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In some tellings Lilith is thought to have been the first wife of Adam, created like him from dust and therefore his equal. But recoiling at her passive marital and sexual role, Lilith storms off, embittered, becoming an underworld avenger who saps the seed of sleeping men to procreate child demons. Meanwhile God creates Eve from Adam's rib, thereby ensuring woman's subservience.
Lilith, the opera, is a haunting contemporary parable in which, after Adam's death, Lilith and Eve become fierce competitors, the ex-wife and the widow.
Taken from Anthony Tommasini's review in The New York Times
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