Beatriz (cover) - La Hija de Rappaccini

With a libretto by the Mexican Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz, based on the classic short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, La hija de Rappaccini (Rappaccini's Daughter) tells of a doctor who seeks to protect and control his daughter by keeping her locked in a garden where he is experimenting with poisonous plants. She is immune to them, but a carrier of their danger; when a young student falls in love with her; he is faced with the knowledge that pursuing that love will surely lead to his death.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s expansive Cherry Esplanade, bordered by two allees of the Garden’s renowned flowering cherry trees, will be the ideal setting for this opera. La hija de Rappaccini is the Garden’s first staged opera presentation in its 103-year history.