Ethel Smyth: Composing and succeeding in a man's world.

摘要

Dame Ethel Smyth (April 23, 1858 -- May 8, 1944) was born into a society that did not readily accept women in the role of composers of large-scale works. Smyth's early struggle to be recognized for her work in Europe and England among her contemporaries Edvard Greig, Pytor Tchaikovsky, and Antonin Dvorak set the tone for the success of future female composers. The qualities she possessed to persuade the male-dominated world of music to perform her chamber, orchestral, and operatic works were her strong will and tenacious personality facilitated by her wide circle of influential friends.;Through a series of personal meetings, tours, and many letters of reference from influential conductors and heads of social and political circles, her many early works were gradually accepted for performance first in Germany, then in England. Her success through her persistence and single-minded purpose was instrumental in her second opera, Der Wald (The Forest), which was produced at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1903. As of the 2013--14 opera season, this has been the only opera composed by a woman to ever be performed in this space.;The story of how Smyth overcame every obstacle placed in her path to success was fodder for her autobiographical books and was indicative of how the paternalistic social structure in European opera functioned. This study comprises an investigation of why she was successful, reasons for her current obscurity, and the methods she employed to achieve performances of her early chamber works, her Solemn Mass in D, and her first two operas.