{"id":50206,"date":"2024-12-07T16:39:40","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T15:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/164f1af7-26e7-4c15-8ac0-4bc33ed040c5"},"modified":"2024-12-07T17:09:19","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T16:09:19","slug":"operas-greatest-death-scenes-six-unforgettable-operatic-demises","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/operas-greatest-death-scenes-six-unforgettable-operatic-demises\/","title":{"rendered":"Opera’s greatest death scenes: six unforgettable operatic demises"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Saturday, 07 December 2024 at 15:39 PM<\/p>

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In opera\u2019s primary-coloured world, when characters aren\u2019t falling in love they are dying with enthusiastic regularity. We take a look through some of opera’s most notorious crime scenes \u2013 from the bloodiest to the most emotive, not to mention to the most bizarre\u2026<\/p>

Great opera death scenes<\/h2>

1. Don Giovanni<\/strong> in Mozart’s Don Giovanni<\/em><\/h3>

One of the greatest anti-heroes of opera, Mozart<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s Don Giovanni<\/em> is the man whom generations of opera-goers have loved to hate. Following his amorous exploits, his climatic demise at the hands of the ghostly Commendatore provided both a dramatic coup de gr\u00e2ce<\/em> and a justificatory moral conclusion for the opera’s 18th-century audience.<\/p>

The Don’s death is all the more striking for being oblique; not for him the banal swords of man, but instead a literal descent into hell amid flames.<\/p>

While Mozart\u2019s original moralizing epilogue has a distinctly disquieting effect, it’s the revised version of the opera that packs the real punch, with the curtains boldly closing on the moment of death itself.<\/p>