User:Oliviaabad/The Handmaid's Tale (opera)

The opera consists of a Prologue, a Prelude, two Acts, and an Epilogue. The basic structure contains a build up in each act leading to a big scene.

The opera first premiered in Copenhagen, and has since had productions in London and Toronto. Most reception to the opera has been positive, with multiple shows in each city.

It takes place in 21st century North America, in which the United States has been taken over by a right-wing theocracy, in a country now known as Gilead. The opera starts with a newsreel-like collage to give the narrative a historical frame.

Paul Bentley created a moving and faithful libretto to convert the novel into a coherent and effective opera. He was tasked with translating a first-person novel to a third-person opera, and he uses multiple framing devices to accomplish this.

With the challenge of reflecting the complexity and discomfort of the novel, Ruders' music accurately represents the emotions depicted in the novel.

Background
The 21st century North American society is depicted as one with great suffering and injustice in The Handmaid's Tale. Ecological and political disruption lead to the dismantling of the United States by a right-wing theocracy which takes over to create the new country of Gilead.

The structure of the opera is divided into two parts, which was librettist Paul Bentley's intention. Ruders offered that his basic structure contained a build up in the acts which lead to a big scene. In Act One, the big scene is Birth, in Act Two it's Death, and the conclusion is quiet and tense. The opera's final structure includes a prelude, Act One, Act Two, and an epilogue.

Rather than beginning the opera in a usual way following the conductor's lead, the opera opens with a newsreel-like collage showing a sequence of many disasters to give a historical frame to the narrative. There is an underlying goal of highlighting similarities between the Gilead experience in this century and Iran's theocratic experience in the previous century, and the setting of the opera takes place at an academic conference far after Gilead has fallen.

Synopsis
The Red Centre Prelude

Here the Red Centre showcases the multiple practices of indoctrination, which leads to Offred being posted to the home of a higher up Commander. The handmaids are taught a new set of rules based on the Ten Commandments.

Act One

Instead of treating Offred as a sexual surrogate, the Commander finds himself attracted to her, which is an unpardonable sin leading to much of the disaster throughout the story.

This is Offred's way of acknowledging the hopelessness of her situation after the Commander makes her kiss him 'as if she meant it,' as well as it's a way to represent a woman's response to the experience of Gilead as a whole. The inconclusive ending of Act One foreshadows the ending of Act Two.

Epilogue

In the video conference context, Professor Pieixoto asks for any questions, prompting the end of the opera with the lights turning on in the theatre, revealing that no one knows what happened to Offred.

Critical Reception
Denmark's Queen Margarethe attended the performance every month for four months when the opera premiered in 2000.

Adaptation from Novel to Opera
The conversion of a highly complex first-person narrative into a third-person opera was a significantly difficult task that Bentley faced when creating the opera. Through his moving and faithful libretto, Bentley solved the problem of converting the novel into a coherent and effective opera. As he had to simplify the events of the novel, he chose to keep the separation scene of Offred from her husband, Luke, and their child. The reasoning for this is that it stands as a dividing line between the time before and the present. Bentley's effective libretto illustrates the consequences that come from constructing a world of ritual repression while also showing a compelling representation of both Offred's present and past lives.

In contrast with the novel, where the reader discovers at the end that the text is meant to be a reconstruction of a 200-year-old text from multiple cassette tapes, the opera's video conference taking place in the year 2195 shown in the Prologue and Epilogue frames the work from the beginning while also distancing it.

With the novel's first-person narration, the account we witness is personal and intimate based on the main character's own experience. Through this approach, the subjectivity of the narrative is apparent because the story only has direct insight into one person's perspective rather than revealing the thoughts and intentions of other characters. The direct, objective storytelling nature of theatrical opera opens the story to the audience as eyewitnesses to the events happening on stage. Rather than perceiving the events through the filter of the main character, the audience has a chance to create their own perceptions. 

There is a clear distinction between reality and fiction in the production. Opening the opera and introducing the audience to the setting of an academic conference, crossing the threshold into the conference hall, acts as a surprise that can be compared to the surprise of the novel's ending. Crossing over between the distinctions of the opera auditorium and the numerous settings of fictionalized space prompts the audience to raise questions of dramatic genres and to also question the relationship between fiction and reality. The framing device being placed at the beginning of the opera places the core story in a delicate position with several layers of reality that overlap each other. This position highlights the subjective angle and underlines the problems of the relationship between reality and fiction. 

Music
With the challenge of reflecting the complexity and discomfort of the novel, Ruders' music accurately represents the emotions depicted in the novel. The music alternates between harsh dissonances and sections of religious devotion, suggesting the brutal theocracy of Gilead. The dramatic points of the opera are illustrated by Ruders' rigid, metallic score. Some might see the music as dry and overly dissonant, but it sets a compelling environment for the story.  Ruders uses extravagant lyrics for the love scenes in both Offred's affair in Gilead and in her memories. In contrast, he utilizes a unique blend of wolf-whistles and shrieks to show an opposite emotion in a scene where a doctor offers to impregnate her, while in another scene at an undercover brothel has a more upbeat, cabaret-like score. 

Performances and Recordings
This production transferred to the English National Opera in London's Coliseum Theatre on 3 April 2003 and ran for seven performances between 3 April and 2 May 2003. The opera's North American premiere was performed by the Minnesota Opera in May 2003, in a new production, conducted by Anthony Walker, director Eric Simonson, designer Robert Israel, and ran for five performances between 10 and 18 May 2003.

The Danish production translated Bentley's libretto from English to Danish, which can be heard on the CD recording. This CD recording was then nominated for two Grammy Awards and received the Cannes Classical Award for the best work by a living composer in 2002.