By Jorg von Uthmann [Bloomberg, 27 January 2009]

Philippe Boesmans’s women lead perilous lives. The heroine of “Julie,” his penultimate opera, seduces her valet and then, disgusted by her faux pas, cuts her own throat. The composer’s new stage work, “Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy,” also ends badly: To the delight of the royal court, the prince’s wife chokes to death on a fishbone.