One evening back in October, I filed out of the orchestra section of the Kennedy Center Opera House into the foyer. Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers had just come to a happy (for the young lovers)/unhappy (for the dead king) ending. As I walked past a small group, I heard an older woman get right down to the heart of opera. “Wasn’t that a great ending!?” she asked. “You know, it’s not a good opera unless there’s a (dead) body.”
Although I’ve seen good operas not featuring a corpse, I can’t fault this lady for being near accurate. Her little observation got me thinking, “I wonder how many people have died in all the operas I’ve seen.” The answer is quite a lot and the causes range from poison to consumption and from grief to gunfire, all with great drama and great music in tow.
So with my newfound fascination with operatic morbidity, I have now decided to give a death count with my report of the operas I’ve seen.
Quick example, Verdi’s Otello
Desdemona (R. Fleming) – strangled by Otello
Roderigo (R. Naldi) – killed in a sword fight by Cassio
Otello (J. Botha) – stabbed, suicide
Death count – 3
Otello was awesome!
*End example*
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
This is great! I look forward to future death counts.
hahahaaa I love you; this is fabulous!
Chelsea,
I am going to counter your post on my blog because I think you have raised an interesting point, but let me also say that I read a comic strip once that said opera is the only place where a man can sing when his stomach has been penetrated by a sword. I would say that author had just seen Verdi's "Il Trovatore," would you not?
-Tyler.
Post a Comment