{"id":46127,"date":"2017-06-22T15:24:20","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T19:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=46127"},"modified":"2017-06-22T15:26:29","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T19:26:29","slug":"an-operatic-suffragette-to-commemorate-womens-rights-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/06\/22\/an-operatic-suffragette-to-commemorate-womens-rights-today\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | An Operatic Suffragette to Commemorate Women’s Rights Today"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dame
Dame Ethel Smyth (Photo from the Hulton Archive)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the name Dame Ethel Smyth may not ring many bells for Torontonian opera lovers, this spitfire of a Suffragette is well worth knowing. Historically remembered as the first female composer to be presented at the Metropolitan Opera (in 1903 \u2014 a feat sadly not reprised until 2016 with Kaija Saariaho\u2019s <\/span>L\u2019amour de loin<\/span><\/i>), Smyth, an openly gay woman, was as rooted in her passions as a political activist as she was a composer. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want women to turn their minds to big and difficult jobs; not just to go on hugging the shore, afraid to put out to sea,\u201d Smyth wrote in 1902, expressing her rejection of the gender norms of her time. <\/span><\/p>\n

And indeed, in this jaded age of regressive politics in the United States, spotlighting the unknown historical changemakers feels more important than ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

But when Opera5\u2019s Co-Founders and General and Artistic Directors Rachel Krehm and Aria Umezawa stumbled upon the works of Ethel Smyth over a year ago, they never expected her works to be so relevant in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first grant we wrote [to produce this piece] was around the time of the Democratic National Convention, when things were looking positive,\u201d Rachel Krehm describes in an independent coffee shop in the Annex. \u201cWe thought this piece would be a celebration, so we decided to resurrect this interesting figure who deserves a voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beautiful music,\u201d Krehm continues. \u201c[Dame Smyth] is forgotten and other people are not. History does interesting things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Opera5\u2019s <\/span>Suffragette<\/span><\/i> is comprised of a double bill that includes Smyth\u2019s \u201cThe March of the Women,\u201d a work composed in 1910 that became the anthem of the women\u2019s suffrage movement in Britain. And though the premiere was over 100 years ago, director Jessica Derventzis is determined to show how relevant the piece is today.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re setting the opera in the 1970s and the early 80s,\u201d she tells. \u201cI chose that time period off of the Sex Pistols song, \u2018God Save the Queen.\u2019<\/span> F<\/span><\/i>\u00ea<\/span><\/i>te galante<\/span><\/i> [one of the operas Opera5 is presenting] is all about celebrity worship and keeping up appearances. [The 70\u2019s were] another time when we really saw rebellion against the authority. The punk movement jumped into my head.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

(Notably, this isn\u2019t the first time punk has been paired with Toronto\u2019s Indie Opera companies. In 2015, Tapestry Opera teamed up with the Canadian punk band <\/span>Fucked Up<\/span><\/i> to create <\/span>Tap:Ex Metallurgy<\/span><\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n

Ethel Smyth\u2019s music feels decidedly different from the punk music of our time, featuring qualities Krehm and Derventzis describe as \u201cneoclassical music with a British lens\u201d and bearing notable similarities to the English works of Britten and Stravinsky. However, Toronto audience members can prepare themselves for lots of 21st-century punk-inspired features.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve brought [the pieces] completely into 2017 Toronto,\u201d Derventzis relates. \u201cWe\u2019re performing during Pride Week so we feature an homage to the fact that the pieces are not only about women\u2019s rights, but everyone who needs a lift.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

And from the sounds of it, Dame Smyth was a punk in her own way. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe wrote the suffragette anthem, she smashed the windows of politicians,\u201d Derventzis describes. \u201cShe was a badass woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Alex Ross wrote recently in The New Yorker, \u201cart becomes a model for the concerted action that can only happen outside its sphere.\u201d Opera5\u2019s championing of this eccentric, queer and vehemently feminist Victorian composer\u2019s work demonstrates the opportunity arts organizations have to counter the discrimination happening in our world today. <\/span><\/p>\n

And if, as the U.S. President recently pointed out, the 19th-century writer, orator and social reformer Frederick Douglass is \u201c<\/span>an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more,” why shouldn\u2019t Dame Ethel Smyth be similarly recognized? <\/span><\/p>\n

Come out to see Opera5\u2019s <\/span>Suffragette<\/span><\/i> June 22-25 at Theatre Passe Muraille to find out why. <\/span><\/p>\n

Tickets and production information can be found here<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and reviews before anyone else finds out? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/u><\/a>\u00a0or <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/u><\/a> for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opera5’s new production serves as a reminder of the women’s rights movement, as relevant as ever today. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":46133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,18,29,43,4557],"tags":[9642,9641,9643],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/06\/Dame-Ethel-Smyth-Photo-from-the-Hulton-Archive.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-bZZ","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46127"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46135,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46127\/revisions\/46135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46127"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=46127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}