Demons , Devils, And Witches In Opera
Happy Halloween ! Opera is full of the spooky, the sinister , and the supernatural . Sometimes the spooky parts are more comical that scary . In Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel & Gretel , the witch , called Rosina Dainty mouth in the opera , gets tricked into the oven by the two kids . (This is the original Humperdinnck, not the modern day pop singer who borrowed his name ).
The devil , sometimes called Mephistopheles, is a prominent character in some operas . In Faust , by the 19th century French composer Charles Gounod , loosely based on the monumental play by Goethe , Mephistopheles is more foppish than sinister . When he first encounters Faust in order to tempt him into selling his soul, he describes himself as "Un vrai gentilhomme" (A real gentleman !).
By contrast , the Mephistopheles in the Italian opera "Mefistofele" by Arrigo Boito , who also wrote the librettos for Verdi's final two operas Otello and Falstaff , is a much more elemental and rough-hewn character , who mocks God in the opening scene , which takes placew in heaven , and takes Faust to a witches Sabbath . He's a much nastier fellow than in the French opera .
Mephistopheles is a bass in these operas, and Fauist is a tenor ; he's a very Romantic character . But in the fascinating and enigmatic opera "Doktor Faust" by the great Italian pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924 ) , Faust is a b aritone and the evil one is a tenor who constantly disguises himself as other characters throughout the opera . This devil is truly sinister , as well as mocking and sarcastic .
There is a chilling scene in the beginning in which Faust , who is not only a philosopher , scientist and theologian but involved with necromancy, conjures up Mephistopheles after rejecting other demons after having been given a book of magic by three mysterious demons disguised as university students from Cracow . This is a strange , mystical and mystifyuing opera .
In the rarely performed but delightful comic opera "The Devil and Kate" by Dvorak , Marbuel is an assistant devil to Lucifer who has been sent to earth on a mission to find out whether a wicked princess deserves to be sent to hell . He goes to an in late at night where people are dancing , and meets the overweight and garrulous Kate , from whom he tries to pry information about the wicked princess, who has been forcing the people into virtual slave labor . No one wants to dance with the generously built young woman, so Marbuel does this and entices her to what he calls his beautiful castle, which is really hell ! This is not to send her here permanenrtly, though. But Kate is furious and gives Marbuel an extremely difficult time until he is able to get rid of her ! This devil is wimp ! Hell is depicted as a fun place, and the devils are just a bunch of good ol' boys who like to sit around drinking beer, polaying poker and singing ! But everything ends happily .
In the third act , Marbuel is sent to bring the princess to hell, but Kate confronts him and he runs off in terror ! The princess repents and frees the people, is saved from hell, and the people rejoice . This is a fun opera, and deserves to be better-known .
In Verdi's early opera Macbeth , or Macbetto in Italian , based on the Shakespeare play , the witches sound more Italian than Scottish , but they're sinister enough ! In "The Damnation of Faust" by Hector Berlioz , not really an opera but meant for concert performance , the next to last scene, where Mephistopheles delivers Faust into hell on horseback pursued by a horde of demons , and all hell welcomes him , you will have the bejeezes scared out of you. This quirky oratorio is sometimes perfomred onstage at opera houses, most recently at the Metropolitan Opera .
In the late 17th century opera "Dido and Aenaeas " by the great English composer Henry Purcell , one of the earliest operas still performed , witches place a curse on Queen Dido which causes her beloved Aenaes to abandon her at Carthage in order to settle Italy, and she kills herself in despair. This is loosely based on Vergil's Aenead .
Der Freischtz" (The Freeshoter), a famous early 19th century opera by German composer Carl Maria von Weber, deals with a marksman who sells his soul to the devil for seven magic bullets which cannot miss the mark - except for the last one, which is controlled by the evil one ! There's a hair-raising scene in a spooky forest where the magic bullets are forged . But everything ends happily.
But the weirdest and most disturbing of them all is Prokofiev's nightmarish "The Fiery Angel, which I profiled some time ago, which deals with sorcery, demonology and demonic possession in 16th century Germany . It's pure terror ! Yes, opera and halloween go together very well !