{"id":123351,"date":"2026-04-14T13:02:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=123351"},"modified":"2026-04-14T14:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T18:00:02","slug":"interview-librettist-hannah-moscovitch-talks-10-days-madhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2026\/04\/14\/interview-librettist-hannah-moscovitch-talks-10-days-madhouse\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Librettist Hannah Moscovitch Talks About 10 Days In A Madhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"10
10 Days in a Madhouse creative featuring soprano Mireille Asselin (Photo: \u00a9 Dahlia Katz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From a piece of investigative journalism that shocked the world to the stage, 10 Days in a Madhouse is a new opera composed by Rene Orth, with a libretto by Hannah Moscovitch. The work saw its world premiere in 2023 with Opera Philadelphia, and will see its Canadian premiere from June 16 to 21, a Tapestry Opera and Opera Philadelphia co-commission and co-production, co-presented with Luminato Festival and the Canadian Opera Company, in association with TO Live.<\/p>\n

The story is based on the real life work of Nellie Bly.<\/p>\n

Nellie Bly (1864 \u2013 1922) was a groundbreaking journalist in 19th century America. Her still awe-inspiring body of work includes an expos\u00e9 of the horrific conditions in the mental institutions of her day.<\/p>\n

In 1887, at just 23 years of age, Bly posed as someone with mental health issues \u2014 something that was not difficult to do for a woman of her time, as it turned out \u2014 and spent 10 days at Blackwell\u2019s Island learning firsthand what the women there, many of whom were quite obviously not mental health patients, had to endure.<\/p>\n

Her piece for New York World, a newspaper owned by Joseph Pulitzer, brought public attention to the shocking truth. The institution was where patients lived in cold, dirty conditions, and were mistreated in many ways \u2014 particularly immigrants who didn\u2019t speak English well.<\/p>\n

The newspaper piece, and a subsequent book, led to real world reforms.<\/p>\n

LV caught up with Canadian writer and librettist Hannah Moscovitch<\/strong> to talk about her work on the project.<\/p>\n

\"Librettist
Librettist Hannah Moscovitch (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hannah Moscovitch<\/h2>\n

Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch grew up in Ottawa, and studied at the National Theatre School in the acting stream. She first gained attention on a national scale around 2007, with the premiere of her play East of Berlin. She\u2019d see a string of successes after that, including This is War, Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, and Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes. The latter won her the 2021 Governor General’s Award for English-language drama.<\/p>\n

Today, she divides her time between Toronto and Halifax. She has also won the international Windham-Campbell Prize administered by the Beinecke Library at Yale University, several Dora Mavor Moore Awards, the Carol Bolt Award, the Toronto Arts Council Foundation Emerging Artist Award, the K.M Hunter Award, and the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.<\/p>\n

Moscovitch is one of the most produced living playwrights in Canada, but 10 Days is not her first foray into the opera world. Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, co-created with Christian Barry and klezmer-folk artist Ben Caplan, is a music-theatre hybrid work.<\/p>\n

Sky on Swings is a chamber opera about two women with Alzheimer\u2019s, composed by Lembit Beecher and with Moscovitch contributing the libretto. It premiered at Opera Philadelphia in 2018. 10 Days in a Madhouse is her fourth opera project.<\/p>\n

Moscovitch has written for TV, including episodes of the Interview with the Vampire series, and the series Little Bird, which streamed on on Crave and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network in 2023. Moscovitch has also worked as a producer and actress.<\/p>\n

Hannah Moscovitch: The Interiew<\/h3>\n

Hannah became involved in 10 Days in a Madhouse through a long and winding process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so convoluted,\u201d she explains. \u201cI did an opera lab a long way back at Tapestry to learn what it is to write for opera.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Tapestry LIBLAB<\/a>, she was paired with composer Lembit Beecher, which resulted in the opera short In This World, George Is Heartbroken in 2012. At the time, Beecher was a resident composer for Opera Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI became affiliated with Opera Philadelphia through him, and they introduced me to Renee,\u201d she say. \u201cI have a secret very weird opera career in the States,\u201d she laughs. \u201cIn all honesty, […] since 2020, I\u2019ve really worked primarily in TV and film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Composer
Composer Rene Orth (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Opera<\/h3>\n

What drew her to opera in the first place?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the music,\u201d Moscovitch says. \u201cThere\u2019s also an opportunity to work at the generative phase, when you\u2019re creating, with another primary creator. Teaming up with someone who does something very different with you,\u201d she continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like a kind of madness, really. There\u2019s only so much language that composers and writers share.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a librettist, it felt like an interesting process to take part in.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving written four operas, it seems like you\u2019re trying to support the music,\u201d she says of her role. \u201cYou write the libretto \u2014 you hope it\u2019s something they can use. That\u2019s the mad part of opera.\u201d<\/p>\n

The technical aspects of matching libretto to music, of making the shapes of the words fit the composition, present a different challenge than other forms of writing. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t register at all if you work in TV.\u201d Composers have very specific demands. \u201cWe need more vowels in these words.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an intriguing challenge. \u201cThis is so bizarre, that I have to keep doing it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Other aspects of opera presented themselves. \u201cFor instance, blocking, the way that people are arranged on stage, is to some degree naturalist,\u201d she says of theatre, \u201ctalking to someone who is facing you.\u201d In opera, singers face the audience. \u201cThat was all blown out. There\u2019s no relationship between what\u2019s happening in the text and what we\u2019re seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hannah learned the various elements of opera through hands on work. \u201cSince I don\u2019t have a background in opera,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the aestheticism of it,\u201d she says, \u201cthe gorgeous costumes and sets. I have no idea what\u2019s happening, but I kind of like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t follow the rules of storytelling for theatre. \u201cTo me, coming in from the outside, a lot of opera seemed non-narrative. There\u2019s no mechanism of suspense,\u201d she says. \u201cSome aspects of storytelling can be jettisoned completely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The novelty of its parameters became part of opera\u2019s appeal for her. \u201cI had moved between a bunch of media at this point,\u201d she says. That included podcasts, TV, and film. \u201cI had never encountered one like opera. It had less in common with all the other media than any other media I had yet writ.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Story<\/h3>\n

Nellie Bly\u2019s story is a juicy one, full of possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Renee Orth, the composer, who said read this,\u201d Moscovitch recalls. Orth handed her Nellie Bly\u2019s book. \u201cI read it and was like, this is like batshit crazy.\u201d She points out that Bly worked in a time without much in the way of technology, in an America that was still dealing with the aftermath of the Civil War.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer idea was so audacious,\u201d she says. \u201cI was just like, oh my god, this is so unexpected. There are people who are ahead of their time, but this is one bad bitch. It got my attention. I got interested in this, the phenomenon of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

What struck her most was that, after gaining admission to the asylum at Blackwell\u2019s Island, Bly had dropped her pretence of insanity… but it didn\u2019t matter. Once she was there, she was subject to the same treatment as everyone else, and denied any opportunity to appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the women on that island were not mad,\u201d Hannah says, \u201cthey were grieving, poor, Black or Chinese.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bly had assumed she\u2019d be the only one in the institution who was not afflicted with a mental illness, but it proved not to be the case. The asylum was a repository for women who society, for various reasons, deemed too difficult to deal with.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe came out and reported on that, and change occurred. I thought, that was so fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opera\u2019s story goes beyond the bare facts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought about how those events in her life would haunt her,\u201d Moscovitch says.<\/p>\n

It became a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, as she points out \u2014 if you put people in this kind of environment, they really would turn mad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was impossible to convince anybody that she wasn\u2019t mad,\u201d she notes. In fact, her employers at the newspaper had to come rescue her. \u201cYou get in the zone of women not being believed. And, who\u2019s in charge, and their reasons for maintaining the status quo,\u201d Moscovitch adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a mechanism to get rid of women.\u201d Women who had been sexually assaulted, for example, and were not believed or supported, could end up in Blackwell\u2019s, or a place like it. \u201cIt was a catch-all for throwing women who were inconvenient. Women who were saying things you don\u2019t like. And you can also discredit them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(L-R)
(L-R) Raehann Bryce-Davis as Lizzie and Kiera Duffy as The Madwoman\/Nellie in the world premiere of Rene Orth and Hannah Moscovitch\u2019s 10 Days in a Madhouse, Opera Philadelphia (Photo: \u00a9 Dominic M. Mercier)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Production<\/h3>\n

In the opera, the collaborators made decisions on how the story would unfold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really interested in running the narrative backwards,\u201d Hannah says. It begins with the asylum, examining the idea of madness and what it means. Then, the story proceeds back to the beginning.<\/p>\n

Jorell Williams<\/strong> portrays Dr. Josiah Blackwell, with Lauren Pearl<\/strong> as the Nurse\/Matron \u2014 the antagonists of the piece. Mireille Asselin<\/strong> sings the role of Nellie Bly, with Taylor-Alexis DuPont<\/strong> in the role of Lizzie, a fellow inmate Bly encounters.<\/p>\n

Renee Orth\u2019s music brings the story together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Renee Orth is rad,\u201d Moscovitch says. \u201cShe\u2019s a really beautiful music creator,\u201d she adds. \u201cThere\u2019s a strong sense of suspense in her music, and of dramatic writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opera Performances<\/h2>\n

10 Days in a Madhouse by composer Rene Orth and librettist Hannah Moscovitch takes the stage at the Bluma Appel Theatre from June 16 to 21, 2026.<\/p>\n