The Picture of Dorian Gray (opera) a wrinkled old man, covered in blood, with a knife in his heart. The Picture of Dorian Gray (opera) The Picture of Dorian Gray, op. 45, is an American opera in two acts and 12 scenes, with libretto and music by Lowell Liebermann, based on the novel of the same name by Oscar Wilde. The opera had its world premiere at the Monte Carlo Opera on 8 May 1996, in a production by John Cox, conducted by Steuart Bedford. Bedford also conducted the American premiere, on 5 February 1999 by Florentine Opera, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Center City Opera Theater in
The Picture of Dorian Gray theme in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1891) is aestheticism and its conceptual relation to living a double life. Throughout the story, the narrative presents aestheticism as an absurd abstraction, which disillusions more than it dignifies the concept of Beauty. Despite Dorian being a hedonist, when Basil accuses him of making a "by-word" of the name of Lord Henry's sister, Dorian curtly replies, "Take care, Basil. You go too far ..."; thus, in Victorian society, public image and social standing do matter to Dorian. Yet, Wilde highlights the protagonist's hedonism: Dorian enjoyed "keenly the terrible pleasure of a double life",