All posts by Amy Zigler

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BBC Culture brings attention to Smyth’s work ahead of several Proms concerts

As the Proms will be featuring Smyth’s music on no fewer than FIVE concerts during the 2022 season, BBC Culture ran a detailed article on her life and music last week. Beverley D’Silva interviewed Leah Broad, Sophie Fuller, Melly Still, Stephen Langridge and Amy Zigler in advance of the July 24 Prom 13 semi-staged performance of The Wreckers by the Glyndebourne Opera Company.

Read the article here.

Listen to the BBC Radio 3 broadcast through the end of August here.

Subscribe to Glyndebourne’s livestream and watch the production yourself here.

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Smyth’s ‘The Wreckers’ as You’ve Never Heard It Before!

From 21 May to 24 June 2022, Glyndebourne Festival Opera will present Smyth’s most famous work the way Smyth originally intended it. ‘The Wreckers’ was supposed to be in French – the libretto by Brewster was written in his preferred poetic language and Smyth hoped soprano Calvé and conductor Messager would take it on – but a German premiere necessitated a translation.  Now, after painstaking archival research, the team at Glyndebourne has restored the original French libretto and many sections that were cut following the 1906 premiere.  The result is supposedly a work with greater nuance and depth than the English version often performed today.

You can learn more about the upcoming production of ‘The Wreckers’ (Les Naufrageurs) and how they restored the original text and music here.

Tickets still available!

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Smyth wins a GRAMMY!

On March 14, 2021, Sarah Brailey, Dashon Burton, James Blachly and the Experiential Orchestra won a Grammy award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for Smyth’s The Prison.

This is Smyth’s first Grammy, and the first Grammy awarded to a historical female composer.

The hour-long work was released by Chandos Records on August 7, 2020.

Liner notes were contributed by Elizabeth Wood, Amy Zigler, and James Blachly.