# Fifteen Characters



## 1846 (Sep 1, 2021)

Last night I tried to post a one word response to a thread and was told that my post had to have at least fifteen characters.

So, for a bit of fun, how many operas can we name that have at least fifteen characters? And let's make them characters who actually factor into the plot, not just a one or two line role sung by a member of the chorus like "second man," or "a page" or "third Hebrew." But even a mute role like John in _Peter Grimes_ counts because he factors into the plot.

I'll start. _The Exterminating Angel_ by Thomas Ades has twenty-two characters.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

*The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya* by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Now try to beat that  56 characters.


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

Rimsky-Korsakov had already set a personal best with this:

_The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan._


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I don't think that's what the OP meant.....


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Good call, but it usually gets shortened to just "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" (same in Russian).
Kitezh is most frequently shortened as "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh", dropping the maiden part, still a very respectable length.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Art Rock said:


> I don't think that's what the OP meant.....


Aaand I guess this was the most informed post. Gah... You are correct!

In the case of the most characters in the opera, I'd nominate La Fanciulla del West... Let me count quick... Wikipedia gives us the total count of 18 characters.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

*The OP is not talking about the length of the title of an opera, but about the number of roles.*


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

_Das Rheingold_ comes up just short at 14 characters, all of whom contribute to moving the plot along. _Die Meistersinger_ has 17 named characters; several of them are members of the singing guild with little to do or say, but they all do have identified day jobs.


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

Art Rock said:


> *The OP is not talking about the length of the title of an opera, but about the number of roles.*


What threw me was the title of the opera the OP mentioned - it's 22 characters long. Azol's response and the OP's liking of it threw me further off course. I was smug with myself for all of 29 minutes... :lol:


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## 1846 (Sep 1, 2021)

Meistersinger is definitely one of the titles I was expecting!


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

I haven't the list of roles to hand but if memory serves the total for the final version of Bernstein's _Candide_ was a whopper - I think some singers had to multi-task.


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## 1846 (Sep 1, 2021)

Yes, and there's another I'm thinking of that involves intentional multi-tasking, the composer assigning six roles to one singer.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Walküre is also one short: Hunding, Siegmund, Sieglinde, Wotan, Fricka, Brünnhilde and 8 other Valkyries; Loge appears only in elemental, non-singing form and of course the 8 lesser Valkyries have not very distinctive roles.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

Samuel Barber's _Antony and Cleopatra_ has 24 different character roles. This is one of the primary reasons that the opera is so rarely performed these days.


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

1846 said:


> Yes, and there's another I'm thinking of that involves intentional multi-tasking, the composer assigning six roles to one singer.


Is that Britten's _Death in Venice_?


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## 1846 (Sep 1, 2021)

elgars ghost said:


> Is that Britten's _Death in Venice_?


Yes, that it is!


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## 1846 (Sep 1, 2021)

elgars ghost said:


> Is that Britten's _Death in Venice_?


Yes, that it is!


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Porgy and Bess has also a big cast 24 , including speaking cast members


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Ravel's *L'Enfant et les Sortilèges* has twenty-two characters not counting the chorus.


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## 1846 (Sep 1, 2021)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Ravel's *L'Enfant et les Sortilèges* has twenty-two characters not counting the chorus.


And all that in quite a short opera. Lots of fun confusion!


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## JackRance (Sep 13, 2021)

Zimmermann's _Die soldaten_ has 39 characters without counting mute roles. There's more than 50 people...


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

If I am not mistaken I should think that _Dialogues des Carmelites_ might also be considered which has a cast of viable characters counting 26, of which 16 were the nuns themselves.


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## 1846 (Sep 1, 2021)

nina foresti said:


> If I am not mistaken I should think that _Dialogues des Carmelites_ might also be considered which has a cast of viable characters counting 26, of which 16 were the nuns themselves.


I absolutely count this one.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

*Les dialogues des Carmélites * probably has more than 15 characters, and most are probably important only at the end, when their voices are silenced, one by one.









P.S. sorry, I just read another post that also mentions *Dialogues*.


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