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Opera in 3 Acts. The salon of Mme. Rosemonde's chateau outside Paris is the setting for the tangled web of intrigue and romantic relationships between the Chevalier de Danceny and Cecile de Volanges; Valmont (Rosemonde's nephew) and Madame de Merteuil (among his other female conquests are Madame de Tourvel, Emilie, and Cecile). The relationships are made and changed by a series of letters, shadowed by the overriding relationship between Valmont and Madame de Merteuil. Merteuil, in the end, emerges from the tumult to tell of her public humiliation and her subsequent misfortunes, including smallpox and bankruptcy. She cannot avoid betraying the regret of her true feeling for Valmont. She has lost everything, yet, defiantly, she survives.
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