Fantasio (Smyth)

Fantasio is an opera in two acts composed by Ethel Smyth. The German-language libretto was written by Smyth and Henry Bennet Brewster. Described in the libretto as a phantastische Comödie (fantastic comedy), it was based on Alfred de Musset's 1834 play of the same name. The opera premiered at the Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar on 24 May 1898.[1][2]

Fantasio
Opera by Ethel Smyth
Ethel Smyth in 1891
Librettist
  • Ethel Smyth
  • Henry Bennet Brewster
LanguageGerman
Based onFantasio, play
by Alfred de Musset
Premiere
24 May 1898 (1898-05-24)
Deutsches Nationaltheater, Weimar

Performance history

Smyth turned to composing opera on the advice of conductor Hermann Levi, who praised her aptitude for dramatic composition when she showed him her Mass in D in Munich. The idea of adapting a play by Alfred de Musset came from her friend Empress Eugénie.[3]

From 1894, Smyth made frequent trips around Europe trying to arrange a premiere for Fantasio. She received a string of rejections, but conductor Felix Mottl at Karlsruhe became interested. It was eventually staged at Weimar thanks to support from Mottl, who wrote to the Weimar conductor Bernhard Stavenhagen, and from Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Baroness Olga Meyendorff. However, the reviews were poor. The correspondent for the Musikalisches Wochenblatt described it as a mediocre production with the exception of the leading roles.[4] Although many noted the difficulty of her score and some felt she had tried to be too clever, using heavy and complicated techniques where lightness and simplicity would have been more appropriate, Smyth's claims of praise for her orchestration are corroborated by the reviews.[5] In 1901 Mottl conducted it at Karlsruhe, but it was not revived again.[6] Smyth later acknowledged that the libretto was weak and out of kilter with the tempestuous music,[7] but thought that the experience had been valuable for her subsequent operatic career.[8]

References
  1. Casaglia, Gherardo (2005)."Fantasio, 24 May 1898". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian)..
  2. Tick, Judith and Bowers, Jane M. (1987). Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 1150–1950, p. 310. University of Illinois Press
  3. St John (1959), p. 83.
  4. 4 F., "Bericht. Weimar", Musikalisches Wochenblatt 29 (9 June 1898), p. 343.
  5. Kertesz, Elizabeth Jane. "Issues in the Critical Reception of Ethel Smyth's Mass and First Four Operas in England and Germany". Thesis, 2001.
  6. St John (1959), pp. 89–95.
  7. Collis (1984), p. 76.
  8. Dale (1959), p. 299.

Cited sources

  • Collis, Louise (1984). Impetuous Heart: the Story of Ethel Smyth. London: William Kimber. ISBN 0-7183-0543-4.
  • Dale, Kathleen (1959). "Ethel Smyth's Music: A Critical Study". In St John, Christopher (ed.). Ethel Smyth: a Biography. London: Longmans. pp. 288–304.
  • St John, Christopher (1959). Ethel Smyth: a Biography. London: Longmans.

Further reading

  • Pendle, Karin Anna (2001). Women and Music: A History, p. 155. Indiana University Press
  • Wood, Elizabeth (1995). "'The Lesbian in the Opera: Desire Unmasked in Smyth's Fantasio and Fête Galante" in Corinne E. Blackmer and Patricia Juliana Smith (eds.) En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera, pp. 285–305. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231102690
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