Composers: Poul Ruders
Compositions: The Thirteenth Child
Performers: Santa Fe Opera/Benjamin Shwartz, David Starobin
Catalogue Number: Bridge BRIDGE9527

Danish composer Poul Ruders is familiar to most thanks to his critically acclaimed take on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, now depressingly prescient. His latest opera doesn’t stray too far from this long-established interest in the dark and macabre: The Thirteenth Child, with a libretto by Becky and David Starobin, is a loose adaptation of Grimm’s fairytale The Twelve Brothers, which is about a king who exiles his 12 sons so that his 13th child, a daughter, can succeed him. When daughter discovers what daddy...