William Ratcliff

About the show

In seventeenth-century Scotland, Mary is being married to Douglas, although she loves William Ratcliff. Ratcliff’s father killed Mary’s mother after an affair, and their ghosts haunt him; he has already killed two men betrothed to Mary. After Douglas wounds Ratcliff in a duel, Ratcliff returns to Mary’s room. A song by her nurse Margaret drives him into a frenzy: he kills Mary and her father, then takes his own life. The ghosts of his parents appear and embrace.