# Recommend Operas with LOTS of Blood AND Gore..



## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Opera is not really my forte, so I implode to TC's Opera experts to recommend operas with LOTS of blood and gore on it's story. I enjoy watching films that feature lots of blood and gore (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eden Lake, Kill Bill etc) and I hope that I can find operas that feature LOTS of it.

I have watched some clips of Puccini's Tosca, and I think it's good. But the amount of blood, though plenty, is not enough to my taste.

Any reccomendations?

Thanks in advance, everyone.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Try this production of Salome:


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Couchie,

Yeah.. I'm familiar with Strauss' Salome. It leaves me cold, though. It's shocking, but that's it.

Any Wagner operas with lots of blood?


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

I believe the Copenhagen Ring is quite bloody, although I haven't seen it myself to verify.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Couchie said:


> I believe the Copenhagen Ring is quite bloody, although I haven't seen it myself to verify.


Only Rheingold, really


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

Look for stagings by Calixto Bieito or Dmitri Tcherniakov -- they evidently love gore, with lots of nudity tossed into the bargain.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

One of the problems is that opera is essentially staged, not filmed. It is difficult to do special FX with LOTS of blood and gore.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Some of the photos I remember seeing for a 90s production of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd show that they didn't exactly skimp on the claret when it came to the throat-cutting scenes.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

elgars ghost said:


> Some of the photos I remember seeing for a 90s production of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd show that they didn't exactly skimp on the claret when it came to the throat-cutting scenes.


It's not claret. It's custard. Seriously.

The recipe for fake blood is as follows:

Three tablespoons custard powder
Three tablespoons sugar
One litre (2 pints) of water

Make custard with water (not milk) as per other instructions on packet.

Add five drops red food colouring
Add 1 drop blue colouring.

Check shading and add red or blue until it looks right. Do this SLOWLY - navy blue blood might be royal, but it is not realistic.

Lucia de Lammermoor often has lots of blood.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Moira said:


> It's not claret. It's custard. Seriously.
> 
> The recipe for fake blood is as follows:
> 
> ...


Sounds yummy...

Perhaps Verdi's Macbeth has the potential to be fairly gory (Polanski's film certainly was) but I can't recall if the various murders take place onstage or off. I think Bloch wrote a Macbeth opera as well but I know nothing about it.


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## Guest (May 21, 2012)

Moira said:


> One of the problems is that opera is essentially staged, not filmed. It is difficult to do special FX with LOTS of blood and gore.


I think you have hit the nail on the head. Film, in order to depict so much gore, often relies on the ability of the director to yell "cut," so that they can swap out some real person or appendage for a fake or prosthetic, which can then be cut off or impaled in what looks like a seamless scene. Or, with the advent of CGI, letting the computer do the work. It would look pretty absurd for cuts in an opera to put in some artificial whatever to be cut off. So most of that stuff must either take place offstage, or come off as not quite so realistic.

I just don't think you are going to find live performances that are going to have the level of violence, blood, and gore as what is today prevalent in slasher flicks.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Moira said:


> Lucia de Lammermoor often has lots of blood.


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## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

For B/W plain old maple sryup will do just fine. Thats what Alfred Hitchcock used.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

This thread I did recently might be of some use to you, *peeyaj* -
http://www.talkclassical.com/19506-operas-high-body-count.html


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## Polyphemus (Nov 2, 2011)

Penderecki 'The Devils Of Loudun'. Torture, burning at the stake sexual perversity and all the vices known in polite society.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Polyphemus said:


> Penderecki 'The Devils Of Loudun'. Torture, burning at the stake sexual perversity and all the vices known in polite society.


Sounds like your average week in Bromsgrove.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

obwan said:


> For B/W plain old maple sryup will do just fine. Thats what Alfred Hitchcock used.


Maple syrup is considerably more expensive than custard. And it doesn't work on stage because of the colour.


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