edited by Matthew G. Brown, Thomas Emil Homerin, with contributions by Katherine Ciesinski, Nicholas Gresens

- Matthew Brown developed this project through his founding of TableTopOpera, a group of scholars and performers committed to performing multimedia projects promoting classical music to general audiences. TableTop's production, a reductionist fantasy based on Ariane et Barbe-bleue, played an adaptation of Paul Dukas's original score while panels of P. Craig Russell's popular graphic novel Ariane and Bluebeard, Op. 26 streaked across the auditorium screen. Brown wrote the score and the show was called "a miracle of collaborative creation" thanks to "all editing decisions made in regard not only to Brown's profound knowledge of the epoch and Russell's passion for the opera but of the demanding virtuosos who would be playing it, for the multimedia skills it would require - and for a strong commitment to the integrity of the original score." Th. Emil Homerin produced the show. This book, based off the performance project, already is being marketed through TableTopOpera. Contributors to the volume include an opera singer and instructor from the Metropolitan Opera's production of Bluebeard's Castle, the celebrated comic and graphic artist P. Craig Russell, and scholars in classics, religion, history, women and gender studies, and rare books. - Although the premier of Ariane et Barbe-bleue is frequently lauded as a landmark in operatic history, there is at present no book devoted solely to its history, structure, reception, and cultural implications. - This book will stand out on our music list and contribute to our reputation for publishing books on multimedia topics by touching on such diverse subjects as opera, comic books, and animated movies. Further, it contributes to our list of significant works on women and gender studies. - Our target audience includes students, scholars, and readers interested in musicology, particularly Paul Dukas, French music, and multimedia opera. Other related interests include histories of print, multimedia, and comic works, philosophical discussion of Plato and mysticism, and French symbolist literature.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Ariane et Barbe-bleue: A Dramatic and Musical Overview, by Matthew Gordon Brown and Thomas Emil Homerin
2. The Genesis of Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, by Matthew Gordon Brown
3. Performing Ariane et Barbe-Bleue: From Premier to Orchestral Suite, by Matthew Gordon Brown
4. A Feminist Opera? Women's Rights and Women's Wrongs in Maurice Maeterlinck's and Paul Dukas' Ariane and Bluebeard, by Jean Elisabeth Pedersen
5. Maurice Maeterlinck and the Mystical Ariane, by Thomas Emil Homerin
6. Maeterlinck and Plato's Cave, by Nicholas Gresens
7. Ariane et Barbe-Bleue and the Legacy of Richard Wagner, by Matthew Gordon Brown
8. Singing Ariane: An Interview with Katherine Ciesinski, by Katherine Ciesinski and Matthew Gordon Brown
9. Bluebeard, or Female Curiosity? Not the Same Old Story, by Andrea G. Reithmayr
10. Reflections on Comic Book Opera: P. Craig Russell's Ariane and Bluebeard, by Thomas Emil Homerin
11. An Adaptation of an Adaptation: TableTopOpera's Live Production of Ariane and Bluebeard, by Matthew Gordon Brown
Appendices
Albert Flament, "'Ariane' dans les ruines de St-Wandrille," Femina 163 (1 November, 1907), 484-85. English translation by Sébastien Cornut.
Henri Duvernois, "Les femmes de Barbe-Bleue," Femina 153 (1 June, 1907), 246-249. English translation by Sébastien Cornut.
Lucien Fugère, "La vie du théâtre," Musica 55 (April 1907), 53-55. English translation by Sébastien Cornut.
Paul Dukas, "Ariane et Barbe-Bleue," La Revue Musicale (numéro spécial) (May-June, 1936), 4-7. English translation by Timothy Scheie.
Montrose J. Moses, "The Wife of Maurice Maeterlinck," Metropolitan Magazine 34 (March, 1912), 38-52.
Georgette Leblanc-Maeterlinck, "The Later Heroines of Maurice Maeterlinck," Fortnightly Review 93 (January 1910), 48-56. English translation by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.
Bibliography
Contributors
Index