2020 may have been a bad year for many, but it’s certainly turning out to be a good year for Ethel Smyth. With a powerful new recording of the Mass in D under conductor Sakari Oramo on Chandos and the same label’s premiere recording of her late “symphony for voices” The Prison, the reassessment of the doughty Dame’s output continues apace. The winsome Fête Galante on the excellent boutique Retrospect Opera label is another welcome addition, and one which shows off her lighter side.

Album cover by Retrospect Opera

The fifth of Smyth’s six operas, it may lack the headliner status of Der...