Any Conservatory needs to offer stage experience to as many students as possible, and one-act operas represent an excellent way of achieving this goal, while also introducing audiences to rarely performed repertory. Both these goals are admirably attained in this double-bill. Ethel Smyth’s Der Wald/The Forest (1913) and Ottorino Respighi’s Lucrezia (1937) are fine pieces in their own right that deserve to be heard more often; and they offer ample opportunities for a range of big voices to shine, but without the strain that a full-length opera role would impose.
Smyth’s opera is steeped in Wagnerian Late-Romanticism and is perhaps best seen as a darker version of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. The forest threatens rather than murmurs, and there is no conventional happy ending; the large, brass-heavy orchestration switches from anticipation of a wedding and celebration of community values through to angst and doom, led by a couple of villainous outsiders who resemble Ortrud and Telramund from Lohengrin.
With such large forces in the pit, you need large voices on stage, and this is certainly the case for this generation of students. All the main roles have significant solo sections as well as parts to play in complex ensembles, and they are taken with assurance and poise. Manon Ogwen Parry has the sweetness needed for the heroine, but also finds the toughness to fight for her partner’s future. Likewise, Tobias Campos Santiñaque rises to the Heldentenor challenge, particularly in his exchanges with the leather-clad, man-eating Iolanthe, sung by Avery Lafrentz. While all the women in this opera are infused with the kind of assertive feminism you would expect from Smyth, the prominent suffragette, this latter role is the most memorable and here it is delivered with intensity worthy of a future Valkyrie.
We usually associate the story of the rape of Lucretia with Britten’s post-war treatment, but Respighi’s version from ten years earlier is really equally distinguished. Astonishingly this is its UK premiere. The plotting follows similar lines to Britten’s, beginning with the joshing husbands and the fatal wager, before shifting to the calm domestic interior world of Lucrezia and her attendants. What is different though, is the insertion of a female commentator, La Voce, who interprets and amplifies the action for us. In lesser hands this could be tiresome and intrusive, but this character in fact carries some of the most notable music, just as the Composer does in Strauss’ Ariadne.
Here we should pay tribute to the director and designer, Stephen Barlow and Jon Morrell, who have framed the action in an American court room setting, with flag and black-robed judge to the fore and La Voce acting as a prosecuting counsel. This neatly integrates her into the drama while also involving ourselves as an invisible jury. The action shifts naturally into the spinning scene in Lucrezia’s home with some nifty nudging of benches – a great example of less-is-more enhanced by a subtle lighting palette.Â
There is some really fine singing also, especially from Lowri Probert as Lucrezia, Gabriella Giulietta Noble as La Voce, and Redmond Sanders as Tarquinio. While the piece is through-written, with no set-piece arias, the solo writing is demanding in range and variety of mood, and all performers are equal to the challenge, with no concessions needed to their student status. In the pit Dominic Wheeler summons some fine orchestral colours and textures especially during the rape scene, which the composer leaves to the orchestra to depict; and elsewhere the balance between singers and players is expertly maintained.
Some roles are double-cast, so it is important to stress that this review relates to the performance on 5 November.
Guildhall School, Silk Street Theatre
Der Wald, composed by Ethel Smyth and Lucrezia by Ottorino Respighi
Director: Stephen Barlow
Conductor: Dominic Wheeler
Until 10 November 2025
2 hrs 35 mins with interval
Photo Credit: David Monteith-Hodge