Content warning: sexual violence

Based on the testimony of the 17th-century painter Artemisia Gentileschi on her rapist and instructor Agostino Tassi, we are given a snapshot of violation, confusion, and the oppression of women.

Stark contrasts in this music emphasize the disturbing nature of a conversation between Artemisia Gentileschi and Agostino Tassi, the man who sexually assaulted her. In the piano, low clusters played with the palms of the hands and sparse, haunting chords frame the music sung by both voices: Artemisia's lines alternately frightened and forthright, and Tassi's sung over a gentle, sweet piano accompaniment that rings conspicuously false.