"Bentley’s libretto is based on Frank O’Connor’s translation of the celebrated 1780 Gaelic poem by Brian Merriman (1749-1805), a work surprisingly contemporary in its frank discussion of women’s sexual needs and how men fail to meet them.  In Bentley’s adaptation Merriman himself becomes the opera’s central figure who falls asleep on a midsummer’s eve only to be summoned to the midnight court of the fairy queen Aoibheal, where the relation of the sexes is under review.  Grace complains that Irish men marry for wealth not love and spurn, as Merriman has, attractive girls like her.  Snarlygob counters that marriage is hell and women are whores until his wife Bridie arrives to set the record hilariously straight.  In reaction, the queen orders the punishment of unmarried men, including Merriman, who suddenly awakes from his nightmare."

-from Christopher Hoile, Stage Door