From June 16 to 21, the Luminato Festival, Tapestry Opera, and the Canadian Opera Company (COC), in association with TO Live, will present the Canadian premiere of 10 Days In A Madhouse. The opera is a Tapestry Opera and Opera Philadelphia production and commission, created by composer René Orth and librettist Hannah Moscovitch.
The opera is based on the true story of Nellie Bly, a groundbreaking journalist who, in 1887, infiltrated the notorious Blackwell’s Asylum to write a searing expose of its mistreatment of its women inmates, many of whom were not mentally ill at all — not until their confinement in that institution, at any rate.
LV caught up with René Orth to ask her about the project.
From the world premiere of 10 Days In A Madhouse in Philadelphia:
René Orth
René Orth studied music at the Curtis Institute in Philadephia as the recipient of the Edward B. Garrigues Fellowship. She followed up with a M.M. degree in Music Composition from the University of Louisville as a Moritz von Bomhard Fellow, and she also earned degrees from MediaTech Institute and Rhodes College.
René served as the Composer-in-Residence at Opera Philadelphia from 2016 through the 2018–2019 season, and was named the very first Resident Composer at Opera San José for the 2022/23 season.
Orth’s music has been performed by Washington National Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Louisville Orchestra, New World Symphony, and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and the San Francisco Symphony, among others.
She has written music for a variety of prominent operatic artists, including mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, Grammy-winning baritone Will Liverman, and mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis.
Orth returned to Opera Philadelphia to present the world premiere of 10 Days In A Madhouse in 2024.
René Orth: The Interview
Orth doesn’t necessarily think of her own work in terms of style and genre.
“I don’t know that I do, or I don’t like to,” she explains. “I can tell you what I like. I like storytelling. I like lyrical lines. I like drama. I like traditional harmonies. I like technology.”
René says that she enjoys a lot of the traditional classical music canon, and along with Western classical and contemporary music, she listens to electronic dance music. She often writes score settings of music she’s been listening to, along with her own experimentations.
“I feel like as I’m writing something, there’s usually a moment that I like, and I want to mimic it,” she says. “A good friend and collaborator of mine said I’m about fusion. I like taking different ideas and types of music, and putting them together.”
10 Days In A Madhouse
Orth became aware of Nellie Bly’s remarkable story by chance.
“I was scrolling on social media one day as one does, and it popped up in my feed,” she explains. “I was like this is a gold mine. How is this not an opera?”
With its combination of text and music, opera can delve into the emotional and psychological like few other art forms.
“The really special thing about opera is that the music goes an opportunity to [explore] the psychological journey.” You can dive into the psyche even without talking about it explicitly in the text.
“It ticked off a lot of boxes for me,” she says of Bly’s story, which was first published in segments in a newspaper, and later as a book. “There’s a strong woman at the centre.” It had a number of appealing qualities. “This was kind of idea that I had at the back of my mind for a long time.”
While Bly went on to write several other pieces that garnered national and even international attention, her ten days at Blackwell’s must have left its scars. In the end, she was not able to convince the asylum’s administrators that she wasn’t suffering from a mental illness, and her employers at the newspaper had to come in and essentially rescue her. Add to that the terrible conditions, including physical abuse by staff alternating with abject neglect, solitary confinement and other extreme measures.
“I can’t imagine that she emerged from that whole experience unscathed,” René says. Living among a population of disturbed individuals under those conditions can easily convince you of the fragility of mental health. “I have three young kids, and it’ll take you a week with a newborn that doesn’t sleep to realize.”
Story & Music
“I really like technology and electronic music, and I also have this background in traditional music,” Orth says. She uses both electronic and acoustic music in the opera to depict the various environments and states of mind of the characters.
“I thought it would be [interesting] going from one sound world that is strictly acoustic to electronic music.” Sometimes, those two sound worlds blend in the score. “Just to make it muddy and confusing. We’re not sure which sound world we’re in sometimes.” It mirrors the confusion of Bly and the other characters in the opera.
The story begins with Bly already in the asylum, and essentially goes backwards to just before she goes in. Most of the action, in other words, takes place at Blackwell’s.
Bly is of course a real life person, as is Dr. Blackwell. The friend she makes in the asylum, another patient, was added to the story.
“We definitely took some liberties,” she says. “The whole opera is loosely based on the book.”
The aspect of social justice appealed to her, as well as its focus on women characters. “There’s several things that we talked about,” Orth says. “In opera, women — I think very few operas would pass the Bechdel Test.”
Women in distress is a common element of many operas, but in 10 Days In A Madhouse, that aspect has a purpose. “Operas love women in trauma, for the sake of trauma. These are obviously things we wanted to avoid,” Orth explains. “Also, we just wanted to have a scene where the women are having fun on stage, that’s not something that we see a lot of in opera.”
The story, and Bly’s original book, reveals the shocking and abusive treatment of women and immigrants, people without power and resources, issues that Orth points out are just as relevant today.
The Success Of The Opera
“I love opera because of the emotions, the humanity. I just wanted people to feel stuff,” she says. “If someone feels something, or is moved, by something that I created, that is success for me.”
She enjoyed working with Canadian librettist Hannah Moscovitch on the work.
“I mean, she’s the best. She’s incredible. She’s a complete genius, and the best collaborator,” René says. “I hope we can do it again soon.”
10 Days In A Madhouse: Details
The opera takes the stage at the Bluma Appel Theatre from June 16 to 21, 2026.
- Find tickets and show details for the COC/Luminato/Tapestry Opera/TO Live presentation of 10 Days In A Madhouse [HERE].
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