Goin' Down Singin'

One of the most pervasive stereotypes of opera – once you’ve got past hordes of rotund women in horned helmets – is that everybody dies. At the very least, there is a soprano somewhere in every production just itching to get through the hundredth romantic duet, put on her pale grey makeup with the dark eye circles, and cross over to that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns (until the all-important curtain call). This is not a strictly accurate view of the medium, shockingly enough. There are some operas out there where, amazingly, no one dies at all. However, it does happen enough that I am taking it upon myself to write some very nerdy little posts about it.

In these posts I intend to examine the actual facts of how operatic deaths happen, casting a semi-scientific eye over the accuracy of these depictions, and taking a look at how composers have represented death in their music. Essentially, I will be reviewing death: taking apart various scenes and characters I find interesting, looking at them from different angles and with different lenses, and attempting to say something vaguely intelligent about them. Such is the humble goal of this project.

About me: I am an opera singer (a baritone), with a degree in music (as an academic subject) and a masters in vocal studies (practical/vocational). I’m pretty early on in my career, building my repertoire and trying to increase the ratio of productions I get paid to do. I am in no way a doctor, but I have a strong interest in knowingly how things work scientifically, and am enough of a nerd to look into things at least a bit, which, frankly, is pretty good in the opera world. If I get things wrong, please let me know! There is very little information in this world I won’t try to collect and somehow relate to everything else.

At this point, I would like to shout out Kathryn Harkup and her book “Death by Shakespeare,” which essentially fulfils a similar function with the works of Shakespeare, and which is a huge inspiration to me, as well as a very useful source. I would highly recommend reading it; it’s an excellent, if somewhat gruesome, book.

I’m not sure how frequent posts are likely to be – my schedule is inconsistent at best – but I hope to keep up a reasonably steady string of them, if only for my own amusement and sense of accomplishment. If you find any of what I say interesting, have any comments to make, or want to suggest an operatic death for review, please do get in touch. I’m always delighted to have deep, nerdy conversations with like-minded people.

Until the fat lady sings, friends.