Monsters of Music with Tom Allen

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Comedian Tom Allen and guests explore the scandalous lives of classical music's legends.

Join comedian Tom Allen and celebrity guests as they explore the scandalous lives of classical music's legends to work out if they were angelic geniuses... or grade A monsters.

Welcome to Monsters of Music where comedian Tom Allen and celebrity guests dig into the scandalous lives of classical music's legends. With the help of conductor and classical music expert Ben Gernon, our guests unearth the facts to decide whether these classical characters were angelic geniuses or grade-A monsters.

Monsters of Music with Tom Allen: Dame Ethel Smyth The Wrecker with Laufey

Dame Ethel Smyth The Wrecker with Laufey

BBC Sounds - Monsters of Music with Tom Allen, Dame Ethel Smyth The Wrecker with Laufey

Ethel Smyth was a trailblazing composer, suffragette and no stranger to passionate affairs

Ethel Smyth's scandalous life was filled with trailblazing compositions and polyamorous affairs. Laufey explores this suffragette's life to place her on the monster scale.

The trailblazing composer Dame Ethel Smyth lived a scandalous life filled with polyamorous affairs and groundbreaking musical successes. She became the first female composer to have her work performed at both the Royal Opera House in London and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. And she scandalised high society by having an affair with both the wife and daughter of The Archbishop of Canterbury. Ethel lived an unapologetic and fascinating life. 
In this episode, the musician Laufey, Tom Allen and Ben Gernon hear tales of how Smyth threw bricks through a politician’s windows, conducted choirs of imprisoned activists and wrote suffragette anthems to find out whether Ethel was a musical monster or angelic activist. 

Listen only on BBC Sounds.

Produced by Audio Always 
Producer: Rufaro Faith Mazarura 
Exec Producer: Jo Meek 
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson

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Monsters of Music with Tom Allen

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