– largely ripped from the Decameron, in which those who had fortified themselves in a castle to escape the bubonic plague below were asked to tell stories for entertainment – Hertzberg explains that, “The Rose Elf is about this elf who lives inside of a rose and witnesses a sort of incestuous love-triangle tragedy, and gives the work an overtone that’s like ‘Don’t do bad things, because someone’s always watching you.’ This lurid and strange material just seemed ripe for an opera. In my adaptation of the story, the elf is this erotic, sensual, gender-fluid figure who lives for pleasure inside of the rose. Played by the marvelous mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey, for whom I specifically wrote the role, the elf witnesses this terrible tragedy, this sort of incestuous menage-a-trois, and is ultimately affected and transformed by it. The pleasure of the rose ultimately consumes the elf – in one scene she is actually smothered inside of the scalding rose as it is pressed to one of the lover’s chest while she is inside of it.” Neither Hertzberg nor Rose Elf director R.B. Schlather knew that this sensual and erotic work was going to be performed in the catacombs – but were elated when the opportunity presented itself. The Rose Elf was work-shopped in Philadelphia under the Opera Philadelphia Composer in Residence Program (supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), and it was there that Hertzberg, Schlather, and Hankey began to look for a home for the show. According to Hertzberg, it was actually after a coffee meeting between Samantha Hankey and Unison Media president Andrew Ousley that the show found its home.”