Last week, this publication considered Andrew Lippa's "The Wild Party," after Joseph Moncure March's book-length poem of the same name, telling of an anything goes Roaring Twenties soirée, which leaves one man shot dead, another presumably destined to become a fugitive from the law, a woman widowed, and relationships broken apart. This week, a work under consideration is composer Conrad Susa and librettist Philip Littell's "The Dangerous Liaisons," after Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' pre-French Revolutionary epistolary novel "Les liaisons dangereuses," telling of a man and woman's longtime dedication to multiple seduction, which leads to the man's death in a duel, the woman afflicted with smallpox, her reputation ruined, another woman driven insane and dying, a third miscarrying the man's child, and relationships shattered. One can only hope all this harsh retribution is for the malice and callousness involved, not puritanical punishment for the hedonistic revelry or veiled reference to the epidemic of AIDS, which could not be anticipated, following the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s and '70s.

"Dangerous Liaisons" (1994), lyrical, accessible, and replete with opportunities for vocal and dramatic display for its leading singers, received a riveting New York premiere on February 21, thanks to Dicapo Opera Theatre, with a Lincoln Center-caliber cast guided by conductor Oliver Gooch and director Michael Capasso, with sets by John Farrell and period costumes by Angela Huff. Former lovers who still have a hold on each other, the Vicomte de Valmont, portrayed by baritone Michael Chioldi, and Marquise de Merteuil, played by mezzo-soprano Sarah Heltzel, plot amorous escapades and breakups, spar and then declare war, and leave boxfuls of letters in their wake that later serve to accuse. Each brings an act of the two-act work to a close with a tour-de-force, Chioldi towering in "A woman's price goes up," stating his crass credo, "All women are my pleasure," and Heltzel, describing herself earlier as "a woman whose nature was cold," now alone, ailing, despised, and more or less shrugging off that fate, having the emphatic last word, in "Valmont! Valmont! ... I returned from the country and dropped in at the theatre," as she faces the remainder of "the disaster we call life." Kudos, too, to soprano Anna Noggle, as Mme de Tourvel, whose descent into madness begins with the agitated lament "The veil is rent," when Valmont takes his leave, in words dictated by the Marquise, with the florid "The physical world is subject to universal laws," with an insistent refrain of "It is not my fault." Thomas Hampson, Frederica von Stade and Renée Fleming created these roles in the opera's world premiere in San Francisco.

Soprano Kristin Vogel and tenor Richard Furman, as young lovers Cécile de Volanges and Chevalier de Danceny, also have meaty assignments. No innocent Nannetta and Fenton out of Verdi's "Falstaff," they become the playthings, respectively, of the helpful Vicomte and Marquise. Lisa Chavez, as Madame de Volanges, goes into the highest of Handelian coloratura dudgeons-"You have abused my confidence. You have abused her innocence," setting off one of the many striking ensembles-when she becomes aware, tipped off by the Marquise, that her 15-year-old harpist daughter, affianced to the unseen Gercourt, an old flame of Merteuil, has been receiving missives from her music master, Danceny. Soprano Yvonne Bill, as Madame de Rosemonde, Valmont's octogenarian aunt, offers a wise senior perspective, in "I have an old heart. It hardly beats," on the follies of her juniors. The ensemble, beginning "We have wronged each other, Chevalier," encompassing Valmont's plot for revenge against Merteuil, from beyond the grave, using her own letters, and the consecutive death scenes of Valmont, in a park, after the duel, and Tourvel, in a convent, merits mention as well.

At this writing, three hearings of Susa and Littell's "Dangerous Liaisons" remain, on February 23 and 29 at 8 p.m. and March 2 at 4 p.m. and tickets at $55 are available at the Dicapo box office, at 184 East 76th Street at Lexington Avenue, just prior to performances, or by calling 212/288-9438, extension 10. On April 10 at 7:30 p.m., 12 and 18 at 8 p.m., and 20 at 4 p.m., Dicapo gives Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West."

Dicapo has announced a most ambitious schedule for next season, including Robert Ward's "The Crucible," September 11-14; Puccini's "Turandot," October 10-18; Artistic Advisor Tobias Picker's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (New York premiere), after Roald Dahl's children's book, conducted by the composer, December 13-21; Leoš Janáček’s “Šarka” and Arthur Honegger's "La mort de Sainte Alméenne" (U.S. premieres), February 19-March 1, 2009; and Rossini's "L'Italiana in Algeri," April 16-19.