# Love and Death in Opera



## HumphreyAppleby (Apr 11, 2013)

The founding myth of opera is that of Orpheus, with that of Alceste perhaps being a secondary basis. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that almost all serious operas before the twentieth century involved a) a romance and b) a death, often of one or both of the lovers. This creates some of the most inspired music in opera. It seems to me that the greatest composers of opera were inflamed by this association of death and love, and that in their operas the love duets are a kind of rapturous death. The most obvious example is _Tristan und Isolde_. I would be interested to know if anybody else has thought about the connection between love and death in opera, and which duets evoke this the strongest.

Here are some of my choices:
Lontano, lontano, lontano from _Mefistofele_
Margherita dies almost immediately after this duet, as the sun rises. This duet, though rapturous (and highly underrated), evokes an atmosphere of escape (to a new life, which means a death of this one) with the text (Far away being repeated over and over again) and the dreamy music.

Vogliatemi bene from _Madama Butterfly_
What really sticks out here is the bit about the foreigners pinning butterflies to boards, and the Pinkerton responding "L'amore non uccide". For Puccini, this is sacrilegious, this cavalier attitude about love. To Puccini, love was suffering, a death that in his early operas consumed, but in his late operas led to new life. _Fanciulla_ is the turning point between love that burns until there's nothing left and love that transforms. _Turandot_ was to be the ultimate realization of this.

C'est toi mon pere from _Thais_
After this duet, Thais is physically dead, and Athanael is spiritually dead. How appropriate that the music of Thais' transformation also accompanies her death. This is also an interesting case, as the two are talking past each other: Thais is expressing her Christ-like love for him, and he's expressing his physical desire for her. I think this opera is so underrated.


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

Aida expresses a death wish throughout the opera, instilled by her _amor fatal_ for Radames. The second half of _Ritorna vincitor!_ and at the end of course, _di morte l'angelo _and _O terra addio_ all reek with the Eros-Thanatos angst.

At the end of Andrea Chenier both lovers are in the shadow of the guillotine, and in that last duet their approach to death is triumphant and liberating. And over the top, as befits that particular opera: "_Viva la morte! Insieme!_".


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

I also love the _Thaïs_'s duet.

Of course, one of the most obvious choices is the farewell of Mimi:

_Fingevo di dormire _
_perché volli con te sola restare. _
_Ho tante cose che ti voglio dire, _
_o una sola, _
_ma grande come il mare, _
_come il mare profonda ed infinita... _
_Sei il mio amore _
_e tutta la mia vita! _

A random death, of a sick girl, that no one is going to miss, except perhaps her lover and a couple of friends.

A small life, and a small death. No big words, no big nothing. No redemption, no sublimation of a love stronger than life and death, no nothing. Just a dead girl. But is this the essence of Italian melodramma?. Who knows, maybe is just entertainment, as some say.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

schigolch said:


> A random death, of a sick girl, that no one is going to miss, except perhaps her lover and a couple of friends


And what, isn't it a lot for operatic standards - a lover and couple of firends? Who is going to miss all those ladies that die with/after/just before their lovers and their only known friends are their blank-personality handmaids, mannequins to which they used to sing about the lovers? As far as leaving people who miss her behind is concerned, Mimi is strictly on the top of operatic heroines.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Surely the final scene from Carmen is one of the great scenes of unrequited, jealous love that murders what it loves most!


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## HumphreyAppleby (Apr 11, 2013)

schigolch said:


> A small life, and a small death. No big words, no big nothing. No redemption, no sublimation of a love stronger than life and death, no nothing. Just a dead girl. But is this the essence of Italian melodramma?. Who knows, maybe is just entertainment, as some say.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nZb7YHzHy8




That really is the brilliance of _La boheme_, isn't it? The second that Mimi comes on stage we know that she's going to die, but then Puccini tricks us into believing- because we want to so much- for the next hour and a half that it might not happen the way we expect. Our desired innocence is attached to her, and when she dies, all that we're left is the cold reality of the situation: death. What's the famous quote? "I know that all men must die eventually, but I always figured an exception would be made in my case." It's quite a brilliant little opera. It's entertaining to be sure, but that's because Puccini says in so few notes what it takes us a life time to figure out: we're going to die.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

I think certainly it is, and that is not really the drama itself, nor the libretto by Illica and Giacosa (a good one, certainly), but Puccini's music where is condensed the love, and the death at the end of the love. If we compare with Leoncavallo's _Bohème_, with the composer writing his own libretto, both operas use the same ending: Mimi dies in the arms of Rodolfo, with the lovers reconciled (the original novel's ending is with Mimi dying alone, in the hospital, without the presence of Rodolfo). However, the music is all the difference. That's not to downplay Leoncavallo's opera, a nice piece of work, but just to recognize the power of Puccini's score.

[HR][/HR]

What's about a love duet, that is not really about love between the characters, but about love between one of the characters and a dead one?. About love and death, indeed. Some say Paul is not in love with her dead wife, but with death itself. Of course, if this would be the original intention of the authors, Paul should die at the end of the opera, to finally unite with his love, with Death... or he should not?.

Stage director Inga Levant thought he should, and she created this rather gloomy atmosphere for the very famous duet "Glück, das mir verblieb":






Not so famous, but equally beautiful is this duet with the dead Marie herself... or rather a soliloquy with two voices:


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## HumphreyAppleby (Apr 11, 2013)

schigolch said:


> I think certainly it is, and that is not really the drama itself, nor the libretto by Illica and Giacosa (a good one, certainly), but Puccini's music where is condensed the love, and the death at the end of the love. If we compare with Leoncavallo's _Bohème_, with the composer writing his own libretto, both operas use the same ending: Mimi dies in the arms of Rodolfo, with the lovers reconciled (the original novel's ending is with Mimi dying alone, in the hospital, without the presence of Rodolfo). However, the music is all the difference. That's not to downplay Leoncavallo's opera, a nice piece of work, but just to recognize the power of Puccini's score.


Curious, isn't it?, how all of the critics demonstrating their critic credentials by referring to the opera as "sentimental" have no idea what it's about; it's about the _death_ of sentiment and innocence! They accuse Puccini of superficiality, when they are the ones who never bother to look beneath the surface. Illica and Giacosa's libretto is quite good, and conveys a portion of the impact, but in the hands of another composer it would have been a footnote. Puccini drove them crazy with requests for rewrites because every rhythm, every note is of the utmost importance. There is no filler in _La boheme._ How different from Wagner!



> What's about a love duet, that is not really about love between the characters, but about love between one of the characters and a dead one?. About love and death, indeed. Some say Paul is not in love with her dead wife, but with death itself. Of course, if this would be the original intention of the authors, Paul should die at the end of the opera, to finally unite with his love, with Death... or he should not?.


This is a great example. This opera is a fascinating presentation of death, because there are two kinds of deaths that Paul could endure: the death of his former life, as he moves on and builds a new life for himself, and the death of returning, in his insanity, to a former life, and thus retarding his own growth forever. Of the two, the second is far more frightening because there is no resurrection from it. Paul's monologue at the end of the opera is telling: there is no resurrection _here on earth_, only in heaven. He has realized that the second kind of death cannot be undone, so he moves forward into the first kind, and in dying, finds new life. This is a great opera.


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## alan davis (Oct 16, 2013)

I think one of the loveliest finales in all operas is Vreli and Salis "Liebstod" in Delius' "A Village Romeo and Juliet".
Sali: Travellers we a- passing by. Shall we also drift down the river?
Vreli: And drift away for ever!
O Sali, how I love you! 
I've had this thought this many a day but never dared to ask you.
We can never be united and without you I could not live.
Oh, let me then die with you.
Sali: Aye, let us die together. To be happy for one short moment and then to die-
were not the eternal joy?


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

The Magic Flute almost had a great love/death twist. Papageno already had his head in the noose - if only his love interest could've walked on and kicked the chair out from beneath him. 
What a magic finale...and it sends a deeper message about arranged marriages.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

After all the ups and downs during the opera, Norma is confronted with a final decision: she either must condemn the innocent Adalgisa to death, or she must die herself. She chooses the self-sacrifice and this also allows Pollione to redeem himself and his love for Norma, and Oroveso to grow beyond his role of Chief Druid for his love to his daugher, and his grandsons. A great triumph for the woman, and a terrible humiliation for the priestess.

Bellini, instead of going for an spectacular number to close the opera, decided to approach it with lyricism, in an intimate mood, almost introspective. Death is the logical outcome of the events in _Norma_, a kind of Greek tragedy jumping into the Romantic period. Love seems almost an afterthought, in comparison.


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