1 Operas Composed by Women: A Brief History Linda Lister (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) and Matthew Hoch (Auburn University) A glance at the repertory of major opera companies gives the im- pression that there are very few women composing operas. Since its founding in 1880, the Metropolitan Opera has performed only two operas by female composers. Dame Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) saw her Wagner-inspired one-act opera Der Wald (1901) play in Berlin and Covent Garden prior to its presentation at the Met in 1903. Paired alternately with Il trovatore (1853) and La fille du régiment (1839), Der Wald has not found the success of these counterparts, to some extent due to gender-based criticism questioning how “a well- bred (and unmarried) English lady could comprehend the difference between sacred and profane love.” 1 It is doubtful that reviews of Giuseppe Verdi and Gaetano Donizetti included discussion of their marital status and its impact on their compositions. Smyth’s other operas, mostly comic in nature, were performed throughout Ger- many and England. They include Fantasio (1894), The Wreckers (1904), The Boatswain’s Mate (1914), Fête galante (1922), and En- tente cordiale (1924). Besides breaking ground at the opera house, Smyth paved the way for women in other ways, composing the suf- fragette anthem “The March of the Women” (1910) and going to jail in the fight for women’s right to vote.