A Neglected Genius

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 386, 21 June 1928, Page 16

A Neglected Genius

DAME ETHEL SMYTH EMERGES VICTIM OF PREJUDICE (Written for THE SUNJ It is something in the nature of a tragedy that one of our greatest living composers should have been so neglected that the man in the street has onlv really become aware of her existence in this, her 70th year. Yet genius, like murder, will out, and despite the disabilities which confront a woman in any "walk of life outside the home and any art except the domestic. Ethel Smyth’s giant genius has at last battered down the walls of prejudice and her noble music is receiving the attention of music-lovers all over the world. To Dame Ethel Symth belongs the distinction of having written five grand operas. To her country, England, belongs the disgrace of letting Germany first produce three out of the five. Her masterpiece, “The Wreckers,” which is to my mind the finest piece of operatic writing of our time, was first performed at Leipzig in 1906, where it created a profound sensation. It was not produced in London until 1909. And yet Grove, the standard authority on all things musical, says of this work: “It is difficult to point to a work of any nationality, since Wagner, that has a more direct appeal to the emotions, or that is more skilfully planned and carried out.” A concert given at the Wigmore Hall in March devoted an entire programme to Ethel Smyth's music. Of one song, “Chrysilla,” the well-known critic, Christopher St. John, wrote: "I am convinced that this is one of the loveliest songs ever written at any time in any country by any composer.” Could praise go further Perhaps the most popular of all her works will be, among Britishers at any rate, that essentially English composition “The Boatswain’s Mate.” This irresistably delightful bit of foolery is a comedy-opera whose libretto is an adaptation of the story of that name by W. W. Jacobs. It was produced during the war in London, and created a very bright spot in those dark days, our own Rosina Buckman taking the part of the comely landlady, Mrs. Waters. The whole opera is full of gaiety and humour, and is a striking example of the composer’s versatility. Her Infinite Variety

But I have as yet but touched the fringe of her “infinite variety” for Ethel Symth is, as she puts it, a jack of two trades, and her beautiful book,

“A Final Burning of Boats” has just been published by Longman. Her loyalty to women and her chivalry to men, as evidenced in this book, together with its very real literary excellence and vigour, will encourage other women artists who are finding their path very difficult and their encouragement small. She is a loyal appreciator of others in the musical world, and her essay on Sir Henry Wood which recently appeared in a distinguished English review gives the best portrait of that father of modern music that has yet seen print. Although her career has been hampered in many ways by jealousy and prejudice, yet Dame Ethel has always had the golden opinions of the finest minds of our time, Mr. Bernard Shaw stated that it was her music "that cured me for ever of the old delusion that women could not do man’s work in art and all other things.” Not one piece of music by Ethel Smyth has yet been performed in New Zealand. The records of “The Boatswain’s Mate” have been issued by H.M.V., however, and these should become favourites in this country if only for the delightful singing of Rosina Buckman. MARGARET MACPHERSON.