As Zenobia, mezzo Patricia Bardon's somewhat covered, throaty quality bloomed into more color and beauty as the opera progressed.

WSJ: The Turn of the Screw: Those Lifeless Servants

The libretto, an 18th- century "education-of-a-tyrant" plot, features Tiridate, king of Thrace, who is obsessed with his sister-in-law, Zenobia, and wages indiscriminate war to get her.

WSJ: The Turn of the Screw: Those Lifeless Servants

Zenobia and her husband, Radamisto, remain steadfast under threat of death and destruction, however, and when Tiridate's ally Tigrane finally turns against him, for his own good, the tyrant sees the error of his ways.

WSJ: Those Lifeless Servants