Cleopatra and the Snake

This monodrama sums up the essential moments of the second scene from Act V of Shakespeare's tragedy Antony and Cleopatra in the Russian translation of Boris Pasternak. The conflict between life and death, between the power of love and the 'power drug' as motives for the suicide of the legendary beauty is transformed into a sensually ardent musical language which can bring out the tessitura of a dramatic soprano very effectively.