101B, Assignment #3

Ms. Amy Beal

Danny Lawrence

Romantic Opera: Dramatic Deaths and the Divas Who Die Them

There is a common theme in late romantic opera which consists of the heroine

protagonist dying a dramatic death due to lost love or because of love, and in some

cases she is the love to be lost in the first place. This death can be caused by a number

of circumstances such as a jealous attack, as in Carmen’s case, or of a broken heart

like Isolde’s “Liebestod.” In any case an event as dramatic as a protagonist’s death

needs to be supported by the opera’s music and the libretto which the masters such as

Wagner, Verdi, Bizet, Puccini, and Strauss handled each in their own prefered way.

In Richard Wagner’s ​Tristan und Isolde, ​Isolde arrives too late to Tristan’s side

and he dies right as she rushes to his side and as he utters her name for the last time.

She then begins her aria “Liebestod,” where she claims to see Tristan alive again and

he begins to serenade her with a beautiful melody. She states, “do I alone hear this

melody, so wondrous and tender?” Isolde describes being swept up in a “vast wave,” as

she enters the Liebestod the orchestra begins to swell in dynamic waves, rising and

falling in volume with the lyrical phrases and as Isolde describes the melody coming

from her deceased beloved as “refreshing breezes, and heavenly fragrance.” As the

orchestra slowly builds up a sort of anxiousness is created and Isolde refers to Tristan’s

lament which, “pierces [her] through,” and begins “echoing” and “ringing” around her.

The orchestra begins to reach a powerful climax, almost overpowering Isolde as she

lets out her climax note. She is then consumed by the “world’s breath,” she continues;
“to drown,” “to sink,” “unconscious,” “supreme bliss!” The music then begins to subside

or “sink” at the moment of death and moves to a minor feel for a moment in contrast to

the climax and as Isolde’s Liebestod is completed a darker feel is conveyed through the

orchestration, perhaps to express Isolde’s and Tristan’s dramatic death. Finally a much

sought resolution is achieved giving the listener a sense of final closure. The climax of

Isolde’s “Liebestod” does convey a deep state of ecstasy between the vocals, lyrics,

and orchestra, which is an interesting philosophical viewpoint. The implication may be

that life is pointless without love or that love is the most powerful of human emotions

only to be broken by the physical human restraint of death. It seems Wagner wanted to

create an event where love was able to transcend the physical world and reunite the

departed.

In ​Aida ​Verdi takes a different route with a much lighter orchestration in the

finale of his fourth act. Aida’s libretto is more literal as she bids the world farewell she

proclaims, “oh farewell, farewell, vale of tears...dream of joy which in sorrow faded,” the

lyrics continue with, “for us heaven opens.” Radames then mirrors these phrases while

the orchestration stays rather thin with some light harp, pizzicato, and high strings.

When Aida sings the phrase with the lyrics, “Heaven opens and our wandering souls fly

to the light of eternal day,” Aida reaches a gripping high note perhaps symbolizing their

souls soon rising up to heaven. It seems as though Verdi wants to ease Aida and

Radames into death and heavens arms as they drift closer and closer to the abyss. This

could be interpreted as a sort of quasi “Liebestod,” because Aida and Radames stand

by each other as they meet death together with their love united as one. Amneris pleads
with Isis to “open heaven to [them],” as the couple begins to finally fade away into

death. The moment when Aida and Radames die together in the tomb a violin takes

over the melody they were singing and Amneris begs for peace. At this point the

orchestration has slimmed down to almost nothing and the orchestra all together swell

into the final chord of resolution.

With Bizet’s Carmen the libretto is much more cruel as Don Jose states in

reference to Carmen that he, “gave up [his] honor, [his] very soul, because of you.”

Carmen adds insult to injury when she throws the ring Don Jose gave her back to him

and coldly states, “you once gave me this ring...take it back.” After his final attempt to

join him is denied this is the final straw and Don Jose then stabs Carmen, who is silent,

and as he kills her a male chorus is heard in the background cheering Escamillo the

toreador while a haunting violin melody overlaps. This violin melody warms slightly to a

melancholy tune and then ends with a small phrase that uses the augmented second of

the harmonic minor scale which symbolizes an exotic sound, this small melody also

opens Carmen’s final scene. The music surrounding Carmen’s death seems to leave

the listener with a sour feeling as both Carmen, who is killed, and Don Jose, whose life

is ruined chasing Carmen, are both left in ruins. In this instance a sort of inverted

liebestod was created by Bizet, where Don Jose doesn’t die from losing his love but is

actually rejected by her and out of jealousy, kills Carmen for flouting him. It seems Bizet

may have wanted Carmen’s murder to symbolize the consequences of her toying with

people’s emotions. It also looks as though Bizet chose a fate for the seductive Carmen

that he thought the audience would find enthralling and that she deserved for being a
temptress with so many men and tossing them aside like nothing when she was bored

of them.

The death of Mimi in La Boheme takes a different route with the libretto, Rodolfo

and friends try to console her as she nears her death. Upon Musetta giving Mimi a hand

warmer she says, “now my hands will be warm,” and as Rodolfo realizes her death is

coming he weeps at her bedside. Puccini’s orchestration sets up Mimi’s death with

solemn horns and flute and some touching yet sparse strings. Mimi sings in a hopeful

yet sad, melancholy tone, which the orchestra also mirrors, and when she tells Rodolfo,

“with you always...my hands are warm...sleep,” and that he should not cry because she

is better and needs to sleep, he steps away. At this moment she passes away without

Rodolfo noticing, the orchestra responds with the horns playing a dark minor chord and

then a mournful flute melody is sounded. The orchestra seems to take on a kind of

funeral music type of expression while the other vocalists wish Mimi recovers. When

Rodolfo discovers Mimi has died the orchestra begins to play a sad song while Rodolfo

sings some powerful notes mourning her passing. The music does seem to retain a sad

tone after Mimi’s death but it also seems to reflect on her time alive and her love for

Rodolfo as beautiful by creating a melancholic feel for the audience to absorb. In this

case I’m not sure if the liebestod could apply as Mimi dies in love with Rodolfo and his

love isn’t enough to keep her alive and he also doesn’t die from the loss of Mimi. Mimi

dies a death with love in her heart but not because of love. Also conversely Rodolfo

does not die a liebestod as Isolde did upon her lover’s death. Although it could be
considered a literal love-death if you see Mimi’s love as the object that dies and

therefore it constitutes a liebestod, or the literal death of her and Rodolfo’s love.

In Strauss’ final scene of Salome the libretto Salome sings has an almost

psychotic theme as she continually repeats, “I have kissed your mouth,” several times.

The orchestra produces a horrifying sound with dark chords that evoke terror, while one

of the winds plays a sustained trill and one of the woodwinds plays a haunting little

motif. At one point a loving orchestral melody begins to break through but it quickly

fades back to the evil sound theme with the motif in the woodwind. In reference to the

taste of love and whether Jochanaan’s blood was bitter when she kissed his

decapitated head or the love itself was bitter Salome states, “still, does it matter?” and

then she hits her final line and climax of the scene exclaiming again, “I have kissed your

mouth, Jochanaan!” Disgusted by her crazed behavior King Herod yells, “kill that

woman!” and his guards quickly crush Salome. Upon Herod’s order the horns play

Salome’s death leitmotif which is a rising horn call and the music becomes aggressive

and animated with heavy beating drums and wild wind and brass melody lines

overlapping. The music prior to Salome’s death does have a feel of euphoric or

psychotic ecstasy as Salome’s desire to have Jochanaan’s love is hollowly fulfilled. In

this case Salome has inadvertently brought a liebestod upon herself because her

execution was due to her sick need in having Jochanaan’s unattainable love. Salome’s

need for love she couldn’t acquire cased her death and could be construed as a death

caused by love or a liebestod.

 It seems a “Liebestod” could be extracted from each of these operas with the

exception of Carmen which was more of a lust-death depending on how you look at it.

It’s clear that the liebestod is a tool that is well used by late romantic opera composers

and it is a tool that resonates with the audience. Love is one of the strongest human

emotions and the concept of death is something everyone can grasp in one sense or

another. By combining these two aspects of humanity Wagner created a winning

formula for his and later composers works that appealed to a wide audience and the

deepest of human emotions.