The Secrets of Marriage

The Secrets of Marriage is an opera double bill about living together - through love, jealousy, and truths hidden in smoke.

Two rarely performed operas are brought together to tell the story of the (un)habit of hiding things from the one you love, and what happens when secrets are finally revealed. In the tragicomic "On the Harmfulness of Tobacco" - originally a monologue by Anton Chekhov - a lecturer strays from his subject and instead begins to speak with increasing candour about his marriage. As a frustrated husband, he points to all the small compromises we make to keep a part of ourselves at peace.

In the comedy "Susanna's Secret", the same husband suspects the scent of a stranger's tobacco at home. Has his wife had a visitor - a lover? The couple is drawn into a marital dance where the turns take them from solitude to togetherness.