Ethel Smyth PhD

Peter is now in his third month of a PhD on Ethel Smyth. She wrote six operas, which are gradually receiving more recognition - except, that is, for her first opera, Fantasio. This was produced twice in Smyth's lifetime, but never again (since 1901). The score languishes in the British Library and there is no modern edition, nor recording: it is therefore entirely unknown. The reasons for this neglect are not straightforward (as, for example, the music were to universally agreed to be of poor quality), and Peter's project is both make a critical edition of the opera and write about it from all sorts of angles - including investigating why it has been side-lined. 

Along with this, Peter now has edited four of Smyth's works, which are available for performance:

Overture to Fantasio
Symphony for Small Orchestra
Overture to The Boatswain's Mate
March of the Women

These pieces are available from the 2nd page of the Compositions section