The boyfriend returns, running back to the young woman’s doorway panic-stricken and breathless. He urgently asks her what’s wrong.

She is beside herself, wide-eyed, very afraid, in tears, and her voice is faltering as she attempts to explain to him that she awoke from her nightmare to find bizarre and terrifying marks on her face and body. After seeing the malevolent marks, he is aghast, and momentarily speechless.

After a long pause, he frantically asks her what they are. She screams back that she doesn’t know, so he insists they go to a hospital immediately.

Download “Attack” score

As in the first opera, our protagonist is again plagued by fearful dreams. Her nightmare, acted out for our benefit, depicts her standing still on a surreal and desolate plain, and looking increasingly frightened under an eerie, moonless and starless night sky.

Nine demons with lanterns dance unpredictably toward, past and around her, menacingly and threateningly. We see her become increasingly shaken at all of this harrassment, as that feeling of helpless utter terror so common to nightmares fully grips her mind.

Download “A Vision” score