The Handmaid's Tale: Opera of Searing Contemporary Resonance

In this whirlwind 2024 political election year, public affairs issues include gender considerations, reproductive rights and governing boundaries.

The central concept of "The Handmaid's Tale" opera is based on Margaret Atwood's dystopian-themed 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale—that women are subordinate to men, must take on domestic and subservient roles including ritualized rape. Female worth is tied to becoming mothers. No reading, No owning property, No Careers Allowed. The theocratic extremist government is anti dissidents, academics, and "gender traitors."

Discussion about Handmaid's Tale themes—this projected fictional situation of the United States in a "not too distant future year"—is amazingly relevant in consideration of the hot button issues of American public affairs during fall 2024.

General Director Matthew Shilvock writes: “San Francisco Opera continues its second century with a season that demonstrates the potential of opera to connect to the most fundamental aspects of our humanity . . . through works of searing contemporary resonance like The Handmaid’s Tale."