Death at theOpera

I don't mean pneumonia or consumption or tuberculosis where we feel sorry for the heroine, and more for the lover whose is going to be without his main squeeze by the third act. I mean that blood thirsty, man killing, gory death of our most beloved hero, (sometimes a villain). An agonizing death, which usually takes a good five minutes of high powered singing, sometimes from the depths of his abdomen which has been pierced by a sword or other delicious instrument of murder. I'd like to start this off with my favorite ultimate punishment-hanging. Billy Budd of Sir Benjamin Britten, inspired by Herman Melville comes to mind.If you have seen the movie, read the novella, or listened to the opera, you might find the actual hanging a bit disappointing, because of the restraint for public consumption. With my boot inclinations I am submitting a symbolic photo. Also, with my adoration of heroes, I prefer booted men, not just simple folks exterminated en masse.

I'm with Sideshow Bob, Gilbert & Sullivan for me every time. Never actually watched one all the way through, does anyone get killed in Pirates, Pinafore or Mikado?

There's the threat of it in Mikado"his head shall be shorn off" and Yeomand of the Guard "deep danger hangs upon the deed" Thier appeal was to a sopohistacated audience, who left the theater whistling the merry tunes. I don't thinh her Majesty would have approved mayhem and then grant Sir Arthur Sullivan his title. The Pirates were good orphans gone astray, and Pinafore although it did promise the cat(of nine tales) was more about social class. I can't think of any gore in light opera.You English have a rich history of murder most foul. Certainly, somebody's story is worth singing about And sorry to disappoint -although Billy Budd is about the British navy, Herman Melville was Americain.

Scarpia is stabbed in Tosca, Manrico executed in trovatore, Carmen stabbed, and Madame Butterfly commits ritual suicide to take four popular operas where a major character dies unnaturally. Gilbert and Sullivan specialised in happy endings with one possible exception- in Yoemen of the Guard the jester often dies of a broken heart when someone else gets his girl; Gilbert had not intended this but approved after seeing a performance when this was done. Other failed deaths in Sullivan include exploding sausage rolls in grand duke and a couple of exploders in utopia ltd but neither are used. And in iolanthe the named character is saved from execution by a legal fiction dreamt up by her husband, the Lord Chancellor.
Opera is great for death. After hearing some singers mangle their parts many in the audience must have wished that realism was taken more seriously!!!