The Wreckers is an opera in three acts, composed by Dame Ethel Smyth to a libretto in French by Henry Brewster. The first performance took place at the Neues Theater, Leipzig in a German translation by John Bernhoff as Strandrecht on 11 November 1906.
Old tales of Cornish villages where, on stormy nights, the inhabitants lured passing sailing ships onto to the rugged Atlantic coast were commonplace in the nineteenth century. The cargoes plundered...
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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. The first performance took place at the Neues Theater, Leipzig in a German translation by John Bernhoff as Strandrecht on 11 November 1906.
Old tales of Cornish villages where, on stormy nights, the inhabitants lured passing sailing ships onto to the rugged Atlantic coast were commonplace 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.
The composition of the opera took several years, with Smyth herself visiting places where shipwrecks were said to have been engineered and interviewing anyone with evidence or memories of the wreckers. Eventually she passed her notes on to Henry Brewster, a close personal...
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