Poisoned Kiss, The

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Poisoned Kiss, The, or The Empress and the Necromancer. Opera (romantic extravaganza) by Vaughan Williams to lib. by Evelyn Sharp (1869–1955) derived from Richard Garnett's The Poison Maid and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Rapaccini's Daughter. Comp. 1927–9, rev. 1934–5, 1936–7, 1956–7. Prod. Cambridge and London 1936, NY 1937. Spoken dialogue rev. by Ursula Vaughan Williams in 1957 and subsequently. All characters have botanical names, e.g. Amaryllus and Persicaria.