An arachnophobic woman plagued by nightmares about spiders since she was little attempts to feign a normal existence while working a mundane job. But no matter how hard she tries, eight-legged shadows lurk in the recesses of her mind, torturing her and sending her spiraling downward into the abyss of lunacy. When an encounter with a tarantula triggers a psychotic break, she lands in a halfway house inhabited by others whose broken psyches insinuate themselves into her slow climb out of hell. Bisecting these threads are the messages of Tarantula Woman, who enters through the cracks in her...

Explores the profession of singing, operatic culture, and the representation of female performers on the nineteenth century French stage.