 Twice Through the Heart is a musical work by the English composer Mark @-@ Anthony Turnage , variously described as a dramatic scena , as a monodrama , as a song cycle , as a chamber opera or even as a " dramatic song @-@ cycle @-@ cum @-@ scena " . It is scored for mezzo @-@ soprano and 16 instrumentalists and sets an English @-@ language libretto by the Scottish poet Jackie Kay based on her script for a television programme about a woman jailed for killing her violent husband . 
