# Operatic Orphans



## Orgel (Dec 29, 2006)

Are there "orphans" in opera? I'm asking because I just picked up a novel, _Butterfly's Child_ by Angela Davis-Gardner, which picks up where Puccini's opera leaves off. I haven't started it yet, but it promises to be interesting reading. Just wondering if other children are "left" at the end of any other operas. More interestingly, have there been any other plays or novels that deal with the progeny?


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Well, the Ring has an orphan at its centre. But that's OK because he marries his aunt.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

The Pirates of Penzance has dozens of orphans.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Billy Budd is a foundling. But nothing can happen to him after the opera because he is in Davy Jones' locker.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Rather more on-topic: Norma leaves her two children in the care of Adalgisa at the end of opera, as she and the children's father die on the funeral pyre.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

There are a number of operas with a half-orphan (someone who lost one of his/her parents), at times in a silent role, like Les Troyens, Giulio Cesare, Simon Boccanegra, La Cenerentola, Mignon, Hamlet. More on-topic like Madama Butterfly and Norma, there is Boris Godunov who leaves children behind after his death (a son and a daughter). The Makropulos Case, being the title role 337 years old, her parents are long gone so she's technically an orphan.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

By the end of Die Zauberflote, Pamina's an orphan (I know, not what you meant)


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Fleance (Banco's son) in Macbeth. I don't know the the fate of Fleance's mum.


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## BalloinMaschera (Apr 4, 2011)

Amelia/ Maria - Simon Boccanegra
Figaro- Mozart's Mof F
Marie- La Fille du Regiment


those three just off the top of my head; I'm sure there are more!


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

BalloinMaschera said:


> Figaro- Mozart's Mof F
> Marie- La Fille du Regiment


I'd say they start off as orphans but end up with parents, rather than the other way round. And even Amelia gains a parent, loses him but still has a grandfather who has brought her up like a daughter.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Flotow's Martha has the orphan Lyonel who was adopted by a farmer. Lionel was later found to be the son of an banished nobleman whose innocence had since been proved (long after the nobleman's death). So in the end the orphan Lyonel is restored to be a Duke and gets the girl who he formerly could not have because of presumed barriers in social status.


:lol: After 6 years I thought this thread could do with a resurrection.


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## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

I wonder if the book was any good................


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## Tuoksu (Sep 3, 2015)

sospiro said:


> Fleance (Banco's son) in Macbeth. I don't know the the fate of Fleance's mum.


Indeed, Fleanzio and Malcolm.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Lucrezia Borgia


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Answering the original question, Marie's son in _Wozzeck_ is left an orphan at the end of the opera.

It's interesting how uncommon it is for minor children to be important, included, or even mentioned in opera.

Jocasta and Oedipus had minor children in _Oedipus Rex_. Oedipus does not die, but he does exile himself, so the children are effectively orphans. There is a similar situation at the end of _Pelléas et Mélisande_, except that Golaud is just devastated, not exiled (or dead).


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Annied said:


> I wonder if the book was any good................


Do read it and enlighten us.


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