[Vwoolf] FW: Virginia Woolf and Ethel Smyth

[Kristin Czarnecki]

Good morning,

Please see information below on the availability of a CD, from the UK charity Retrospect Opera, of Ethel Smyth’s 1916 opera “The Boatswain’s Mate.” The link is included to place an order. There is also info. on ways to support the production of a second Smyth opera, Fete Galante.

Best,

Kristin


I’m writing on behalf of the UK charity I help direct, Retrospect Opera: http://www.retrospectopera.org.uk/ In the last 2 years we have raised funds for, recorded, and released a recording of Ethel Smyth’s “The Boatswain’s Mate” of 1916. 124 people donated the funds that made this possible, and a considerable number were Woolf scholars, I’m delighted to say. The Virginia Woolf Society of Korea also donated as a society. I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone here that Woolf and Smyth were close friends and Smyth’s was Woolf’s principal correspondent in the later part of her life.

So far the response to “The Boatswain’s Mate” has been extremely gratifying. … John France on Musicweb has written “As a package this is exceptional. It is exactly how ‘revived’ operas should be presented.” Christopher Webber in Opera (where it is October’s Disc of the Month) calls it “beautifully presented ... an auspicious debut.” Robert Matthew-Walker in Musical Opinion Quarterly calls it “a wholly remarkable achievement ... a revelation.” Given the very close link between Woolf and Smyth, I do think this is something Woolf people should be interested in, and one thing I’m writing to ask is whether you can announce the availability of the recording to your mailing list? The CDs can be bought from our website: http://www.retrospectopera.org.uk/CD_Sales.html – or from Amazon.uk. The way we have things set up, all the profits go into further recordings, and ...

We are now raising funds to record a second Smyth opera, “Fete Galante” of 1923! Details on the website: http://www.retrospectopera.org.uk/FeteG.html We would really appreciate the support of the Woolf community. In this case, the basic “Supporter’ rate is just £25 and anyone donating that sum will get their name on our website in perpetuity and be sent a copy of the CD when it is released. Bigger donations bring bigger rewards as the website explains! Needless to say, these prices are much lower for overseas supporters since the Brexit.

We will be warmly grateful for anything you can do for us. As a charity we keep our operating costs to the barest minimum and try to make our way by developing good relations with people!

All the best,
David Chandler
Retrospect Opera
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20161115/acacb301/attachment.html>