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Introduction Guide
Read our guide to Breaking the Waves including details about the story, and more about ENO’s production.
Breaking the Waves Opera Synopsis
Isle of Skye, Scotland, early 1970s
Act I
Bess finds love with an off-shore oil rigger, Jan, and they are married in the strict Calvinist church of her hometown. Though they receive the church elders’ blessings, Jan is viewed as an outsider. Bess takes her marriage vows seriously, even as she undergoes a sexual enlightenment with her new husband. Jan must return to the rig to work, forcing Bess into a deep depression. Bess’s mother attempts to control her daughter’s moods and threatens to return her to a mental hospital. Bess’s sister-in-law Dodo warns Jan of his wife’s fragile emotional and mental state.
In conversations with God, Bess seeks answers and solace, and secretly asks that spiritual intervention bring Jan home early. A near-fatal accident on the rig forces Jan to return home under unexpected circumstances as Bess contemplates her own desires…
Interval
Act II
Bess learns that the accident on the rig has left Jan almost completely paralyzed. She believes it to be her fault and obsessively seeks redemption. Attempting to liberate his wife, Jan encourages Bess to find men for sexual encounters. When Jan tries to kill himself, Bess becomes certain that she must obey her husband and find new lovers. Failed attempts with strangers coincide with a decline in Jan’s health, but Bess notices that Jan’s health stabilizes as some of her new sexual explorations occur.
Act III
Bess’s reputation catches up to her, and she is excommunicated from the Church. She fails to understand why, and her fervent resolve to save Jan is only renewed. Bess finds herself aboard a large commercial ship where she is savagely raped and mutilated by sailors. Her body is delivered to the hospital. She dies in Dodo’s arms as Jan wakes from surgery, his health dramatically improved. The elders agree to provide Bess a Calvinist funeral, but insist she be buried a sinner and consign her soul to hell. Dodo denounces the Elders’ actions and assists Terry in a bold choice. Jan, who has fully recovered, says goodbye to his wife. Bess has one last gift for Jan…
Breaking the Waves FAQs
The opera Breaking the Waves was composed by American composer Missy Mazzoli with lyrics by Canadian librettist Royce Vavrek. The opera is based on the 1996 Academy Award-nominated film by Danish director Lars von Trier.
The opera of Breaking the Waves received its world premiere in 2016. It was commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and Beth Morrison Projects, and premiered in Philadelphia in September 2016 and as part of New York’s Prototype Festival in January 2017. The opera won the 2017 award for Best New Opera from the Music Critics Association of North America.
The story of Breaking the Waves is set on a remote Scottish island, within a strict religious community. a young woman Bess meets oil rig worker Jan, and they fall in love. They are happily married, until a terrible accident leaves Jan paralysed and no longer able to have a sexual relationship with his wife.
Jan asks Bess to have sex with other men and describe her experiences to him. He convinces her that this will help him to heal. Bess, a deeply devout woman, believing it’s God’s will, reluctantly embarks upon a series of increasingly dangerous encounters with strangers.
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