When soprano Lauren Snouffer says playing Bess McNeill in the opera Breaking the Waves is “by far the most complicated role I’ve ever had to navigate,” few people would say she’s exaggerating.
Set in Scotland in the 1970s, the three-act opera, based on the film of the same title by Lars von Trier, tells the story of Bess, a devout member of a Calvinist congregation known for its conservative and patriarchal views. Somehow, she is allowed to marry an outsider, Jan, an oil rig worker from Norway.
Jan (bass-baritone Ryan McKinny) is injured while at work and now paralyzed, wants his wife to have sex with other men and tell him about it. He says this will keep him alive. As part of her marital vows, Bess obeys him in this.
“She has this incredible tug of war between what’s right and what’s wrong and between love and God and the church and society and who she wants to be and on top of that there is something a little bit different about her,” Snouffer says. “It can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. We can psychoanalyze her; we can say that she’s ‘special’ that she sees things differently than a lot of other people. We can say that she’s a little bit mentally compromised. I think she has a history of trauma. That’s my read on her. That she was kind of frozen at a young age but she’s trying to be a woman and she is a woman.
“It’s an incredibly difficult character to embody as a person who doesn’t have any of those things going on in my life,” she says laughing.
The contemporary opera making its regional premiere at Houston Grand Opera, is the product of composer-and-librettist team Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek. A three-act opera with a running time of two hours, it includes simulated sex acts, sexual violence and nudity so it may not be for everyone and especially not for young audiences. Sara Brodie directs the revival of Tom Morris’s production, with Maestro Patrick Summers at the podium.
At the beginning of the opera, Bess and Jan get married. “Her husband is one of the only characters in the show that understands her. When she’s having a temper tantrum or a meltdown, which she does sometimes, he knows that it’s not too serious and he knows how to pull her out of it. He’s a great source of comfort for her,” Snouffer says.
“The only other person in the piece who also understands her is also an outsider. Also from outside the society and outside the church. I think that’s on purpose. Because I think Bess is kind of an outsider too; she’s just trying not to be.”
The big question is, of course why Jan tells Bess to have sex with other men and report those encounters back to him. Snouffer has interpreted this as: “It happens in a moment of incredible desperation and almost self-pity. This idea that they aren’t able to connect anymore in a way that feels very consummating for them.
“He feels guilty that the church won’t let her divorce him. He feels like he’s not adding anything to her life. Initially she says ‘I can’t. I can’t believe you are asking me to do that. I only want to be with you. We are joined in God.’ But she comes to believe this is what God wants, Snouffer says. “Including the elders in the church telling her women must do as their husbands say.”
She finds the men, all outside her Calvinist community, at other places. One is a bus stop, another a pub. Eventually, the Calvinist community finds out what she’s doing. “And everyone is very concerned for her and everyone tells her to stop because if she doesn’t stop they’re going to have to throw her out of the church and if they throw her out of the church then she’s no one,” Snouffer says.
She says she can’t say this opera is for everyone but “It’s an incredibly thought-provoking piece. I think it’s a brilliant story and it asks more questions than it answers. I think the score is incredible. The instrumentation is unusual at times.
“I think it’s very listenable and singable. The vocal lines to me feel like Strauss. They’re very lyrical and soaring. The orchestration is lush and harmonic, It makes sense to the ears and accompanies the story well.”
Given the subject matter, it’s no surprise than an intimacy coordinator was brought in. This helps, Snouffer says, because it takes the interaction away from the personal and moves it to more of a directed experience.
“We have two people working with us, Samantha Kauffman and Adam Noble[ for fight scenes]. It’s basically the same thing as fight choreography. Obviously we’re not stabbing each other on stage. It’s the same thing with scenes with any kind of physical intimacy, She’s helping guide us so we’re not two people improvising those things together. It also takes the personal aspect away from it. It’s a choreography. So it’s not like my body doing it or Ryan’s body doing it. It’s what we’ve been told our bodies do.”
A co-production of HGO, Opera Ventures, Scottish Opera, Théâtre National de l’Opéra Comique, and Adelaide Festival, this presentation of Breaking the Waves represents its anticipated regional premiere.
Asked why she thinks she was selected for this role, Snouffer, who graduated from Rice University and Julliard and is a Butler Studio alum, says:
“I sing a lot of contemporary music so a lot of it is vocal. It’s relentless; I think there’s one scene I’m not in. It has high notes and low notes. And it’s incredibly emotionally taxing. So I think my history of singing contemporary music lent itself to the casting.
“One thing I’ve always loved about these massive roles is you step on stage and you can’t leave. You know that with the quantity of the things you’re going to be thinking about and doing that it’s not going to be perfect and you just have to hand yourself over to the character and to the story. I’m totally present and I love that about that.
“And regarding the character I really love to dig into the psychology of these interesting characters — that’s a really fun process for me.”
The mother of Bess is definitely devout and Bess follows her lead in terms of serving the church. “She cleans the church, she’s in the church. I think she really does believe in God. But I think it all breaks down a bit when she sees that she’s doing all these things for him and not seeing the results he’s [God] promised her.”
Snouffer says she doesn’t think Bess sees herself as a victim but in many ways she is a victim of the society in which she was raised. “I think one of the key takeaways from the piece is that love triumphs over this oppressive dogma that exists in that society.”
Performances are scheduled for April 19 through May 4 at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, Wednesday and Friday; and 2 p.m. Sunday at Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. Sung in English with projected English text. Not suitable for young audiences. For more information, call 713-228-6737 or visit houstongrandopera.org. $25-$210.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.
