# Need help finding an Opera



## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

I need help with project I'm working on. Can anyone name an opera in which a male character poisons a female character.

Best wishes
Metairie Road


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Rodolfo poisons Luisa in Verdi's _Luisa Miller_, though it could be argued that Luisa was going to commit suicide on her own anyway. So this may or may not count, depending on what you're looking for.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Oh, you mean an 'apothecary' opera? This might help: 
https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/04/06/treasury-opera-poisonings/gKPw3zoiVNx7mZeRK1p0KL/story.html


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

There is a less ambiguous poisoning in _Pia de' Tolomei_ by Donizetti. The title character's husband sends his servant to poison her.


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## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

mountmccabe said:


> Rodolfo poisons Luisa in Verdi's _Luisa Miller_, though it could be argued that Luisa was going to commit suicide on her own anyway. So this may or may not count, depending on what you're looking for.


It counts. I'm interested in the act, not the circumstances or consequences.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

What's the project?

You might find these useful:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2...-poisonings/gKPw3zoiVNx7mZeRK1p0KL/story.html

http://www.operavivra.com/blog/opera-poison/


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## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

> What's the project?


Actually it's for an opera poster.

I have the artwork, I just need an appropriate opera to fill in the blanks. I know it sounds *** backwards but it just turned out that way.

I was hoping for something from the baroque or classical periods.

Best wishes
Metairie Road


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Metairie Road said:


> Actually it's for an opera poster.
> 
> I have the artwork, I just need an appropriate opera to fill in the blanks. I know it sounds *** backwards but it just turned out that way.
> 
> ...


Baroque and classical opera usually ends with the happy ending (_lieto fine_). While there's the occasional death (usually offstage), you have to wait until the 19th century and Romanticism to get lots of poisonings and stabbings.


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## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

> lieto fine


Had to look that one up.

My ignorance is extensive.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Here's one for ya!
In _L'amore dei tre re_ Archibaldo kills Fiona who has been cheating on his son away at the war, and lays her body upon a catalfaque. He delivers poison to her lips in hopes that her lover would kiss her and then die.
Unfortunately, his son returns home and finds her first and bestows a kiss on her lips and dies. His father did not stop him because he thought it was the lover.
You see, he was blind!


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