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''The Wreckers'' is an opera in three acts, composed by Dame Ethel Smyth to a libretto in French by Henry Brewster. After spending considerable energy in trying to get the work performed in French, the first performance took place in a German translation by John Bernhoff, under the title of ''Strandrecht'', at the Neues Theater, Leipzig on 11 November 1906. Smyth persisted in her attempts to see it staged elsewhere, but it was not until the conductor Thomas Beecham championed the work that a complete, staged performance was achieved in England in 1909 with funding support from her friend Mary Dodge. Describing the opera in the ''New Grove Dictionary'', Stephen Banfield notes "Its greatest strength is in its dramatic strategy, strikingly prophetic of (Britten's) ''Peter Grimes'' in details such as the offstage church service set against the foreground confontation in Act 1."〔Banfield, p. 1181〕 However, Amanda Holden makes the point that, musically, Smyth is "no Wagnerite, she makes use of his motivic technique, while the texture, orchestration, and even some of the music's dramatic density, show knowledge of the works of Richard Strauss ... but it also slips too readily into operatic convention."〔Holden, p. 863〕 ==Composition history == Old tales of Cornish villages where, on stormy nights, the inhabitants lured passing sailing ships onto to the rugged Atlantic coast were commronplace in the nineteenth century. The cargoes plundered were regarded as legitimate reward for the hardships endured in this isolated and barren part of the country. Therefore, when looking for a suitable theme for her third opera, it is little wonder that Smyth's thoughts should turn to this dramatic, yet romantic subject. It was after a taking a walking tour in Cornwall in 1886 that the idea came to her and, for several years, Smyth visited places where shipwrecks were said to have been engineered and interviewing anyone with evidence or memories of the wreckers. 〔Sophie Fuller, ( "''The Wreckers'' (1904)" ) on americansymphony.org. Retrieved 1 March 2013〕 Fuller quotes from Smyth's memoirs about the pull of the subject matter: :Ever since those days I had been haunted by impressions of that strange world of more than a hundred years ago; the plundering of ships lured on to the rocks by the falsification or extinction of the coast lights; the relentless murder of their crews; and with it all the ingrained religiosity of the Celtic population of that barren promontory.〔Fuller quoting Smyth on the American Symphony Orchestra website at the time of that orchestra's performance in 2007〕 Eventually she passed her notes on to Henry Brewster, a close personal friend and writer, to prepare the libretto. Although an American by birth, he had been brought up in France and it was agreed that libretto should be in French, partly because Brewster was happier working in French, but also it was felt that there was a more realistic chance of the work being produced in France or Belgium than in England.〔 Smyth encountered considerable difficulty in getting this work published; her persistence in doing so was very commendable, notes Charles Reid: "For five years Ethel Smyth, wearing mannish tweeds and an assertively cocked felt hat, had been striding about Europe, cigar in mouth, trying to sell her opera ''The Wreckers'' to timorous or stubborn impresarios."〔Reid, p. ?〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Wreckers (opera)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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