"Opera, or the Undoing of Women" Quiz

Answer: The Queen of the Night

As you will learn further in this quiz, high coloratura in opera is associated with madness. It is so odd that the 'dark' Queen of the Night has the highest music in the opera (the F above high or top C in both arias is actually the second highest sung note written for the human voice as of 2000; the highest was the concert aria "Popoli di Tessaglia" also by Mozart, which has 2 G's!), while the good or enlightened Sarastro's music is the lowest. Though I love to sing this role, this, in my opinion, is the one Mozart character that is very undeveloped and one-sided.

She shows up, sings two fiery arias, and is killed. Why? Because she wants to kill the man who kidnapped her daughter, since he thinks she is an unfit mother and dares to question his authority.

As I am sure you have read many times, this character not only represents Mozart's mother-in-law, but also the Empress Maria Theresa, and the Catholic Church.

Answer: Gilda ("Rigoletto")

Unlike in "Die Zauberfloete," Gilda's is the main female role in "Rigoletto." Thinking she is in love, she gives herself to the Duke, then sacrifices her life in place of his, even though he does not love her! "Caro nome (Beloved Name)" is the famous aria in which the Duke, posing as Gualtier (Walter) Malde, has aroused passion in the virginal Gilda.

There are passages of coloratura as she sings of feelings of desire, seemingly and musically breathless, that this beloved name stirs within her.

Answer: Salome

This is Richard Strauss' take on the Biblical Salome, after Oscar Wilde's play written in French. Strauss elaborates on the story from the New Testament, making Salome infatuated with John the Baptist, and Herod (her step-father) infatuated with her. Apparently, it is alright for Herod to lust after his own step-daughter (culminating in her 'dance of the seven veils' which she finishes in the nude), but when she lusts after John the Baptist and actually kisses the lips of the decapitated prophet, she becomes a monster, and he has her killed. Strauss had wanted the singer who would sing Salome to act it as 'virginally' and innocently as possible, so that the erotic and somewhat disturbing nature of her music would be that much more apparent.

Answer: La traviata

Though Verdi paints the character of Violetta, "La traviata," with a sympathetic brush by letting her be reunited with her love at the conclusion of the opera, as in the Dumas play, she still dies, having been a consumptive. It is sad that because she is a courtesan, she has to give up the man she loves and her happiness so that his family will not be shamed. Germont does not want his 'angelic' daughter's heart to be broken.

In Violetta's only coloratura aria in Act I, "Ah, fors'e lui... sempre libera," she wonders, lyrically, albeit passionately, whether Alfredo is 'the one.' The coloratura begins in the "Sempre libera (always free)" cabaletta of the aria, where she says she will not let herself fall in love, so that she may remain free.

Her coloratura is more rapid and higher, after she thinks (imagines) she 'hears' Alfredo's voice speaking of love. In fact, she calls it "Follie (madness)!"

Answer: Lisa ("Pique Dame")

Poor Lisa. She is engaged to be married to Prince Yeletsky, but she really loves the poor Herman. The irony of the plot is that Herman has to win a game of cards and therefore a lot of money to even be able to attempt to ask for her hand. Lisa's grandmother, the old Countess, knows the 3 secret cards which will make him win.

In his attempt to get her to tell him the cards, however, he frightens the old woman so much that she dies from shock. Her ghost comes to tell him the names of the 3 winning cards. Lisa meets with him briefly to assure herself that he is not a murderer, but his demeanor implies otherwise (the Countess had winked at him with one eye at her funeral and therefore began his descent into madness).

After he pushes her away to go play cards, she throws herself into the river.

This is one opera in which a man is also undone: Herman stabs himself as he realizes that the Countess (who appears as the Queen of Spades) tricked him.

Answer: Linda (di Chamounix)

Another coloratura 'gimmick' in opera is to have the soprano momentarily insane, due to abandonment from a lover or her betrothed, as in Linda's case. She is then restored to sanity as her lover or fiance returns and ensures his love. It is interesting to note that Linda's father Antonio had no problems with the Marquis buying his daughter's favors in return for the mortgage of his farm. Yet, when Carlo, the Marquis's nephew disguised as a poor painter, tries to gain her hand in marriage, her father says no! Things are further complicated as Carlo is supposed to marry someone else... Everything concludes happily as the two young lovers are allowed to marry in Act III.

Answer: Ophelia

Of course, you know that this is Ophelia from Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Since Ambroise Thomas only followed Shakespeare's story, he cannot be faulted for Ophelia's fate. Thomas gives her one of the most splendid mad scenes before her death in "A vos jeux, mes amis."

Answer: Lucia di Lammermoor

Yes, Lucy Ashton of Lammermoor, Scotland, goes bonkers over not marrying her love. The reference to candles in the question is from her infamous mad scene in which she comes downstairs to her bewildered wedding guests after having stabbed her husband, her brother's friend Arturo. "Ardon gli incensi," she sings.

This scene has been made famous first by Lily Pons and Maria Callas, then by Dame Joan Sutherland. As with the Thomas 'Hamlet,' Donizetti's 'Lucia' has one of the greatest mad scenes in all of opera, not only musically, but also dramatically speaking.

They are also two of the longest mad scenes!

Answer: Carmen

Carmen was first performed in Paris in 1875, the last year of Bizet's (b. 1838) life. The premiere was not well received and was deemed a failure. Remember: the heroine was a seductress who went from lover to lover at whim (hmmm... don't men do this, too?); girls were smoking on the stage; and the heroine dies a horrific and violent (even for today's standards) death at the hands of a jealous ex-lover.

Answer: Olympia

Though Jacques Offenbach (b. 1819) died in 1880, his "Les contes d'Hoffmann" was first performed in Paris in 1881 because Ernest Guiraud (1837-92) undertook its orchestration and furnished its recitatives, just as he had done for "Carmen" in 1875 after Bizet's death (see question #10). Olympia is the first of Hoffmann's loves (E. T. A. Hoffmann was a German novelist and amateur composer who lived from 1776-1822) whom he sees as the epitome of the perfect woman, thanks to spectacles that the villain Coppelius has given him.

This perfect doll is later destroyed by Coppelius because the cheque that Spalanzani (the doll-maker) has given him is worthless, as we see limbs being flung onstage. Whether or not this is a social commentary on the husband-wife relationship in 19th-century Europe is debatable.

Answer: Tosca

Puccini (1848-1924) composed "Tosca," which was first performed in Rome in 1900, after a play by Victorien Sardou. I personally love Tosca. She is the first of these ladies to stand up for herself, even commiting murder to avoid being raped. Ever faithful to her man, when she learns and sees that he has died, she throws herself off a parapet and falls to her death.

This, to me, is not madness, but an example of an incredibly strong woman who will do anything for the man she loves and who also loves her.

By the way, she does not sing any 'coloratura.'

Answer: Madama Butterfly

Poor Butterfly, she really thinks that Pinkerton loved her; who knows? Maybe he thought he did too at the time, but he certainly had no feelings for her when he returned with his American wife (though he seemed remorseful) to claim his son, whom Cio-Cio San had named Dolore (Trouble). On the eve of Pinkerton's return, she and Suzuki, her maid, scatter flowers all over the house, in the beautiful 'Flower Duet,' and she stays up all night waiting for him to come to her after she sees his ship enter the harbor.

She is definitely undone by the end of the opera, as she chooses to kill herself with her father's knife, on which is inscribed "he dies with honor who cannot stay alive with honor." Before she does this, however, she gives her son an American flag and a doll with which to play, and blindfolds him.

Answer: Aida

First, Verdi's Ethiopian princess, "Aida," is made servant/slave to the Egyptian princess Amneris, because her father's army lost the war fought against them. Then her father, taking advantage of her filial love and her love for Radames, makes her use her feminine wiles to get Radames in trouble. Hmmm...

She is now left with the choice of: remaining a servant (to a spoiled Egyptian princess who also loves Radames) or dying (in a tomb in the arms of the man she loves).

Answer: Melisande

Born in the same year as Debussy (1862), it is appropriate that the Belgian Maurice Maeterlinck's play is metamorphosed into the opera "Pelleas et Melisande." Maeterlinck's Symbolist story fits perfectly with Debussy's Impressionistic music. When the Scottish soprano Mary Garden was selected over Maeterlinck's own wife to sing Melisande, he publicly wished for the work's failure. Though pregnant, Melisande is wounded by her husband Golaud for her infidelity with his half-brother Pelleas.

She gives birth to a daughter right before she dies; we do not know if the child is Golaud's or Pelleas'.

Answer: Brunnhilde

Bruennhilde, a Valkyrie first seen in "Die Walkuere," is half-sibling to the Walsung twins Siegmund and Sieglinde in Wagner's "Die Walkuere." Siegmund was supposed to have been defeated by Sieglinde's immortal husband Hunding in a battle to win her hand because Fricka (Goddess of marriage, Wotan's wife) ordered his death to prevent incest. Brunnhilde is sympathetic to his plight, and decides to twist fate by shielding her half-brother in the battle. Wotan appears, shattering Siegmund's sword; Hunding then kills him. Wotan kills Hunding anyway.

At the end of "Die Walkuere," Brunnhilde is put to sleep in a ring of fire by Wotan, only to be awakened many years later by Siegfried, her nephew and Sieglinde's son, whom she marries in "Siegfried." Here we go again!