The lore of theater, like that of Ovid, has its own cruel tales of transmutation, of little shows that got lost in big palaces, and there was anxious speculation on how "Metamorphoses" might translate in a Broadway setting.

It's a collage of fifty cruel tales already published in the press over the previous fifteen years.

It is a "gruelling cruel tale" from the Edo period.

That would match the cruel tales he had heard about them, given a fresh airing amongst the nervous soldiers as night fell on the fort.

This innately postminimalist display tells a cruel tale of colonial exploitation and official racism.

The lore of theater, like that of Ovid, has its own cruel tales of transmutation: of fashionable smashes that lost their sheen as the times around them changed, of little shows that got lost in big palaces.

This instrumental album, which inspired Serge Gainsbourg to write the well known cruel tale, was originally recorded in 1973.