Woman at Point Zero (opera)
Woman at Point Zero is an English and Arabic language multimedia opera in one act, with music by Bushra El-Turk and libretto by Stacy Hardy. It is based on the 1975 novel of the same name by Nawal El Saadawi.

Background and synopsis
The opera reflects the book in having two central characters. A documentary film maker, Sama, persuades Fatma, a sex worker imprisoned for killing her pimp, to tell her story. As her traumatic life story is revealed, including sexual violence and familial abuse, there is also a multimedia element including video designed by Bissane al Charif and Julia König. The opera concludes with Sama encouraging Fatma to appeal against her sentence, but she refuses, instead asking Sama to tell her story.

The opera contains an unusual variety of instruments, including the accordion, duduk, daegeum and kamancheh.

Roles

Performance history and critical reception
The opera was first performed in full at the 2022 Aix-en-Provence Festival. This performance was described as a "grim premiere" by Zachary Woolfe of the New York Times. Woolfe felt the score created "few new or intriguing colors" despite the "unusual combinations", and also criticised the libretto as having "flattened the two women...into cliché".

The opera was then staged in June 2023 at the Linbury Theatre, part of the Royal Opera House in London, with the same cast and conductor. Gary Naylor of BroadwayWorld gave a 5-star review, calling the opera an "important, moving work". Naylor praised the acoustics of the Linbury Theatre, and stated that the multimedia elements contributed to the creation of an "aural dreamscape". He also commented on the social importance of the opera, saying that despite the "misery" of the synopsis, the opera gives a sense of defiance.

References 

2022 operas
Operas based on novels
English-language operas
Operas