Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz inhabited a rarefied world of immense privilege, intellectual freedom, and high-level protection.

“Have you ever seen the Consul? Does he speak, does he breathe? Have you spoken to him?” Magda Sorel in The Consul , by Menotti In the harrowing aria "To This We’ve Come" , Magda, the protagonist of Menotti’s The Consul , protests the dehumanizing effects of bureaucracy. And we can certainly understand Magda. Who has not dealt with the red tape of the medical establishment, with insurance bureaucracy, or with this or the other agency or service? Yesterday I went into a Verizon store...

Ariadne apologizes – on her own terms