In Marital Secrets, we meet two rarely-performed operas. Together, they explore the habit of keeping things from the one you love – and the absurd consequences when the truth come to light.
In the tragicomic On the Harmfulness of Tobacco (originally a monologue by Anton Chekhov), a lecturer strays from his assigned topic. Instead of recounting the dangers of tobacco, he begins to speak ever more candidly about his marriage. As a frustrated husband, he lets slip the small compromises we all make to preserve a private corner of independence.
In the comedy Il segreto di Susanna (Susanna’s Secret), the same husband senses the unfamiliar smell of tobacco at home. Does his wife have a smoking lover? The couple is drawn into a playful marital dance, where they are taken from isolation to togetherness via an entertaining round of suspicion, revelation and reconciliation.
