Love and Other Demons 

Love and Other Demons is an opera in two acts by Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös to a libretto by the Hungarian author Kornél Hamvai. It premiered on 10 August 2008 at the Glyndebourne Festival. The libretto is based on the novel Of Love and Other Demons (1994) by Gabriel García Márquez. The opera is the result of a commission by Glyndebourne and the BBC; it was broadcast in full on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday, 11 October 2008.

Maria is living with her father who is not taking care of her. She prefers to be with the servants and slaves. When there is an eclipse of the sun, she is bitten by a dog with rabies. She suffers no reaction; nevertheless, she is brought to a convent where Father Delaura is supposed to take care of her. He is supposed to exorcise her of demons but falls in love with her. As this is recognized she is removed from the convent and the bishop himself will exorcise her demons. She dies in the process.

Unusually, Love and Other Demons consistently uses multiple languages. The different levels of narration and action in the story have their own characteristic language: English is the 'everyday language' of the noblemen, Latin is the language of the church rites, Spanish is used by Delaura whenever his conversations with Sierva touch on personal feelings, and Yoruba is the 'secret' language of the slaves.

Love and Other Demons is a story of forbidden love set in the exotic and magical world of 18th-century Colombia. Adapted from the short story "Del amor y otros demonios" by Nobel prize-winner Gabriel García Márquez, the libretto was written by the famous Hungarian author Kornél Hamvai. One Sunday in the slave market in the port of Cartagena de Indias, a young girl is bitten by a dog. The girl is Sierva Maria of All The Angels, the daughter of the Marquis. Although Sierva herself seems unhurt, the dog is rabid and in a town where reason and superstition are at war, soon the talk is not of rabies, but of possession. Sierva finds herself imprisoned in the Convent of St Clare, where Cayetano Delaura, the bishop's exorcist, comes to drive out her demons. But soon it is Delaura himself who is possessed, consumed by love, 'the most terrible demon of all'. As the lovers' obsession grows, so too does the desire of the authorities to purge this sickness from their midst.