Opera's Most Ghastly Ghouls, Ghosts, And Goblins

Much of the action of "Orfeo," one of the first operas ever composed, takes place in Hades. Orfeo encounters some ghostly sights in the underworld, including this chorus of infernal spirits.

The story of Orpheus and Eurydice has been one of the most popular with composers over the centuries. So many composers have been inspired to set this story to music. Offenbach, however, decided to parody Gluck's "Orfeo" when composing his own "Orpheus in the Underworld." In fact, the music we all know as the "can-can" comes from this opera. Sounds like they're having a hell of a good time in hell!

What would opera be with out without witches? One of opera's most famous is Medea. Cavalli's conjuring scene in "Giasone," when Medea summons infernal spirits, set the prototype for many magic and conjuring scenes for centuries to come.

One composer to follow in Cavalli's footsteps was Charpentier. The music for La Pythonisse in "David et Jonathas" is somewhat similar to conjuring scenes in early Italian operas. La Pythonisse is an oracle who Saul, from the Old Testament, consults. (In this production, the stage director has moved the Prologue, in which La Pythonisse appears, to the middle of the drama.) She is played by a haute-contre, an early example of witches and other grotesque women played by men.

We can hear that Verdi follows in the tradition set by Cavalli when Ulrica comes on stage in "Un ballo in maschera." She is a fortuneteller accused of witchcraft. Can you hear some of the similarities between her aria and Medea's “Dell'antro magico” in "Giasone"?

Purcell, like Charpentier, also cast his witch, the Sorceress, as a man. In "Dido and Aneas," there's some great music for the Sorceress and her (his) chorus of witches. Because what's better than one witch? A whole coven of witches!

Verdi's music for the witches in "Macbeth" is similar, in some ways, to Purcell's Witches' Chorus. Was Verdi looking at a score for "Dido and Aeneas" when he composed "Macbeth"? Probably not. But it's easy to understand why Verdi composed this music like he did, given the centuries-long tradition of witches' choruses in opera.

In this one-act monodrama for soprano, Schönberg depicts a distressed woman looking for her lover in the dark of night. Sadly for her, when she finds him, he's already dead. Okay, so there's no ghost. But the music is pretty creepy!

The Commendatore in "Don Giovanni" is perhaps opera's most famous ghosts (thanks to the movie "Amadeus"). A statue of the Commendatore comes to life to claim the life of Don Giovanni, whom he drags in the fire down to the depths of hell.

After the Commendatore, one of the most famous ghosts of opera is title character is Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman." Some terrifying music plays before any character sings a note, however. The overture depicts and exciting storm and introduces leitmotivs used later in the work.

There's a lot in Wagner's "Ring Cycle" that would be a good for spooky, Halloween music. But, the Norns in "Götterdämmerung" are certainly some of the spookiest. At the beginning of the opera, the Norns weave the rope of destiny. Spoiler alert - the destiny of these characters doesn't look good. The rope breaks. Womp. womp.

There are few works of literature that have inspired as much music as Goethe's "Faust." In Gounod's opera, Méphistophélès and Faust encounter an orgiastic celebration in the Harz mountains on Walpurgis Night. You can practically see the witches dancing on the mountain when you listen to this music!

Written after Gounod's "Faust," Boito's "Mefistofele" has some equally sinister music. The opera was not a success when it premiered. It only lasted two performances before it was pulled. Luckily today, we don't need to care about what the critics said long ago to enjoy this infernally good music.

For quite a different take on the trope of the witches' dance, try taking a listen to Philip Glass's opera "The Witches of Venice."

Armida is one of the most enchanting figures of literature, drama, music, and art. In Handel's opera "Rinaldo," Armida makes a grand entrance with this short but sweet aria.

Long before "The Exorcist," there was Prokofiev's "The Fiery Angel." You never knew there was an opera about demonic possession? It's okay to drop everything you're doing now to check it out.

Angels, demons, good vs. evil. This opera has it all. It was performed 100 times in the first 10 years after it premiered. While still staged in Russia, it hasn't been incorporated into the standard rep. But it should be. Cuz demons.

Weber pretty much outdid himself when writing this scene in "Der Freischütz." One writer described the music as "the most expressive rendering of the gruesome that is to be found in a musical score."

There's a lot of creepy stuff happening in Britten's "Turn of the Screw." Britten couldn't be content with just having ghosts in this story. One of the ghosts had to be a pedophile who comes back from the afterlife to haunt the object of his affection. There's a LOT of scary music in this opera, but some of the scariest isn't for the undead, but for Miles, the young boy who the ghost has come to haunt.

Marie Powers slays as Madame Flora in Menotti's "The Medium." Want your palm read? Cool. I just wouldn't necessarily trust Madame Flora to do it.

This opera based upon Beaumarchais's "La Mère coupable" has quite a ghastly character - the ghost of Marie Antoinette!

Hosokawa's "Matsukaze" has some ghosts of a different kind - two undead sisters. The opera adapts a famous Noh drama. Noh typically uses ghost stories as the subject for dramas, and Hosokawa's "Matsukaze" is certainly creepy and ghostly! His score blends elements of traditional Japanese music with Western music, but scored to accommodate most Western orchestras.