Accompanied by an off-stage harpsichord she starts her recital with a performance of Claudio Monteverdi's "Lettera amorosa" and "Lamento della ninfa" but stops to look for the pianist.
She then begins a long spoken monologue that is interrupted by over forty, often very brief musical fragments taken from Berberian's repertoire, including works Berio had written for her voice in earlier years, Avendo gran disio and Epifanie.
As the recital progresses the singer's descent into madness is emphasized by quotations from Hamlet, Pierrot Lunaire and the mad scenes from Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Giacomo Meyerbeer's Dinorah (Metzer 2003, p. 93).
She ends the piece with a prayer for liberation ("libera nos"), her vocal range reduced to a semitone.
219–220)—the track numbers and time indications refer to the only recording that exists of the piece (RCA 09026-62540-2, with Berberian and the London Sinfonietta conducted by Berio):