The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale is a 1998 opera by Danish composer Poul Ruders, setting a libretto by Paul Bentley based on the novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood. It has a prologue, a prelude, two acts and an epilogue; there is a build-up in each act leading to a big scene. The work premiered in Copenhagen in 2000 and has since been produced in London, Toronto and elsewhere. Bentley's libretto converts a first-person novel into a third-person opera by means of framing devices. The action takes place in a 22nd-century United States taken over by a right-wing theocracy and named Gilead; it starts with a newsreel-like collage: the narrative first frame. 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 is 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.