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,
Opera North: history and repertoire, seasons 1978–79 to 1980–81 English National Opera North (ENON) was established in late 1977, with Lord Harewood as Managing Director and Graham Marchant as General Administrator. Its first performance (of Saint-Saëns's "Samson et Dalila") was given on 15 November 1978. The opera was conducted by the founding Music Director of the company, David Lloyd-Jones. In the inaugural 1978–79 season, 11 operas were performed. Six were new productions, four of them directed by Patrick Libby, ENON's Director of Productions. The remaining five productions comprised one from Scottish Opera (Colin Graham's "Peter Grimes") and four from ENO. Before the end of the season, the company toured