Some Spooky Operas for Spooky Season

Well, as much as I am struggling with Spooky Season this year, I am trying to do my best (with very limited success). Since most of my autumnal season this year has been preoccupied with trying to finish my opera record, I thought it might be fun to take a break from the opera trenches ...with more opera by making a list of some Spooky Season operas! 😜 There are other fabulous lists out there, but this one is based on my personal preferences and the ones I have seen. 

Here are some operas for your Spooky Season!

The Medium (Gian Carlo Menotti, 1946)

   

Le Bas-Fond · Black Swan (LP version)

The Medium is a one hour, two act opera that is one of opera's scariest in the American canon. Multi-layered, richly written, and nuanced, The Medium chronicles a cruel sham medium, her sweet daughter, and their mute servant boy. One day the sham séance becomes a real one by accident, and things start to unravel. This is one of the most underrated pieces in the American repertoire (as most American operas are honestly vastly underrated) by Menotti, who is an incredible, vastly underrated composer. It's not only sonically stunning, but legitimately scary. There is also a marvelous film version, with the absolutely lovely Anna Maria Alberghetti as Monica.

The Headless Horseman (Douglas Moore, 1937)

(Sorry, there is no embedded audio preview for this one, so the Disney--and best- Horseman will just have to do!)

This one combines who things I love--Douglas Moore and the Headless Horseman. Whilst my affinity for the Headless Horseman has waned and soured in more recent years, he still holds a special place in my heart somewhere. It might be buried, but it's still there. Moore is another one of the vastly underrated American composers. Whilst he is most famous for The Ballad of Baby Doe, which is often seen as overly American and overly sentimental (as if Puccini isn't just as sentimental,. but oh well), Moore has some truly beautiful stuff in his catalog. This opera is no exception. Whilst there isn't a video on YouTube or any recent performances, you can listen to the opera's radio broadcast excerpts via Interlochen Public Radio's archives. It's gorgeous. 'Dear Katrina, Happy Bride' is stunning. You can also buy the score on Amazon.

Elektra (Richard Strauss, 1909)

Based on the Greek-myth-turned-Sophocles'-tragedy of the same name, Elektra is probably one of the messiest, bloodiest, and scariest operas. It's also among Richard Strauss' finest. The 2017 SF Opera's production is probably the best that's ever been done, and a shocking story about the bloody human limits of revenge was stunningly (and I mean stunningly) served up. Clocking in at a little over 90 minutes, it's concise and to the point--all puns intended. Treacherous mothers, severed heads, and theatre wizardry. Need I say more?

The Turn of the Screw (Benjamin Britten, 1954)

Based on the novella of the same name, Turn of the Screw tells the story of a newly hired governess put in charge of orphans Miles and Flora, unknowingly signs up for some ghosts as well. Lots and lots of ghosts. 

Dog Days (David T. Little, 2009-2012)

Dog Days is a "near future" hellscape in which a family who has chosen to stay behind slowly starves to death. This one is certainly not for the faint of heart, and psychological or reality-based (gulp) horror is certainly more frightening to me than supernatural. With a run time at about 2 hours, it's... it's a lot to take in that short amount of time. The music might be a bit too modern for my tastes at times, and the themes are certainly uncomfortable and too close to home (especially these days), it's still a taught, gnawing piece of art.

Don Giovanni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1787)

I am glad to see this ones makes a lot of other people's 'scary operas' lists, too. Don Giovanni tells the story of the legend of Don Juan, where the protagonist of our tale is the villain, and involves bloody murders, revenge, and divine retribution. It's all fun and debaucherous games until (spoiler) it's time to go to Hell. I won't lie, this is one of those operas I can't actually watch because of its, um, *cough*, content, but I will happily watch the last few scenes (especially the one above) over and over.

Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo, 1892)

Everyone says the fear of clowns is a trend, to which I say, this opera and Dumbo are why I am terrified of clowns. I feel like this is pretty self-explanatory. This opera is the stuff of my literal nightmares. I actually struggle watching the Don Bluth Thumbelina because the evil toad dresses like murder clown in this. Ugh, barf, blah! Moving on!!!!

Lucia di Lammermoor (Gaetano Donizetti, 1835)

A very loose adaption of  Sir Walter Scott's 1819  The Bride of Lammermoor, Lucia di Lammermoor has one of operas most terrifying "mad scenes." Lots of murder, lots of ghosts. I do love me a good 'tragic bride' archetype.

Honourable Mention: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Stephen Sondheim, 1979)

There is some debate as to whether or not Sweeney Todd counts as an opera. It's often performed by opera companies, and requires even non-opera productions to have singers with extensive operatic, and at minimum classical, singing training and experience. It certainly borrows a lot from opera. I think it's a challenging  piece for musical theatre singers, and less so for opera singers. (There is something really satisfying about hearing this music being sung by  actual, proper operatic singers because their techniques are more grounded  and they're able to just be free and luxuriate in the score.) I'll be transparent, I am not the biggest Sondheim fan (his subjects typically don't interest me, and I have a distaste for the excessive use of dissonance and his obnoxious fanbase), but that is not to say I dislike all of it. Sweeney Todd is on of his few works that I do like. The musical is based on a play, which is based on the Penny Dreadful of the same name and similar plot--a man falsely accused of a crime comes back to exact revenge, and is helped by partner in crime Mrs. Lovett to dispose of the freshly dispatched by putting them into meat pies. Sweeney Todd (both the figure and the musical) will always remind me of my grandmother, because growing up in Northern England, Sweeney Todd was used a boogeyman to scare children into behaving (I believe that Angela Lansbury had also spoken on this). I have actually never seen Sweeney Todd in person, and every attempt I have made to see it has been thwarted. I think given its certain themes (and I am not talking about the cannibalism), that might actually be a good thing, because who knows how well or how sensitively certain scenes are handled by any given production. I am so mad that I missed the SF Opera production in 2015. I am still kicking myself for having forgone that production to...support other things (which I deeply regret).

Um, anyway, Sweeney Todd is a bloody good time, but even more so if it's sung by opera singers. :)