Drawing on historical texts, Fabrice Bollon’s opera The Folly focuses on Erasmus of Rotterdam, the influential Renaissance reformer, cosmopolitan humanist and intellectual, who, in old age, reflects on the events of his life. Past and present converge as fictional figures from his books or real-life antagonists appear in much the same way as Bollon merges periods through his creative use of several 16th-century compositions. Set in an age of polarised extremism that reflects our own times, Erasmus’s humanism requires vigilance, defence and reinvention.