# Operas with birth scenes



## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Are there any operas with scenes in which a woman goes in labour and gives birth to a baby? I think it would be fantastic opportunity for hilarious opera.


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## hutchscott (May 13, 2011)

Yes. And yes, it was funny. Verdi's Macbeth. First of all, there aren't just three wyrd sisters, but an entire stage full of them. And then at one point the one sister stood up and out popped a baby dangling by a cord. I'm trying to remember in what context. Where they prophesying the cesarean birth of the one who would vanquish Macbeth? You have to understand, this was Zurich Operhaus, and, well, for me at least, they tend to have strange ways of producing operas. On DVD.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

There are lots of births in Stockhausen's _Montag_, but they're all rather symbolic


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Couchie said:


> Are there any operas with scenes in which a woman goes in labour and gives birth to a baby? I think it would be fantastic opportunity for hilarious opera.


Yep, giving birth is just a bundle of laughs.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> Yep, giving birth is just a bundle of laughs.


Well, maybe it would be Russian.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

hutchscott said:


> Yes. And yes, it was funny. Verdi's Macbeth. First of all, there aren't just three wyrd sisters, but an entire stage full of them. And then at one point the one sister stood up and out popped a baby dangling by a cord. I'm trying to remember in what context. Where they prophesying the cesarean birth of the one who would vanquish Macbeth? You have to understand, this was Zurich Operhaus, and, well, for me at least, they tend to have strange ways of producing operas. On DVD.


Zurich opera: I'd like to burn that place down to the ground.
[Note to Swiss police: it's a joke. I won't do it. Honest.]


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Almaviva said:


> Zurich opera: I'd like to burn that place down to the ground.
> [Note to Swiss police: it's a joke. I won't do it. Honest.]


Nooooooooooo ......

They've produced some great DVDs :devil: & anyway it would mean Lukas would be out of a job.


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## AmericanGesamtkunstwerk (May 9, 2011)

Jeremy Marchant said:


> There are lots of births in Stockhausen's _Montag_, but they're all rather symbolic


aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh how is it you know about that!!! I would die if i found a production, a quality taping, even a recording.


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## AnaMendoza (Jul 29, 2011)

Couchie said:


> Are there any operas with scenes in which a woman goes in labour and gives birth to a baby? I think it would be fantastic opportunity for hilarious opera.


Well, if enough directors have their way with _Les mamelles de Tirésias_ or _Pelléas et Mélisande_, it's bound to happen. 'Hilarious' could well apply to the former, but I hope it would never apply to the latter.


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