Softly…Softly

While walking in a garden of statues of women, Ester and her friend Adele see two women kissing. Ester then dreams of kissing Adele and later imagines making love to her while she is in the arms of Oscar, her husband. She confesses her passion to Adele and also tells Oscar that she loves another. His jealousy takes over: he assumes it’s a man, and he begs Adele to help him discover this rival’s identity. Eventually Ester tells him she loves a woman. This makes him even less reasonable: he jumps between bewilderment (“Am I a cuckold?”) and violent anger. After he gets drunk and figures out that Adele is the object of Ester’s unconsummated desire, he becomes dangerous.