Jake Heggie's If I Were You: Maryland Opera Studio

Based on a novel by Julien Green, Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s If I Were You is a Faustian story that explores themes of love, power and gender roles in a modern setting. In the wake of a near-fatal car accident, the aimless young writer Fabian begins to reassess his life. After an unexpected encounter with his college crush, Fabian makes a deal with an enigmatic, shape-shifting demon, Brittomara, who gives him the power to move his soul from person to person for as long as he likes. Everything comes with a price, however: if he ever returns to his own body, his soul will be Brittomara’s to collect. On his precarious journey to win the heart of his beloved, he leaves a trail of despair and hollow shells. In the end, will he choose to live forever as someone else or die for love as himself?