Ruders, Poul
Entry updated 27 June 2025. Tagged: Music, People.
(1949- ) Danish composer. His opera The Handmaid's Tale (1998), with a libretto by Paul Bentley, is based on The Handmaid's Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood. The opera shifts the novel's epilogue, a symposium on the Republic of Gilead in 2195, to become a prologue, but otherwise follows the story of the handmaid Offred, her relationship with the commander Fred, and her arrest by the Eyes of God police force. The music is largely in the tradition of the Second Viennese School most famously represented in opera by Alban Berg. It continues to have frequent popular revivals, no doubt partly because of the novel's status as a contemporary cultural and political touchstone. [CWa]
Poul Ruders
born Ringstad, Denmark: 27 March 1949
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