# Operas with happy endings..............



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

List all you can think of with happy or uplifting endings.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Mozart - Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute)
Purcell - The Fairy Queen

Just two I have seen fairly recently.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Tippett - _The midsummer marriage_
Janáček - _The cunning little vixen_
Glass - _The making of the representative for Planet 8_
Stockhausen - _Sonntag_


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## poconoron (Oct 26, 2011)

Mozart's Don Giovanni.......... everyone is joyous that the villain has gone to the Bad Place.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Wagner - Das Liebesverbot
Wagner - Siegfried
Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Wagner - Parsifal


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

Stockhausen??? Did he mean it???


As regards Wagner, does ordeal + redemption = true happiness? Too many hoops etc. Rather them than me.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Beethoven's_ Fidelio_
Puccini's _Turandot_
Rossini's _Mose in Egitto_

...come to think of it, looks like I favour operas like this with _happy endings_.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Puccini La fanciulla del West
Donizetti L'Elisir d'Amore, La Fille du Regiment, Don Pasquale (unless you are the title character), 
Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro (but not for long, I reckon)


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^*mamascarlatti*, I didn't mention comic operas - Rossini's & Donizetti's are favs - as I'd assume the topic was happy endings for dramatic / serious kind of operas. That's what I assumed.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Well... since I just listened to Tchaikovsky's _Iolanta_ I should add this one to the list.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Sid James said:


> ^^*mamascarlatti*, I didn't mention comic operas - Rossini's & Donizetti's are favs - as I'd assume the topic was happy endings for dramatic / serious kind of operas. That's what I assumed.


La Fanciulla and Le Nozze are not realy comic operas, but the others of course are. What is interesting is that the comic operas often have a nominally happy ending, but sometimes at the expense of one of the characters, like Don Pasquale.


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

St. Luke's - Caracalla as an avatar hardly becomes you, surely? Don't tell me you've gone over to the Dark Side...


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Sid James said:


> Beethoven's_ Fidelio_
> Puccini's _Turandot_
> Rossini's _Mose in Egitto_
> 
> ...come to think of it, looks like I favour operas like this with _happy endings_.


Turandot is like L'Incoronazione di Poppea, the only characters left standing are the ones who don't deserve it.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> ... What is interesting is that the comic operas often have a nominally happy ending, but sometimes at the expense of one of the characters, like Don Pasquale.


And like Falstaff in _Falstaff_.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

mamascarlatti said:


> Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro (but not for long, I reckon)


Indeed. The realities of living together would probably not have worked for them.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Two fairy-tale based, 
one children's story as original libretto, 
in each, all comes round right:

Humperinck ~ Hansel und Gretel

Stravinsky ~ Le Rossignol (Hans Christian Anderson, 'The Emperor and the Nightingale.')

Ravel ~ L'enfant et les sortilèges


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

A lot of baroque operas, starting with L'Orfeo, have happy endings, all the love tangles sorted out and everyone singing a satisified ensemble at the end. An exception is Tamerlano, with the suicide of the noble hero Bajazet, although even that takes place offstage.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Ambroise Thomas changed Shakespeare's play so that at the end the guilty Claudius is chastised and Hamlet is pronounced King.

At the end of der Freischütz Max the hunter is saved from banishment and will be allowed to marry his love after a year of blameless living.

In die Entführung aus dem Serail the Pasha shows his mercy to his prisoners and allows them to go free. I always wonder whether Konstanze made the right decision. 

Actually Mozart's endings are often bitter sweet - how will the lovers in Cosi fan tutte recover their relationship after all the betrayals, how long before the Count strays again, how can Leporello settle down with a safe but dull master, will Tito ever be able to really trust Vitellia again, isn't it going to be awkward for Idamante to be king with his deposed dad hanging around in the background. A bit like real life...


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## eorrific (May 14, 2011)

Tristan und Isolde, technically. Both of them DID long for death, no?


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

eorrific said:


> Tristan und Isolde, technically. Both of them DID long for death, no?


true, so true


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

elgars ghost said:


> Stockhausen??? Did he mean it???


Sure. The leading characters get married at the end of _Sonntag _- there's a party - and they anticipate the birth of young ones in _Montag_.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Brecht/Weill - _Die Dreigroschenoper_ (albeit an ironic happy ending)
von Weber - _Der Freischütz_
Prokofiev - _The love for three oranges_


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Whenever instruments cease sounding Stockhausen it's a happy ending.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

mamascarlatti said:


> Turandot is like L'Incoronazione di Poppea, the only characters left standing are the ones who don't deserve it.


Well the high point in_ Turandot _is the final love duet between Calaf and Princess Turandot. That's what I can remember from the actual ending, which comes across as fairly happy (but to me, sort of fake, too sudden a change from the icy princess melting like butter once Calaf answers the three riddles correctly). But yes the opera as a whole has no shortage of deaths, that's right. I don't know _Poppea_.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Then there are all the operettas!

Think Gilbert and Sullivan amongst others. Or is that getting too close to musical theatre for comfort?

I think a nice little operetta is a good way to introduce children to opera.


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## Gneiss (Feb 3, 2009)

mamascarlatti said:


> Donizetti L'Elisir d'Amore


That was the first one I thought of too...

I'll throw in the delightful Martha - Friedrich von Flotow


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

A couple of rarities: Paisiello's _Nina _and Marschner's _Der Vampyr_.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

Speaking of "Ravel ~ L'enfant et les sortilèges" L'heure espagnole has a happy ending too! 

The final words sung... 

"Among all lovers, only the efficient succeed,
The moment arrives, in the pursuit of love,
When the muleteeer has his turn!"


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

mamascarlatti said:


> Ambroise Thomas changed Shakespeare's play so that at the end the guilty Claudius is chastised and Hamlet is pronounced King.


Heh, heh... you beat me to it-

So let me mention the OTHER Thomas opera, _Mignon_, where Goethe's story was changed so that at the end Wilhelm Meister is united with a Mignon who survives...

Both operas have "happy" endings- hard to say if they're uplifting or not... (especially for those familiar with the original tales). However, they both have great music, and that's what proves to be decisive.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

I quite like the ending to Charpentier's Louise.

Instead of dying of shame/grief/consumption/drowning/beheading/burning at the stake/stab wounds/jumping off the ramparts/poisoned trees, the heroine tells her interfering parents to get stuffed and runs off with her boyfriend. Go girl!


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^I read Charpentier wanted to do a sequel to Louise. I don't know if it happened. But the ending of _Louise_, the way you descibe it, certainly provides a kind of opening for a sequel.


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

Rossini is a master of happy endings! 
Il Bariere di Siviglia
Cenerentola
La Gazza Ladra

Donizetti did his best too.
La fille du régiment 
L'elisir d'amore

This are just a few I am very familiar with.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Two I don't think have been mentioned yet:

La Sonnambula (Bellini)

L'Amico Fritz (Mascagni)


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Andrea Chenier - yes I know they die, but they both seem quite happy about it!


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

Mozart - La clemenza di Tito (but the title's always going to be a giveaway, I suppose)

Zemlinsky - Der Kreidekreis

Orff - Die Kluge


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

sospiro said:


> And like Falstaff in _Falstaff_.


Falstaff actually gets a revenge of sorts seeing Ford fooled by his wife: "Now Mr Ford, who's been fooled now?" he asks gleefully.

There is no more joyous scene in opera than the final fugue in Falstaff - we're all fools!


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## anmhe (Feb 10, 2015)

Strauss- Die Frau Ohne Schatten
Despite the dire music, the opera has a very happy ending.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Il matrimonio segreto (The Secret Marriage). Music by Domenico Cimarosa.

I just learned of this gem today and already purchased a DVD.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

GregMitchell said:


> Andrea Chenier - yes I know they die, but they both seem quite happy about it!


UGH, Greg ! ...............


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Carl Nielsens's _Maskarade_ - everyone goes to the masked ball and all the problems are solved
Mention has been made of the fugue finale of Verdi's _Falstaff_ but RVW's _Sir John in Love_ has an equally delightful and memorable closing scene.
And let's not forget Puccini's _Gianni Schicchi_ - the greedy relatives get their comeuppance!


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Becca said:


> *Carl Nielsens's Maskarade - everyone goes to the masked ball and all the problems are solved*
> Mention has been made of the fugue finale of Verdi's _Falstaff_ but RVW's _Sir John in Love_ has an equally delightful and memorable closing scene.
> And let's not forget Puccini's _Gianni Schicchi_ - the greedy relatives get their comeuppance!


They're rereleasing that next month.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Rameau's Les Indes Galantes has a few happy endings.

No one gets shot; no one gets impeached; no one gets escape from that final chicken dance that rocks the house.


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## SingingMoore (Jun 5, 2015)

Magic Flute....Look towards Comic opera


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Tancredi has both a happy ending and a tragic ending that can be used interchangeably. 

Other happy ending operas include Cherubini's Lodoïska and Donizetti's Adelia.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Monteverdi's _Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria_

Not so happy for Iro or the suitors but Ulysses comes home and (eventually) Penelope recognises him and they live happily ever after .......


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## DonAlfonso (Oct 4, 2014)

Benjamin Britten - _A Midsummer Night's Dream _


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

All of Wagner's operas have happy endings. Can you imagine Tristan and Isolde married, sitting at the dinner table discussing that "susse wortlein und" and which set of grandparents would take the children if it disappeared and there was "nicht mehr Tristan, nicht mehr Isolde"? Or the Dutchman, never knowing whether Senta really loves him enough to dive off a cliff and maybe she's still receiving pictures of Erik in the altogether on a secret web site? Or Elsa, not knowing for fifty years what name to ask for when she calls her husband at his job at the swan farm ("Yes, the one in shining armor. Tell him it's his wife. Yes, of course I've prayed fervently!)? Or Brunnhilde, trying to get that dolt Siegfried to stop retelling that story about the dragon, stop talking to birds, and take her out for bear ribs and a mead espresso? No, of course you can't. 

Wagner's instincts in these matters was infallible. Death wasn't just some misfortune that happened to you. No adolescent poetasters blubbering over the bodies of sad little seamstresses who've coughed themselves to death. Wagner's couples gallop into oblivion a-whoopin' and a-hollerin'! I hope I can go like that when the time comes.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Woodduck said:


> All of Wagner's operas have happy endings. Can you imagine Tristan and Isolde married, sitting at the dinner table discussing that "susse wortlein und" and which set of grandparents would take the children if it disappeared and there was "nicht mehr Tristan, nicht mehr Isolde"? Or the Dutchman, never knowing whether Senta really loves him enough to dive off a cliff and maybe she's still receiving pictures of Erik in the altogether on a secret web site? Or Elsa, not knowing for fifty years what name to ask for when she calls her husband at his job at the swan farm ("Yes, the one in shining armor. Tell him it's his wife. Yes, of course I've prayed fervently!)? Or Brunnhilde, trying to get that dolt Siegfried to stop retelling that story about the dragon, stop talking to birds, and take her out for bear ribs and a mead espresso? No, of course you can't.
> 
> Wagner's instincts in these matters was infallible. Death wasn't just some misfortune that happened to you. No adolescent poetasters blubbering over the bodies of sad little seamstresses who've coughed themselves to death. Wagner's couples gallop into oblivion a-whoopin' and a-hollerin'! I hope I can go like that when the time comes.


 

That almost makes me wish I liked Wagner!


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Excellent insight Woodduck. Surely happiness comes from having known passion and beauty.


sospiro said:


> That almost makes me wish I liked Wagner!


One day you will. I have high hopes for you.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Woodduck said:


> All of Wagner's operas have happy endings. Can you imagine Tristan and Isolde married, sitting at the dinner table discussing that "susse wortlein und" and which set of grandparents would take the children if it disappeared and there was "nicht mehr Tristan, nicht mehr Isolde"? Or the Dutchman, never knowing whether Senta really loves him enough to dive off a cliff and maybe she's still receiving pictures of Erik in the altogether on a secret web site? Or Elsa, not knowing for fifty years what name to ask for when she calls her husband at his job at the swan farm ("Yes, the one in shining armor. Tell him it's his wife. Yes, of course I've prayed fervently!)? Or Brunnhilde, trying to get that dolt Siegfried to stop retelling that story about the dragon, stop talking to birds, and take her out for bear ribs and a mead espresso? No, of course you can't.
> 
> Wagner's instincts in these matters was infallible. Death wasn't just some misfortune that happened to you. No adolescent poetasters blubbering over the bodies of sad little seamstresses who've coughed themselves to death. Wagner's couples gallop into oblivion a-whoopin' and a-hollerin'! I hope I can go like that when the time comes.


Hmmm

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/mar/12/a-z-wagner-d-death


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Woodduck said:


> Wagner's instincts in these matters was infallible. Death wasn't just some misfortune that happened to you. No adolescent poetasters blubbering over the bodies of sad little seamstresses who've coughed themselves to death. *Wagner's couples gallop into oblivion a-whoopin' and a-hollerin'! I hope I can go like that when the time comes*.


Me too, Woodduck. _Leuchtende Liebe, lachender Tod_ - do you remember that? The shining love and the laughing death. I fully intend to laugh death in the face when it comes. No fear, no superstition, no guilt and no regrets.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Me too, Woodduck. _Leuchtende Liebe, lachender Tod_ - do you remember that? The shining love and the laughing death. I fully intend to laugh death in the face when it comes. No fear, no superstition, no guilt and no regrets.


Did Wagner have a 'laughing death? Only in the imaginations of his music dramas I think! Real life and death is very different, as it was for Wagner himself:

"Then on February 13 1883, Richard died in Cosima's arms in Venice. They had just had a violent row over a young Parsifal chorister to whom Richard had been attentive, and perhaps his weak heart couldn't take the ruckus. Stricken, Cosima sat alone with his body until the next day." (Jan Swafford - 'At Home with the Wagners')


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

We mostly don't chose how we die. Sickness or tragedy usually.

Wagner was lucky he was with someone he loved and that loved him.

Very touching that Cosima sat alone with him for a whole day.
Must have loved him a lot. What does that say?


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Itullian said:


> We mostly don't chose how we die. Sickness or tragedy usually.
> 
> Wagner was lucky he was with someone he loved and that loved him.
> 
> ...


That says that Wagner's own life was an opera with a lot of dramatic turns but a happy end


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Itullian said:


> We mostly don't chose how we die. Sickness or tragedy usually.
> 
> Wagner was lucky he was with someone he loved and that loved him.
> 
> ...


It was a strange love. More like a fanatical devotion really. As Swafford's says:

"Nor when Richard died did anything else in the world matter to Cosima. This was a wife who collected and venerated her husband's eyebrow clippings, and who knows what else. Cosima bent her ferocious will to slaying her self for Richard. His art and wisdom became the boundaries of her faith. Richard returned her abjection with endless gratitude and affection, along with lacerating fits of rage. It all made for a splendid marriage, in its fashion. Cosima was born to be the mate of a megalomaniac."

An interesting essay by Swafford:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/feb/20/classicalmusicandopera


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Sounds like love to me.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Itullian said:


> Sounds like love to me.


Of sorts. But she was decidedly different

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...osima-Wagner-the-Lady-of-Bayreuth-review.html


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

All relationships are different my friend.
She loved a genius.
Yes, that's different.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Verdi Stiffelio and Attila except for Attila himself and I feel a bit sorry for Attila.


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## AnotherSpin (Apr 9, 2015)

Every opera has happy ending so far as listener happy


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

In *Mefistofele*, Faust and Margherita die, which is bad  ... but they get to go to heaven, which is good.


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## Queen of the Nerds (Dec 22, 2014)

mamascarlatti said:


> I quite like the ending to Charpentier's Louise.
> 
> Instead of dying of shame/grief/consumption/drowning/beheading/burning at the stake/stab wounds/jumping off the ramparts/poisoned trees, the heroine tells her interfering parents to get stuffed and runs off with her boyfriend. Go girl!


Wait... Poisoned trees? What opera is that?


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Queen of the Nerds said:


> Wait... Poisoned trees? What opera is that?


I read about that. Can't remember the opera, but there really is such a nasty poisonous tree.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Florestan said:


> I read about that. Can't remember the opera, but there really is such a nasty poisonous tree.


It's Lakme, in the opera by Delibes. She commits suicide by eating a poisonous leaf.


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## HumphreyAppleby (Apr 11, 2013)

> Wagner's instincts in these matters was infallible. Death wasn't just some misfortune that happened to you. No adolescent poetasters blubbering over the bodies of sad little seamstresses who've coughed themselves to death. Wagner's couples gallop into oblivion a-whoopin' and a-hollerin'! I hope I can go like that when the time comes.


Give me the seamstress any day. For that matter, give me an aperture in the cranial cavity.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Mozart quite often wrote happy endings, didn't he? I'm not very knowledgeable about opera, so I might be wrong.


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## Queen of the Nerds (Dec 22, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> It's Lakme, in the opera by Delibes. She commits suicide by eating a poisonous leaf.


Thank you very much!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

HumphreyAppleby said:


> Give me the seamstress any day. For that matter, give me an aperture in the cranial cavity.


You are aware, of course, that ancient Egyptian brain surgery is not the treatment of choice for tuberculosis?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

MoonlightSonata said:


> Mozart quite often wrote happy endings, didn't he? I'm not very knowledgeable about opera, so I might be wrong.


Well, Don Giovanni is dragged screaming into hell, that fickle foursome in _Cosi fan tutte_ go voluntarily to hell not really knowing who loves whom, and Countess Rosina forgives her cad of a husband who says he's sorry (don't they all?) but surely hasn't lost his eye for a winsome chambermaid. Happiness isn't always what it appears to be.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Woodduck said:


> Well, Don Giovanni is dragged screaming into hell, that fickle foursome in _Cosi fan tutte_ go voluntarily to hell not really knowing who loves whom, and Countess Rosina forgives her cad of a husband who says he's sorry (don't they all?) but surely hasn't lost his eye for a winsome chambermaid. Happiness isn't always what it appears to be.


Mozart's happy endings with da Ponte tend to be bitter sweet. What a masterly librettist the errant priest was though! Him and Boito top the list of scribes!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Maybe was already listed but I just discovered this happy ending opera:

La Donna del Lago


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

Prince Igor - perhaps due in no small part to the somewhat unfeasibly chivalrous Khan Konchak.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

A small contribution; Riccardo Zandonai's _Conchita_:






Conchita: Antonietta Stella
Mateo: Aldo Bottion 
Conchita's Mother: Anna Maria Rota 
Dolores: Giovanna di Rocco 
Rufina: Rosina Cavicchioli

RAI Torino Orchestra - Mario Rossi, 1969.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Just watched Rossni's Cenerentola in Ponnelle's film. If there is a happier ending to an opera I haven't seen it!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Happy ending in Don Pasquale.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

*Massenet - Esclarmonde*. Huge, bombastic, exalted happy ending with organ on top. Think Mahler 8 goes opera.
Hard to better that.


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## Queen of the Nerds (Dec 22, 2014)

mamascarlatti said:


> Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro (but not for long, I reckon)


Uh... In the next (and final) play of the Figaro trilogy (which has been adapted into a few operas, none of them successful), La Mere Coupable, it is revealed that both Rosina and Almaviva had affairs that produced children, and those children fall in love... But they are allowed to marry and live happily ever after. (By the way, this play takes place 20 years after The Marriage of Figaro.)


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## Queen of the Nerds (Dec 22, 2014)

Becca said:


> Carl Nielsens's _Maskarade_ - everyone goes to the masked ball and all the problems are solved


Unlike the _other_ masked ball opera (_Un Ballo in Maschera_), in which everyone gets either really, really sad or murdered (the former mostly because of the latter.)
Sorry. When I saw that, I had to put my two cents in.


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

Queen of the Nerds said:


> Unlike the _other_ masked ball opera (_Un Ballo in Maschera_), in which everyone gets either really, really sad or murdered (the former mostly because of the latter.)
> Sorry. When I saw that, I had to put my two cents in.


Nogt in Melbourne in the Fura dels Baus production in Melbourne recently. the conspirators donned gasmasks and killed everyone else, not just the king. Made a mockery of the text and music of course.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

An opera with a happy ending is worthless.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Morimur said:


> An opera with a happy ending is worthless.


Mmm. So *Fidelio* is worthless then?


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Morimur said:


> An opera with a happy ending is worthless.


Maybe if you believe the entire world hates you, you will not be particularly inclined towards happy endings or anything happy at all. I can understand that.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Maybe if you believe the entire world hates you, you will not be particularly inclined towards happy endings or anything happy at all. I can understand that.


No, the entire world doesn't hate me - _I hate the entire world_.

:tiphat::tiphat::tiphat:


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

Queen of the Nerds said:


> Uh... In the next (and final) play of the Figaro trilogy (which has been adapted into a few operas, none of them successful), La Mere Coupable, it is revealed that both Rosina and Almaviva had affairs that produced children, and those children fall in love... But they are allowed to marry and live happily ever after. (By the way, this play takes place 20 years after The Marriage of Figaro.)


I am disturbed that I didn't know this. Thanks for teaching me something. What a very modern plot.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

mamascarlatti said:


> La Fanciulla and Le Nozze are not realy comic operas, but the others of course are. What is interesting is that the comic operas often have a nominally happy ending, but sometimes at the expense of one of the characters, like Don Pasquale.


I feel so sorry for Don Pasquale that I don´t consider it a happy ending.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Sloe said:


> I feel so sorry for Don Pasquale that I don´t consider it a happy ending.


But Don seems relieved that his nightmare ended. Still, they really worked him over, poor guy.


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## PierreN (Aug 4, 2013)

Richard Strauss, Der Rosencavalier, has an uplifting ending (with the famous soprano trio and duo) and a last-moment humorously staged climax nicely highlighted by the coda.

Strauss's Daphne has a happy ending based on a similarly convoluted love story.

Someone already mentioned Die Frau Ohne Shatten.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

PierreN said:


> Richard Strauss, Der Rosencavalier, has an uplifting ending (with the famous soprano trio and duo) and a last-moment humorously staged climax nicely highlighted by the coda.
> 
> Strauss's Daphne has a happy ending based on a similarly convoluted love story.
> 
> Someone already mentioned Die Frau Ohne Shatten.


Doesn't Daphne get turned into a tree - or am I misremembering the story?

I guess trees can be happy. I must ask one.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

PierreN said:


> Richard Strauss, Der Rosencavalier, has an uplifting ending (with the famous soprano trio and duo) and a last-moment humorously staged climax nicely highlighted by the coda.


Is it uplifting? I always imagine that the appearance of the Marschallin's Page at the end to be symbolic of the fact that the Marschallin and Octavian will still have the occasional encounter.

The trio is absolutely beautiful of course, and quite often reduces me to tears. The Marschallin's nobility, magnanimity and resignation are admirable, no doubt, but an ending based on compromise is not necessarily one I'd call happy, however pragmatic it might be.


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## Faustian (Feb 8, 2015)

GregMitchell said:


> Is it uplifting? I always imagine that the appearance of the Marschallin's Page at the end to be symbolic of the fact that the Marschallin and Octavian will still have the occasional encounter.
> 
> The trio is absolutely beautiful of course, and quite often reduces me to tears. The Marschallin's nobility, magnanimity and resignation are admirable, no doubt, but an ending based on compromise is not necessarily one I'd call a happy, however pragmatic it might be.


To me, that ending is the definition of bittersweet.


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## Queen of the Nerds (Dec 22, 2014)

Steatopygous said:


> I am disturbed that I didn't know this. Thanks for teaching me something. What a very modern plot.


You are welcome.


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## Queen of the Nerds (Dec 22, 2014)

Steatopygous said:


> Nogt in Melbourne in the Fura dels Baus production in Melbourne recently. the conspirators donned gasmasks and killed everyone else, not just the king. Made a mockery of the text and music of course.


I am now frustrated. Seriously, people, nobody else is supposed to die at the end!! Why...?


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## PierreN (Aug 4, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Doesn't Daphne get turned into a tree - or am I misremembering the story?
> 
> I guess trees can be happy. I must ask one.


Oh yes, you're right. I had Arabella confused with Daphne. There is gorgeous music in both operas, but Arabella is the one I had in mind, with the convoluted love story that gets happily untangled at the end. Daphne is indeed rather more dramatic.

It's also true, as others have mentioned, that Der Rosenkavalier ends on a bittersweet dramatic tone. I had overlooked this because I was remembering the last intervention or little Mohammed, running in to retrieve Sophie's handkerchief, and the frantic but light musical coda that sprinkles some more sugar on the bittersweetness.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

My happy ending favorites are all by Mozart: Cosí fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte.


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> Is it uplifting? I always imagine that the appearance of the Marschallin's Page at the end to be symbolic of the fact that the Marschallin and Octavian will still have the occasional encounter.
> 
> The trio is absolutely beautiful of course, and quite often reduces me to tears. The Marschallin's nobility, magnanimity and resignation are admirable, no doubt, but an ending based on compromise is not necessarily one I'd call happy, however pragmatic it might be.












I'm in deeply-moved agreement with everything you said about that absolutely sublime ending of _Rosenkavalier_.

I'd like to incidentally add though- speaking of reducing one to tears- that Strauss does this for me in the 'First Act' of _Rosenkavalier_ as well- where the Marshallin is looking into her mirror knowing that she's at the absolute top of her beauty game- but now things will start to wane for her. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's sighing_ Innigkeit _and superb acting-singing absolutely slays me- this, suffused with Karajan's finessed chamber-like accompaniment with the Philharmonia strings is just too much for me to 'bear.' It gets me every time.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

An opera with a happy ending is not an opera but a damned musical.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Morimur said:


> An opera with a happy ending is not an opera but a damned musical.


Operas with happy endings are great because of the joyment from the surprise.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Marschallin Blair said:


> I'm in deeply-moved agreement with everything you said about that absolutely sublime ending of _Rosenkavalier_.
> 
> I'd like to incidentally add though- speaking of reducing one to tears- that Strauss does this for me in the 'First Act' of _Rosenkavalier_ as well- where the Marshallin is looking into her mirror knowing that she's at the absolute top of her beauty game- but now things will start to wane for her. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's sighing_ Innigkeit _and superb acting-singing absolutely slays me- this, suffused with Karajan's finessed chamber-like accompaniment with the Philharmonia strings is just too much for me to 'bear.' It gets me every time.


Me too, and particularly in this performance.

Mind you it also "got" me the very first time I saw the opera, with Helga Dernesch sublimely beautiful as the Marschallin, and exactly the age specified in the libretto (34). I remember the set for her boudoir was bordered by mirrors. Literally every wall was a mirror. After the little page had run off to give the silver rose to Octavian, the direction required Dernesch to wander round the back of the chaise longue in the centre of the stage. As she did so she caught a glimpse of herself in one of the mirrors. As if startled she turned her face away, but she could not escape as she was greeted by her reflection in yet another mirror, and her hand flew up to her face. As the violin span out that long, beautiful phrase, her other hand slowly rose to her face, as she scanned her face for those first signs of aging, whilst the curtain slowly fell. I'm crying now just thinking about it.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

There's a Thomas Adès opera I could mention.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Morimur said:


> An opera with a happy ending is not an opera but a damned musical.


Does that mean that Rossini's comic operas are musicals? And how about _Meistersinger_??


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Becca said:


> Does that mean that Rossini's comic operas are musicals? And how about _Meistersinger_??


And what about *Falstaff*?


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Sloe said:


> Operas with happy endings are great because of the joyment from the surprise.


You're crazy and can go fly a kite. The only good ending to an opera is one where _everyone_ DIES.


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

What about a musical that doesn't have a happy ending? :devil:


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

elgars ghost said:


> What about a musical that doesn't have a happy ending? :devil:


West Side Story is a tragedy. Does that make it an opera?


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Morimur said:


> You're crazy and can go fly a kite. The only good ending to an opera is one where _everyone_ DIES.


Is there an opera like that. Maybe you can write one, titled The Reverend Jim Jones and the People's Temple.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Florestan said:


> Is there an opera like that. Maybe you can write one, titled The Reverend Jim Jones and the People's Temple.


I want to see that opera.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Sloe said:


> I want to see that opera.


I'll pass. There is a you tube of the actual event. Pretty creepy, it is.


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> Me too, and particularly in this performance.
> 
> Mind you it also "got" me the very first time I saw the opera, with Helga Dernesch sublimely beautiful as the Marschallin, and exactly the age specified in the libretto (34). I remember the set for her boudoir was bordered by mirrors. Literally every wall was a mirror. After the little page had run off to give the silver rose to Octavian, the direction required Dernesch to wander round the back of the chaise longue in the centre of the stage. As she did so she caught a glimpse of herself in one of the mirrors. As if startled she turned her face away, but she could not escape as she was greeted by her reflection in yet another mirror, and her hand flew up to her face. As the violin span out that long, beautiful phrase, her other hand slowly rose to her face, as she scanned her face for those first signs of aging, whilst the curtain slowly fell. I'm crying now just thinking about it.





















_Nonpareil. _

I can't imagine- aside from the Schwarzkopf/Karajan that is- a more arresting visual- principal 'and' stage-wise.

Charles Foster 'Dernesch.'

What a beautiful story.

<_sotto voce_> Thank you.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Morimur said:


> You're crazy and can go fly a kite. The only good ending to an opera is one where _everyone_ DIES.


When I go through opera books the first part of a synopsis I look at is the end. If people are dying, I generally skip the opera. Donizetti's three queens are an exception, but at least the deaths are not depicted in the opera.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Florestan said:


> When I go through opera books the first part of a synopsis I look at is the end. If people are dying, I generally skip the opera. Donizetti's three queens are an exception, but at least the deaths are not depicted in the opera.


Well, what if everyone repents and believes before death? That's not so sad.

Tee-hee!


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## crisryan (Oct 1, 2015)

I'd like to see an opera where a woman doesn't die


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

crisryan said:


> I'd like to see an opera where a woman doesn't die


_Le nozze di Figaro_
_Don Pasquale_
_Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria_

Three very different operas where the woman doesn't die!

And welcome to the forum! :tiphat:


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

crisryan said:


> I'd like to see an opera where a woman doesn't die


\

La Sonnambula
L'elisir d'amore
Fidelio
Meistersinger
Barber of Seville
L'amico Fritz
Matrimonio Segreto


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

crisryan said:


> I'd like to see an opera where a woman doesn't die


Cavalleria Rusticana
Der Freischütz
Stiffelio


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

sospiro said:


> _Don Pasquale_
> :


I think Don Pasquale would have been better if it ends with Don Pasquale killing Norina.


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## ma7730 (Jun 8, 2015)

Sloe said:


> I think Don Pasquale would have been better if it ends with Don Pasquale killing Norina.


No, in a twist ending, Dr. Malatesta has been working for Pasquale the whole time, and tricks her into forever being Pasquale's wife. Then, she can have a mad-scene, and kill every single member of the cast!


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

ma7730 said:


> No, in a twist ending, Dr. Malatesta has been working for Pasquale the whole time, and tricks her into forever being Pasquale's wife. Then, she can have a mad-scene, and kill every single member of the cast!


That would have been good too.


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

Prokofiev's Semyon Kotko, set in the Ukraine in 1918. The ignorant and reactionary village elder who collaborated with the marauding Germans (while also keeping his hand in by thwarting the hero's courtship and getting two of his buddies lynched) is detained and subsequently executed, the beastly Germans go away and the eponymous Socialist hero is now able to marry his sweetheart now that the village has been liberated.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a happy ending for the opera itself - it was dropped like a stone the year after its 1940 premier despite the strong pro-Bolshevik message of its plot which presumably should have ticked most of the Socialist Realism boxes at the time. But that just about summed up Prokofiev's luck back then - writing what he considered to be the work which would establish him as top-dog Soviet composer for the theatre just in time for the Germany-USSR Non-Aggression Pact to kick in.

I do like the work, by the way, and I'm pleased to report that it has been quite popular since being revived during the 70s.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

elgars ghost said:


> Prokofiev's Semyon Kotko, set in the Ukraine in 1918. The ignorant and reactionary village elder who collaborated with the marauding Germans (while also keeping his hand in by thwarting the hero's courtship and getting two of his buddies lynched) is detained and subsequently executed, the beastly Germans go away and the eponymous Socialist hero is now able to marry his sweetheart now that the village has been liberated.


Another reason for the opera to drop like a stone is that the Bolsheviks gave up Ukraine to get piece with Germany.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

crisryan said:


> I'd like to see an opera where a woman doesn't die


Turandot doesn't die. She merely oversees the suicide, and then marries the beloved, of another woman who deserves to live more than she does.

Isn't that a cheerful ending?


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Don Giovanni :devil:


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Turandot doesn't die. She merely oversees the suicide, and then marries the beloved, of another woman who deserves to live more than she does.
> 
> Isn't that a cheerful ending?


With an awesome jade headpiece and the right platforms, anything is possible.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh is proof of that.


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh is proof of that.












- and I thought 'Madame' (Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard as Norma Desmond) doing 'SAL-O-ME' had talent!

Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh is 'Super Genius.'


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Morimur said:


> You're crazy and can go fly a kite. The only good ending to an opera is one where _everyone_ DIES.


Verdi's Luisa Miller might work for you. A quick look at Act 3 on Wikipedia shows a lot of people dying in this opera. As for me, I'm going to watch Meistersinger. Hey, you might like that, at least there is a riot in the middle of it, but nobody actually dies.


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## Autumn Leaves (Jan 3, 2014)

Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Koshchey the Deathless, The Night Before Christmas, The May Night… In The Golden Cockerel, the killed Astrologer comes back alive and well and announces it was all made up, so it might qualify, depending on the interpretation. 

Borodin's Prince Igor also is an in-between example: formally, no one dies, the tenor gets his girl (or rather she gets him), the titular character comes back to his wife and is welcomed by his people. Actually: the villain (I mean Galitsky) also lives, and the war with the Polovets tribes is by no means at end. 

The universal happy ending: Tchaikovsky's Iolanta. No villains, the heroine is healed, everyone is happy by the end, no one dies but Raoul (the king's previous squire, and his death is only mentioned). 

As for Mozart, I think, the only 100%-happy ending of his major operas is in Die Zauberflöte (and even there we have the possibility of Sarastro interpreted as the villain and the Queen as the victim, or of a touchingly tragic character tenor cast as Monostatos, so…). I mean, in Le nozze di Figaro and Cosi fan tutte there will always be at least awkwardness in the couples' relationships, in Don Giovanni – well, even for a villain it's horrible to fall into Hell alive, and Elvira is left broken-hearted, and ditto about awkwardness for Masetto and Zerlina, and in most versions of Die Entführung aus dem Serail Konstanze (and sometimes Blonde too) isn't quite so sure…


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Been away from this thread for a while, so excuse me if this was already mentioned but Tancredi has both a happy ending and a tragic ending.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Well... since I just listened to Tchaikovsky's _Iolanta_ I should add this one to the list.





Autumn Leaves said:


> The universal happy ending: Tchaikovsky's Iolanta. No villains, the heroine is healed, everyone is happy by the end, no one dies but Raoul (the king's previous squire, and his death is only mentioned).


That does look like a good one.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Florestan said:


> That does look like a good one.


Not an easy piece for the ear like Rossini's Barber....


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Pugg said:


> Not an easy piece for the ear like Rossini's Barber....


Maybe better piece for the eye.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Pugg said:


> Not an easy piece for the ear like Rossini's Barber....


I would say it is an easier piece for the ear than Rossini´s Barber. First there are no secco recitatives in Iolanta. Second it is an opera with really nice and beautiful music.


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## Buoso (Aug 10, 2016)

No one has mentioned Gianni Schicchi. That has a very happy ending! Also Nabucco has a pretty happy ending as well although I confess I prefer when Verdi ends his operas miserably like in Rigoletto!


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Michail Glinka´s A Life for the Tsar have a happy ending. The main character dies but they defeat the Poles.
It is by the way my favourite Russian opera.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Hansel and Gretel - unless you're the witch!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Tosca if you are the shepherd boy.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Fritz Kobus said:


> Tosca if you are the shepherd boy.


Whereas in Boheme it has an unhappy ending even if you are the little boy who wanted the Cavallin.

N.


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## Amara (Jan 12, 2012)

One that hasn't been mentioned yet: Paisiello's _Nina, o sia La pazza per amore_.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I don't think Bartered Bride, Bohemian Girl, or La Serva Padrona were mentioned yet.


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

Albert7 said:


> Rameau's Les Indes Galantes has a few happy endings.
> 
> No one gets shot; no one gets impeached; *no one gets escape from that final chicken dance that rocks the house.*


I knew exactly what this is referring to! Watch it and enrich your life!  :lol:

I've been down this path many times... :lol:


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## annaw (May 4, 2019)

All Wagner's mature operas have "happy" endings, at least in the context of the operas. _Lohengrin_ might be the only exception with its bitter-sweet ending.


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

annaw said:


> All Wagner's mature operas have "happy" endings, at least in the context of the operas. _Lohengrin_ might be the only exception with its bitter-sweet ending.


Yes. _Die Feen _and _Das Liebesverbot _have happy endings too. _Rienzi _not so much. The ending to _Lohengrin _is indeed bittersweet, but the way the music is written at the very end makes me more happy than sad overall.


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## Dick Johnson (Apr 14, 2020)

Most of Handel's operas had happy endings - I think that audiences at that time expected a decorous resolution of the plot.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Dick Johnson said:


> Most of Handel's operas had happy endings - I think that audiences at that time expected a decorous resolution of the plot.


This is true. We often forget that Norma and Anna Bolena were among the first title role female characters to die (Semiramide was one of the few who got there before them).

N.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Amara said:


> One that hasn't been mentioned yet: Paisiello's _Nina, o sia La pazza per amore_.


Unless it's the Cecilia Bartoli production, where she goes mad and collapses at the end.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

The Conte said:


> This is true. We often forget that Norma and Anna Bolena were among the first title role female characters to die (Semiramide was one of the few who got there before them).
> 
> N.


Yes, Rossini was quite bold in killing Desdemona (_Otello_) and Anna (in _Maometto II_).


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## AlexD (Nov 6, 2011)

The Marriage of Figaro

The Meistersingers. 

Gianni Schicchi

Götterdämmerung


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