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Set in eighteenth-century France, the opera follows characters including Marquise de Merteuil, Vicomte de Valmont, Madame de Tourvel, Cécile de Volanges, and Chevalier de Danceny across scenes in chateaus, bedrooms, a wood, a pleasure pavilion, a convent, and Vincennes.
In a mental-hospital setting, Anne Sexton and other patients perform ten poems, beginning with “The Gold Key” and retelling nine Grimm tales, including Snow White, The White Snake, Iron Hans, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, Godfather Death, The Wonderful Musician, Hansel and Gretel, and Briar Rose. Sexton’s introductions and codas connect the stories to adult experience, marriage, motherhood, sexuality, mental illness and death; a recurring middle-aged witch gradually becomes a vulnerable beauty moving toward nightmare.
Set in eighteenth-century France, the opera follows characters including Marquise de Merteuil, Vicomte de Valmont, Madame de Tourvel, Cécile de Volanges, and Chevalier de Danceny across scenes in chateaus, bedrooms, a wood, a pleasure pavilion, a convent, and Vincennes.
In a mental-hospital setting, Anne Sexton and other patients perform ten poems, beginning with “The Gold Key” and retelling nine Grimm tales, including Snow White, The White Snake, Iron Hans, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, Godfather Death, The Wonderful Musician, Hansel and Gretel, and Briar Rose. Sexton’s introductions and codas connect the stories to adult experience, marriage, motherhood, sexuality, mental illness and death; a recurring middle-aged witch gradually becomes a vulnerable beauty moving toward nightmare.