Opera The precursor to "porn" rock
While most operas are sung in
differnt languages, kids these days are clever and have access to
translations in libraries, CD stores, the bottom of TV screens and, yes, the
internet.
Mozart - Don Giovanni Okay, it's true that Don Juan is
dragged to Hell, but seriously, is one trip punishement enough for seducing all those women (1003 in Spain alone)? And listen to the verbal aphrodesiacs embedded in his duet with Zerlina and in his let's-have-a-party aria.
Verdi - Rigoletto This popular opera has it's momnets of violence, including torture and a murder (the wrong person too), but sex overreaches the violence. Duke of Mantua, leading tenor that he is, exercises
a superstar's perogitive and beds three women.
Wagner - Die Walkure Let's see, two murders onstage, lots of unseen slaughter, and most shocking: the knowingly incestuous
adultry as done by the brother-sister team of Siegmund and Sieglinde. Their offspring, son Singfried , destroys a lot of things. Go figure.
Mussorgsky - Khovanshchina
The corrupt Ivan Khovansky is murdered by a supposed friend, and the whole stage of religious reactionaries immolate themselves on a pyre just before the soldiers
of Peter The Great can do it for them .
Richard Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier Baron Ochs is a lecher 24-7 and he's proud. He brags about in detail. Not only does the Baron
paw poor innocent Sophie, but also tries to seduce Count Octavian. Ok, yeah, Octavian is dressed in disguise as a chambermaid at the time, but one would think he could tell.
Monteverdi - L'incoronazione di Poppaea Poppaea becomes Nero's empress
because... she's really good between the sheets. Actually, sex is the true ruler of Rome as almost every character is consumed or obsessed with it. In particular, listen to Nero's
description of Poppaea's breast.
Berloiz - Les Troyens In his first big solo, Aeneas describes in sickening detail how a fellow Trojan was eaten by a sea monster. Cassandra and a whole female chorus stab or stangle one another before the Greek
soldiers can get their mitts on them. Dido disembowels herself on her own funeral pyre, and sings really nasty curses.
Verdi - Il Travatore Manrico, in the piece
"Diquella Pira", reacts to the news of his mother's impending doom at the hands of the stake by vowing to quench that fire with his enemies' blood. In this opera though,
actions sing louder than words. In the final act, the soprano poisons herself and the baritone lops off the head of the tenor... who as fate would have it, is his own brother.
Verdi - McBeth Yes, Shakesphere is to blame somewhat, however Verdi esculates the murder by having a whole male chorus instead of just 2 hitmen to carry out the contract on Banquo.
Humperdinck - Hansel and Gretel These little darlings start off by smashing the only jug of milk in the poverty-stricken house. Then, while in the woods,
they try to decimate the witch's gingerbread and cookies house. Finally, they push the witch into the oven, incinerating her and along with the other just-liberated children, eat the baked corpse. Yum yum!