1850-1908) who furnished the text; he would later also act as librettist for The Wreckers. Der Wald achieved a premiere in Berlin in 1902 but it met a hostile reception; that was not the fault of the work but, rather, on account of anti-British sentiment at the time in Germany caused by the Boer War. To Smyth’s surprise a British premiere was offered by Covent Garden later that same year and this went well. In the following year Der Wald was staged at New York’s Metropolitan Opera where it achieved the singular distinction of being the house’s first performance of an opera by a female composer (it was not until 2016 that the Met put on another opera by a female). Der Wald was not as well received in New York as had been the case in London.

At this point, perhaps I should say that on this recording the opera, which was originally composed to a German libretto, is sung in English, though the German title has been retained. Leah Broad records in her book that some disquiet was raised at Covent Garden in 1902 concerning the performance to an Anglophone audience of an opera in German. I looked in vain in the Resonus booklet for any information as to the source of the English translation – nor have I spotted any reference to this point in Leah Broad’s book. However, Jonathan Woolf states that the English translation of Brewster’s German libretto is by Ethel Smyth herself.

The plot of this one-act opera concerns the love of Röschen, a peasant girl, for the young woodcutter Heinrich. Unfortunately, the wicked witch Iolanthe has designs on Heinrich. She spots an opportunity to detach Heinrich from Röschen’s affections when a Pedlar, to save his own skin, accuses him (correctly, in fact) of poaching a deer. Heinrich continues to resist Iolanthe’s ‘charms’ and, vengefully, she gives the order for Heinrich’s death. Other characters include the weak local ruler, Count Rudolf and Röschen’s father, Peter. The opera is somewhat compressed and whilst that is infinitely preferable to having this plot drawn out for too long, the length of the work and the nature of the libretto mean that what we experience is, in reality, a series of tableaux. Der Wald is cast in a single act which consists of a Prologue, nine scenes (which play without a break) and a short Epilogue.

The orchestral writing is never less than interesting and colourful and the BBC Symphony Orchestra plays the music very well under the animated direction of John Andrews. I’m far less enamoured of the chorus writing, despite the skills of the BBC Singers. The chorus deliver the Prologue and Epilogue. Otherwise, they are mainly involved in Scene 1; there, the choral writing is far too jolly and light opera-like for my taste.

Among the subsidiary characters, Andrew Shore is the Pedlar. At the start of Scene 2 he has what I can only describe as a patter song to sing. Sadly, this put me strongly in mind of G&S. Here and elsewhere, I think Shore rather overdoes the vibrato. Morgan Pearse makes a good impression as Count Rudolf, characterising his role effectively.

To be honest, Scenes 1 to 3 are pretty forgettable. The meat of the work begins in Scene 4 with an extended duet between Röschen and Heinrich.  Natalya Romaniw has recently been winning plaudits from all sides as Tosca, including from my Seen and Heard colleague, Lucy Jeffery (review). In the opening scenes of Der Wald, I wondered if her voice and musical personality were too big for the role of Röschen; after all, the character is a young girl. However, as Scene 4 unfolded it became readily apparent that Smyth’s writing is such that a voice such as Romaniw’s is exactly what’s needed, not least in the solo that begins ‘I know not whence spring these sudden fears’. Ms Romaniw offers intense, dramatic singing throughout this scene. Opposite her, Robert Murray matches his partner for intensity and dramatic involvement though I do worry that quite frequently there’s a beat in his voice. Claire Barnett-Jones gives a vivid portrayal of the wicked, unscrupulous Iolanthe. (Incidentally, the character’s name is pronounced the German way; the vowel at the end is not pronounced as it is in the Gilbert and Sullivan light opera.) Ms Barnett-Jones is particularly unpleasant towards Rudolf in Scene 6 and then is completely imperious in the way she treats Heinrich in the opera’s last scene. I think, though, that it’s a weakness of the opera that because the action is so compressed the three principals are required to sing more or less full-on for much of the time from Scene 4 to the end. I longed for some reposeful music.

There’s some good music in Der Wald (at least, once you’re past Scene 3) but its often unremitting intensity is a big drawback. The other, even bigger drawback, for me at least, is the libretto which it would be charitable to describe as weak. The language is stilted and gives every sign of being an English translation shoehorned so as to fit the music. Mind you, Smyth is not alone among British composers of this period who have set less than ideal texts. I think of the couple of operas by Stanford which have come my way and the pre-Gerontius choral works of Elgar; and the less said about the libretto for Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s oratorio The Atonement the better. I’m not being flippant when I say that I wonder if Resonus might have been better advised to record Der Wald using the original German text. That said, the use of English brings immediacy for an Anglophone audience, so I can well understand the decision to use Smyth’s translation As I write, a new recording is on the way from cpo; it seems that this involves mainly German performers so perhaps the original language text will be used.

Ethel Smyth’s opera has been well served by these performers. John Andrews leads a full-blooded performance and anyone interested in Smyth’s music can invest in this recording with confidence. However, for me the weaknesses of Der Wald outweigh its good points. I’m not sure that I shall return to this opera a second time.

John Quinn

Previous review Jonathan Woolf (October 2023)

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Cast
Natalya Romaniw (soprano) – Röschen
Claire Barnett-Jones (mezzo-soprano) – Iolanthe
Robert Murray (tenor) – Heinrich
Andrew Shore (baritone) – A Pedlar
Morgan Pearse (baritone) – Count Rudolf   
Matthew Brook (bass) – Peter
Rebecca Lea (soprano) – A Youth
Andrew Rupp (baritone) – First Huntsman