• Samuel Barber. Opera in four acts. 1957.
• Libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti.
• First performance at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, on 15^th January 1958.

In Northern Gothic surroundings, in 1905, Vanessa has waited, reproached by her mother, for twenty years for the return of her lover Anatol. Anatol's worthless son appears, greeted by Vanessa as her lover, before she understands her mistake. Vanessa's niece Erika vainly urges the young Anatol to leave. Erika is seduced by Anatol but refuses his proposal of marriage, while Vanessa and he prepare a New Year's Eve ball. Vanessa and Anatol announce their engagement, while Erika, pregnant, seeks an abortion, as she goes through the cold winter night to the lake. Vanessa and Anatol marry, while Erika declares that now she must wait, as her aunt had.

Erika's Must the winter come so soon? from the first act and Vanessa's Do not utter a word, Anatol enjoy an existence outside their operatic context, with the last act quintet To leave, to break and an orchestral interlude. Barber later revised the work, shortening it to three acts by amalgamating the first and second. The musical language is diatonic, with melodic writing that is well suited to voices, a reminder of the composer's background as a singer himself.