Sunset through tangled trees, photo Judith Barnes

HADES

I've just about had it. We both know what I want, what I deserve, and that sister of ours is not gonna get in my way, not if you’re with me on this. I've had it with the darkness, the wailing,…

(Image: The Rape of Persephone, Greek fresco from Macedonian tomb circa 400 B.C., Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai)

PERSEPHONE

Draft Outline for an Opera Libretto in Three Acts…

Judith and her Maidservant, circa 1623, detail, by Artemisia Gentileschi

A sense of stillness, of paralysis even, of wonder. Time slowly disintegrates, as if in a dream. The breath comes out of my…

Musings on the opera A Kékszakállu Herceg Vára (Duke Bluebeard's Castle)

by Béla Bartók, drama by Béla Balász

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INTRODUCTION: THE CASTLE…