Mothers

prologue
“The mothers you didn’t remember and barely gave us a name,” the mothers of the Book of Genesis introduce themselves: “We only silently donated our wombs to the Bible.”

First picture
And God’s confession in a soprano voice: “I loved to hate and I loved to love… I enjoyed discriminating, choosing, preferring… I got carried away, I murdered thousands just because I was offended.”

Second picture
In a short aria, an anonymous mother expresses her biblical destiny: “You who were promised to him in my sleep, me me…”

Third picture
Sarah expels Hagar and Ishmael into the desert.

Fourth picture
The symbolic biblical meeting place – the well. The women by the well in the stifling heat of the desert are no match for the strength of the male shepherds, but they need to water their children.

Fifth picture
God in a sarcastic jealous lion on the farm, “Because only women talk to snakes, are faithful as a ghost, and will sacrifice everything for an apple.”

Sixth picture
Lot’s daughters tell the teacher how Lot, their father, was willing to give them over to the angry mob in Sodom to do with as they pleased. Lot’s wife understands what her husband has done, is unable to bear the disgrace and horror any longer, and decides to turn back.

Seventh picture
After Jacob steals the birthright and flees to Aram, Rebekah sings a lullaby to Esau, in which she confesses to her part in stealing the birthright, and to the fact that… “Mother loves you, but less.”

Eighth picture
Potiphar’s wife desires Joseph, she is “hot, desperate,” and wants him “like a wife.”

Ninth picture
The sisters Rachel and Leah, Jacob’s wives, meet after being replaced by their father, and confess to each other: “…How I cried, when he looked at me and cried: It was not for you that I waited, it was not you that I wanted…”

Tenth picture
The handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah understand that their children must stand at the front of the camp, and physically defend their brothers born to Leah and Rachel, against Esau, who is advancing against them with his warriors.

Picture eleven
A description of the binding of Isaac from Sarah’s point of view. The mother, who was never asked or knew of the intention to bind her only son, ends the aria with her own binding.

Picture twelve
Noah’s wife tries to cope with the new world after the flood, a world “filled with so many nations… humans, animals,” and asks “Was it worth drowning?”

Final picture
All the women, “the mothers you did not remember,” meet with God, who ends the opera with the words: “I have long since ceased to bear children.”