The Wreckers (opera) 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 confrontation in Act 1." 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." Old tales of Cornish villages where,
Peter Grimes in June 1945 the opera was hailed by public and critics; its box-office takings matched or exceeded those for "La bohème" and "Madame Butterfly", which were being staged concurrently by the company. Its American premiere was given in 1946 at Tanglewood by Koussevitzky's pupil, Leonard Bernstein. "Peter Grimes" has been produced many times at the Royal Opera House. The first was in 1947, conducted by Karl Rankl and with Peter Pears, Joan Cross and Edith Coates reprising their roles from the Sadler's Wells premiere. The most recent was in 2011 with Andrew Davis conducting, and starring Ben Heppner, Amanda Roocroft