The Poisoned Kiss

The Poisoned Kiss, or The Empress and the Necromancer is an opera in three acts by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The libretto, by Evelyn Sharp, is based on Richard Garnett's The Poison Maid and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter. The opera was completed in 1929, first performed by the Intimate Opera Company at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, Britain, on 12 May 1936 (conducted by Cyril Rootham), and premiered in New York by the Bronx Opera in January 2012.