Sunday, September 15, 2024

San Francisco Opera: The Handmaid's Tale


Irene Roberts, center, as Offred; Sarah Cambidge, seated at right, as Aunt Lydia
Photo: Cory Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera
 

San Francisco Symphony's second opera of the 2024-25 season is The Handmaid's Tale, the 2000 opera by Poul Ruders and Paul Bentley, based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel. It is stunning, strongly sung and directed, and extremely harrowing.

The photo gives you a good idea of the set at its most austere. It was bleak even when the set was dressed as multiple rooms in the Commander's house.

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1 comment:

Matthew said...

I just wish Ruders wrote more effectively (and thoughtfully) for the voice. You can tell his speciality is orchestral writing—which in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is very good. Yet I found the voice parts repetitive and disconnected from the dramaturgy.