The Handmaid's Tale (opera)
Encyclopedia
The Handmaid's Tale is an opera
composed by the Danish
composer
Poul Ruders
, to a libretto by Paul Bentley based on the novel of the same name
written by Canadian
author Margaret Atwood
.
in the early 21st Century, where a series of political, military
and ecological disasters have led to the formation of a theocratic
Protestant fundamentalist
dictatorship known as the Republic of Gilead. Political, religious, and sexual dissidents such as Roman Catholics, Jews
, Quakers, feminists, homosexuals, abortion
ists, and even divorced people live in daily fear of deportation to a gulag
of labour camps or even public execution
.
The opera follows the story of Offred, who having tried to flee from Gilead has been sentenced to become a Handmaid - a surrogate mother for a high-ranking infertile couple. Offred, an intelligent woman who worked as an academic librarian before the revolution, finds the dullness of life as a Handmaid stultifying and considers suicide. On her third posting, she risks being deported to a labour camp cleaning radioactive waste
if she fails to conceive.
She has unapproved of relationships both with the 'Commander' whose children she is tasked to bear, and with the handyman in the house in which she is posted. Through another Handmaid, she makes contact with the underground resistance
. After her contact disappears, she is under threat of discovery; however, the handyman is also a member of the resistance and manages to smuggle her away on the underground railroad
.
At the end of the opera, it is learned that the tape on which her story is revealed was retold in a safe house within Gilead. The success or failure of her attempt to flee to Canada is therefore unknown.
While the opera's plot is derived quite directly from the novel, the two are not precisely the same. Although the framework of events is similar, the characters have subtly different personalities. Perhaps most notably, the character of the Commander is noticeably softer in the opera than in the book, while Offred's relationship in the handyman Nick is more tender in the book than in the opera.
The time constraints of opera meant that some dramatic shortcuts had to be used to explain, for example, the theological and political dogma of Gilead, which the novel had considerable space to develop. As a consequence, there are a number of scenes in the opera which did not appear in the novel.
and from minimalism
. The musical style is narrative rather than lyric, with nothing that could reasonably be described as an aria
and only a few trios and quartets. There is however a beautiful and moving duet for the heroine and her double.
Much of the rather haunting atmosphere is built from the repetitive, chanting, choruses of the handmaids.
on 6 March 2000 by the Danish Royal Opera
, conductor Michael Schonwandt, director Phyllida Lloyd, designer Peter McKintosh. It was subsequently recorded by the same company by Dacapo, currently the only recording of the opera in the catalogue.
This production transferred to the English National Opera
in London
's Coliseum Theatre
on 3 April 2003. The opera's North American premiere was performed by the Minnesota Opera
in May 2003, in a new production, conductor Anthony Walker, director Eric Simonson, designer Robert Israel. The Danish Royal Opera production transferred to Toronto
, Margaret Atwood's home town, on 23 September 2004.
Both the first Copenhagen and London seasons, and the later productions in America and Canada, were successes with the opera-going public, with houses consistently selling out.
libretto alongside Ruders' Danish
translation of the libretto. The Danish title was Tjenerindens fortælling.
The Danish Royal Opera who commissioned the work wanted the opera performed in Danish, but performances outside Denmark have all been sung in English.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
composed by the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Poul Ruders
Poul Ruders
Poul Ruders is a Danish composer.Ruders trained as an organist, and studied orchestration with Karl Aage Rasmussen. Ruders's first compositions date from the mid-1960s...
, to a libretto by Paul Bentley based on the novel of the same name
The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel, a work of science fiction or speculative fiction, written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1985...
written by Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
author Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
.
Synopsis
The opera is set in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the early 21st Century, where a series of political, military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
and ecological disasters have led to the formation of a theocratic
Theocracy
Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
Protestant fundamentalist
Fundamentalist Christianity
Christian fundamentalism, also known as Fundamentalist Christianity, or Fundamentalism, arose out of British and American Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century among evangelical Christians...
dictatorship known as the Republic of Gilead. Political, religious, and sexual dissidents such as Roman Catholics, Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, Quakers, feminists, homosexuals, abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
ists, and even divorced people live in daily fear of deportation to a gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
of labour camps or even public execution
Public Execution
Public Execution is a Mouse and the Traps retrospective album that has been released in both LP and CD formats. The LP has an unusually large number of tracks , while the CD includes 4 bonus tracks and catalogues almost all of the released music by Mouse and the Traps and their associated bands: ...
.
The opera follows the story of Offred, who having tried to flee from Gilead has been sentenced to become a Handmaid - a surrogate mother for a high-ranking infertile couple. Offred, an intelligent woman who worked as an academic librarian before the revolution, finds the dullness of life as a Handmaid stultifying and considers suicide. On her third posting, she risks being deported to a labour camp cleaning radioactive waste
Radioactive waste
Radioactive wastes are wastes that contain radioactive material. Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology, such as research and medicine...
if she fails to conceive.
She has unapproved of relationships both with the 'Commander' whose children she is tasked to bear, and with the handyman in the house in which she is posted. Through another Handmaid, she makes contact with the underground resistance
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
. After her contact disappears, she is under threat of discovery; however, the handyman is also a member of the resistance and manages to smuggle her away on the underground railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
.
At the end of the opera, it is learned that the tape on which her story is revealed was retold in a safe house within Gilead. The success or failure of her attempt to flee to Canada is therefore unknown.
While the opera's plot is derived quite directly from the novel, the two are not precisely the same. Although the framework of events is similar, the characters have subtly different personalities. Perhaps most notably, the character of the Commander is noticeably softer in the opera than in the book, while Offred's relationship in the handyman Nick is more tender in the book than in the opera.
The time constraints of opera meant that some dramatic shortcuts had to be used to explain, for example, the theological and political dogma of Gilead, which the novel had considerable space to develop. As a consequence, there are a number of scenes in the opera which did not appear in the novel.
Style
The opera is written in a free tonal style, with clear influences from the operas of Alban BergAlban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
and from minimalism
Minimalist music
Minimal music is a style of music associated with the work of American composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. It originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School....
. The musical style is narrative rather than lyric, with nothing that could reasonably be described as an aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
and only a few trios and quartets. There is however a beautiful and moving duet for the heroine and her double.
Much of the rather haunting atmosphere is built from the repetitive, chanting, choruses of the handmaids.
Performances and recordings
The opera was premiered in CopenhagenCopenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
on 6 March 2000 by the Danish Royal Opera
Royal Danish Theatre
The Royal Danish Theatre is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first serving as the theatre of the king, and then as the theatre of the...
, conductor Michael Schonwandt, director Phyllida Lloyd, designer Peter McKintosh. It was subsequently recorded by the same company by Dacapo, currently the only recording of the opera in the catalogue.
This production transferred to the English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Coliseum Theatre
Coliseum Theatre
The London Coliseum is an opera house and major performing venue on St. Martin's Lane, central London. It is one of London's largest and best equipped theatres and opened in 1904, designed by theatrical architect Frank Matcham , for impresario Oswald Stoll...
on 3 April 2003. The opera's North American premiere was performed by the Minnesota Opera
Minnesota Opera
The Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded in 1963 by the Walker Art Center, and is known for premiering such diverse works as Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and Frankenstein by Libby Larsen...
in May 2003, in a new production, conductor Anthony Walker, director Eric Simonson, designer Robert Israel. The Danish Royal Opera production transferred to Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Margaret Atwood's home town, on 23 September 2004.
Critical reception
Critical reception to the opera's Copenhagen world premiere was almost uniformly positive (e.g. "Add The Handmaid's Tale to the list of recent works that the Metropolitan Opera should feel obliged to present" - New York Times). In London the reviews were mixed and many hostile. While the power of Atwood's story and skill of Bentley's libretto were recognised, some critics felt that the vocal writing was characterless and for some female characters too shrill and highly pitched to allow for proper diction, while the orchestral writing was judged by some to be bombastic. Others praised Ruders for his composition's sympathy to the spirit of the novel. The Minnesota and Toronto premieres were widely praised by the critics (e.g. "This well-conceived production restores confidence in the possibilities of contemporary opera as compelling theater" - USA Today).Both the first Copenhagen and London seasons, and the later productions in America and Canada, were successes with the opera-going public, with houses consistently selling out.
Language
The Handmaid's Tale was from the beginning composed for Paul Bentley's EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
libretto alongside Ruders' Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
translation of the libretto. The Danish title was Tjenerindens fortælling.
The Danish Royal Opera who commissioned the work wanted the opera performed in Danish, but performances outside Denmark have all been sung in English.