The Wreckers Overture

“Poetesses do not die; they haunt us.” Orlando is no longer here, yet she is still with us, transcending the ages like Virginia Woolf, whom Vita misses. She is a beacon, a shining star in the night. Her voice embodies those of the women she worked to free—those who remained trapped and whose cries still linger.

At this point, as Orlando meets Virginia Woolf, the concert’s musical journey arrives at the beginning of the 20th century with a composition by Ethel Smyth. This English composer, who had a romantic relationship with Virginia Woolf, challenged social norms. Overtly queer, she smoked cigars, wore tweed suits and rode bicycles, an activity that was considered improper for respectable women at the time.

The “Ouverture” to her opera The Wreckers conjures both the waves crashing against the coastal reefs and the harshness of the religion that governs village life in the opera. In this story, a pastor convinces the inhabitants of a village to sink and loot ships, and that their actions are righteous. When a young couple starts warning crews to save them, the villagers hunt them down, lock them up and sentence them to death. This story reflects the ongoing discrimination faced by members of LGBTQ+ communities and the religious justifications some use to rationalize their hostility.