10 Great Opera Villain Moments

Samuel Ramey as Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust

As an avid opera goer, I find nothing more exciting then a well written villain. From hostile takeovers, kidnapping, manipulation, and murder, there are some incredible villains in the great history of opera. I have compiled a list of my personal favorite moments where the villain gets to shine. These picks are either scenes or arias or a combination of the two. For this list, I have picked ten operas and at least one villain from that opera. My focus will be on opera from the classical era up to the early-mid 20th century, since these are more prevalent in the public eye. I disqualify villains from comic operas and operettas in order to focus on dramas and tragedies. My list does not reflect the views of any other particular person or organization. In no particular order, here is my list of ten great opera villain moments.

1) "Credo in un Dio crudel", Iago from Verdi's Otello
There is no uncertainty in the opera world that Iago is one of the great villains to ever be penned. The second to last of Giuseppe Verdi's great operas, Otello follows the great moor of Shakespeare as his jealousy leads him to commit murder. Who leads him to this downfall? His "trusted" ensign Iago. In the original play, he is more of a trickster and less of a cold hearted demon. He is racist, manipulative,  and competitive. In the opera, Iago is passed over for the appointment of captain by the Moor general Othello. In revenge, he makes up an affair between Desdemona, Othello's wife, and Cassio, a captain in Othello's fleet. In his famous aria, distancing himself from Shakespeare, he declares his belief in a cruel god, who wants nothing more but for men to suffer in this life and the next. This is the epitome of evil for any operatic villain.

2) "La Veau d'Or", Mephistopheles from Gounod's Faust
Historically, there has been no greater force of evil that man fears more than eternal damnation at the hands of the devil. None has been more prevalent than in the legend of Faust, a german scholar who sells his soul for youth and knowledge. The devil Mephistopheles has appeared in many adaptions, but Gounod's Faust was so acclaimed, it ushered in a new age of french opera. In his famous song of the golden calf, Mephistopheles sings an ode to the greed of man, while simultaneously creating a frantic orgy. He knows the sin of the earth and revels in how easily man is led astray.

3) "O Beauty, O Handsomeness, goodness.." Claggart from Britten's Billy Budd
Benjamin Britten's opera, based on the story by Herman Melville, follows the recollection of  british Captain Vere's days as a captain during the days of the French Revolution. After taking on new recruit Billy Budd via impressment, John Claggart, master-at-arms of Veer's ship, orders his spy Squeak to get the young man in trouble. When his plan fails and he sees Billy's innocence and loyalty, Claggart curses goodness and beauty, stating that he will destroy the boy who brought it on the ship. In the second act, he frames Billy for conspiracy to mutiny. When Billy is charged in front of Vere, he stammers and kills Claggart with a single punch. This ultimately leads to Billy's execution.

4) "Schweig', damit dich niemand warnt"/Wolf's Glenn scene- Caspar from Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischutz
This is the only combination of two separate moments from the same opera. Der Freischutz is considered the first great romantic german opera. When a hunting ranger named Maxwell fears that he will be unable to pass a trial shot before his wedding, he seeks the help of a fellow ranger Caspar to help him obtain magic bullets. Unbeknownst to him, Caspar is the cause of Maxwell's unlucky streak, due to some supernatural assistance. In the finale of Act 1, Caspar sings of how he will use the magic bullets to exact revenge on Maxwell for stealing his former love Agathe. In the Wolf's Glenn, Caspar calls on the devil, portrayed as the Black Huntsman, to give him one more day to find a replacement soul, Maxwell. The rest of the scene involves the creation of the magic bullets, summoning wild creatures, demons, and spirits to the land of the living. The day of the wedding, the plan fails. The final bullet, controlled by the devil, misses its intended target and kills Caspar.

5) "Der Holle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen", The Queen of the Night from Mozart's The Magic Flute
Yes, this list has an overload of testosterone. But that doesn't mean we don't have great female villains in opera. None can match the pure evil that is The Queen of the Night. Sopranos of all ages envy this role for its difficulty and her power. In the first act of the opera, Tamino is sent on a quest to save the queen's daughter from the evil Sarastro. By the time we see he again, we find that the queen is actually the villain, and Sarastro the good guy. In her famous aria, she orders her daughter Pamina to kill Sarastro or be killed herself. It is one of Mozart's greatest arias and remains a classic to this day.

6) "Va, Tosca", Scarpia from Puccini's Tosca
None of Puccini's villains is as sadistic and lustful than Baron Scarpia, chief of police for the city of Rome. He is after a political prisoner and the affection of Floria Tosca, an opera singer. Knowing that her boyfriend Cavaradossi is an accomplice and a political ally for the prisoner Angelotti, he uses her emotions to his advantage. After tricking Tosca into thinking that her lover is having an affair with another woman, she confesses to Cavaradossi's whereabouts. When Scarpia believes that he has both the prisoner and Tosca in his sights, he sings of his love of Tosca, which is distracting him from the Te Deum performed in the church. This is some of Puccini's most chilling writing.

7) Revival Scene, Olin Blitch from Carlisle Floyd's Susannah
What is a villain without power? And what greater power than a religious god? In this classic american opera, a young woman is judged by her townsfolk for her supposed sin. Along comes Olin Blitch, a revival pastor, who comes to town to judge the wicked and save the good. At a revival meeting, Blitch gives a sermon aimed at Susannah of how God punishes the wicked. After public humiliation, he rapes her. After Susannah's brother kills Blitch in revenge, she ostracizes herself from the rest of the town. Many situations like this were based in the cold reality of life in the southern USA, and touched the souls of many facing the wrath of Senator McCarthy's Red Scare.

8) "Quel vecchio maledivami", Sparafucile from Verdi's Rigoletto
This is one of the two duets I have on this list. Sparafucile is an assassin who introduces himself to Rigoletto, and is later hired to kill the Duke of Mantua...unsuccessfully. He lives to kill for cash uses his sister to seduce his victims. Before this meeting, Count Monterone places a father's curse on the Duke for raping his daughter, and on Rigoletto for mocking him. After Rigoletto's own daughter Gilda has been saved from the Duke and Monterone only reverses the curse on the Duke before his execution, Rigoletto has no choice but to have the Duke assassinated. But, after Sparafucile's sister falls for the Duke, he decides that he will kill someone else (Gilda) and take the money. He has no moral center to anything but family and money. I consider this an important moment

9) "Son'io dinazi al re?", The Grand Inquisitor from Verdi's Don Carlo

The second scene involving two characters is the meeting of the Grand Inquisitor with King Philip of Spain in Don Carlo. The Inquisitor is so full of himself that he essentially tells the king to kill anyone who dares defy the kingdom and the church. In this case, he means his son Carlo and his friend Rodrigo, a revolutionary. He is the ultimate power in the case. His influence is the reason so many people died by the hands of the inquisition. He goes into depth of how god is commanding him to rid the world of evil. And of course, the dark deep bass is terrifying enough as it is.

10) "Bin ich nun frei?", Alberich from Wagner's Das Rheingold
No other villain casts a shadow that take four operas to bring to an end. Alberich is the main antagonist of the Ring Cycle. He is a dwarf who takes the enchanted rheingold to fasten a ring to give him unlimited power, but only by denouncing love. Wotan, king of the gods, kidnaps Alberich, takes all his gold to pay a debt to some giants, and cuts off his hand to take the ring. Angered, Alberich places a curse on the ring. It will bring death and destruction to whoever holds it until it is returned back to him. He is mentioned in Die Walkure, plots to take the ring from a young warrior in Siegfried, and commands his son to kill Siegfried and take the ring before being dragged down to his death by the rhinemaidens in Gotterdammerung. His curse lays down the foundation for the rest of the cycle.

Well, that's my list of some of the best villain moments in opera. If you agree, disagree, or have your own favorite that wasn't mentioned here, feel free to comment down below.

The Castleton Diaries: Week 4- “Get that child off the stage!” and the Hiking Trip that Wasn’t

Not too much happened this week to be honest. Everyone is really starting to reach beiling point because the opening night is next Saturday, June 28^th. People are busy with rehearsals and recovering mentally from rehearsals. Sitzprobe and full staged runthroughs in the theater have begun for Madama Butterfly, the final staging rehearsals for Don Giovanni were completed at the local elementary, and orchestral rehearsals for the symphonic concerts have been going and going as they are allotted. 

The Orchestra Management Work Corner

            One thing that happened on Sunday was that my housemates and I were to go to Shennandoah National Park for a nature hike. That day, I decided to go shopping at Walmart for a few house necessities: shower mat, dustpin, water bottles, and air fresheners. When I got back, I found the house was empty except for me. Everyone was gone and I assumed that they left without me. So I drove out to the park, spent $15 on admittance, and drove up the mountain, enjoying the incredible views. Absolutely breathtaking. Too bad that when I finally got a message to one of them, it turned out they went to the pool at Meadows house across from the festival tent. So after taking some more pictures, I rushed back to Castleton, pissed that no one had informed of their change in plans. Luckily, they had never meant to leave me out of the trip had it happened. So we spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool, playing ball and barbequing. It was a much-needed break from all the hubbub.

Shenandoah National Park

            The rest of the week has been nonstop rehearsals. We finally started in the theater on Tuesday, after a few sitzprob with both show casts. I was very impressed with the design of the sets and backgrounds. I will be even more impressed once decisions of the background projections are finalized. Otherwise, everything is absolutely beautiful. There was one staging direction that went from beautiful to hilariously distracting of one person: Trouble. Of course, I mean the child actor who plays Butterfly’s child. In the scene where Butterfly and Suzuki set flowers on the floor, the way the scene is originally set is to have just the two of them. But the director wanted the child to join in setting out the flower petals. But she was too distracting, and Maestro Maazel would not have it. She was removed from that part of the scene so that it would just be a beautiful moment between to friends finding great joy in Pinkerton’s return.

A view of the pit

            This past Thursday, I made a trip out to Maryland. I was informed the day before that I would be driving two of the orchestra members to different shops in order to pick up their rental instruments for the remainder of the festival. Luckily the shops were only 20 minutes apart. L & L Music was in Gaithersburg, where my roommate Rupert got a rental horn. The cellist Stephanie had to go to Bethesda to get a cello at Potter Violins. Both store staff were great to talk to and very understanding of the time restraints and international issues for ID. They were also very impressed on our being part of Castleton. I would definitely recommend to those who need good shops to go to. And luckily, we had an enjoyable time in the car, discussing our favorite and least favorite music, the people we left behind at home, and how much we couldn’t get the festival music out of our heads. And after making a lunch break at Firehouse Subs, which was incrediblely delicious (better than Subway even), I made it back to drop them at the rehearsal in time. Good thing I get reimbursed for gas for errands in my personal car, because I probably used as much as gas that day as I had originally purchased that morning.

            Besides finally having a functioning printer/copy machine again, there isn’t much else going on. I will let you faithful readers know that the opening night of Madama Butterfly will be streamed online. So I hope that you will either come out to Castleton to view the operas and concerts, or watch the opera opening nights online. More info on that soon.

Until next time, this has been The Castleton Diaries.

The Castleton Diaries: Week 2- Emus, Printers, and the European Invasion

Wednesday, June 4^th:

So much has occurred since I began my stay. Most of it was paperwork. I have more hours than I have ever thought it humanly possible in front of a computer and a copy machine/printer. I have probably hit a thousand pages of music within first five days, probably exceeding 2000 at some point. Honestly, I have lost count. But what I do know is that I have printed out thousands of pages of sheet music for Don Giovanni and Madama Butterfly. This afternoon, we managed to do the setup for tomorrow’s first rehearsal. Finally, I could have a break from the long cycle of buttons on the computer screen: Scan, Choose printer, Scan, rotate, crop, scan, Choose printer, Scan, crop, rotate….etc. Waiting hours at the printer for collated, double sided parts to finish so I don’t get lost when organizing them. I started saying the mantra from Fight Club, “Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy…..”.

The majority of the musicians arrived today. I have the joy of sharing the house with some of them. One horn player who now shares the common room with my fellow interns and me is from NY. Finally, I am not alone! But surprisingly, three of my new housemates are from none other than the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London, England. Yes, the British are here! Living with us in the house are a horn player, cellist, and violinist. I’ve been spending the past day and a half showing them around and showing them some of our American customs. One of those customs is Cards Against Humanities. What an interesting game that was. Equal parts awkward and hilarious. But it did the job of bridging the gap and getting to know how crazy we all truly are. But honestly, these are some good people and I can’t wait to hear them in rehearsal. I just wish I were going to be playing with them. We also got to bond over a never-ending shower faucet. For at least an hour this morning, the water would not stop running from the shower. Luckily we got the plumbers to come while we were out for the day.

            Moving on from People and Things, I move on to Places. Specifically, I speak of the trails surrounding the property at Castleton. One leads to a small lake and tennis courts. Nothing too exciting. The paths were so steep that it was a thrill and and danger to go down, but a struggle to get back up. Boy did my calves feel sore after that. The other path was longer and quite exciting. I went through the woods and past many of the houses. Past the cows and deer, I rode on, fearing for my life as I sped downhill on many a winding and twisting roads. At the end of the path, I came across Maestro Maazel’s estate. It was huge, simple, but forboding. And there they were…Emus! There were at least four of them, sharing a plot of fenced off land. Strutting around like they owned the place. At this point, I was exhausted and running low on water, so I decided to head back. It was absolutely beautiful. I hope to do it again with a GoPro if I can acquire one.

            The most beautiful view experienced in my time here so far has not been during the day, but at night. In Castleton, there is no city afterglow that prevents one from seeing the eternal beauty of the night sky. Every star is visible, and the fireflies fill the air with a spectacular light show that can only be described as fantastic. It is the true side of paradise that I have seldomed seen before. Even as a Boy Scout, I never got to enjoy a night so peaceful and beautiful as the one following my bike ride. For once, I actually longed to sleep under that beautiful black sky, dotted with the ghosts of ancient stars. It was pure and absolute beauty in the plainest sense.

Near the End of Day

            With the majority of the preparations done, tomorrow’s rehearsal will actually be something to look forward to instead of being stuck at the printer all day. We will just have to see...

Friday, June 6^th: 

            What a busy couple of days it has been. The actual rehearsals have begun, though in sectionals. But the musicians are here and playing, and that is what I am excited about. I see them practicing in the morning around the cottages and silo. That’s what you have to do when you only have four practice barns. Anyway, I started my Thursday morning with the string sectional, led by the wonderful concertmaster Paç. He is so passionate when it comes to Puccini and Madama Butterfly. Unfortunately, that was all I got to see.

After lunch, I was assigned to drive out to Shenandoah University to pick up four percussion trap tables and a suspended cymbal stand from one of the percussion teachers. He was a delight to meet. The traffic heading back? Not so delightful. It took me an hour to get off I-81, and then an additional hour to get back to Castleton. Luckily everthing made it to its destination safe and sound.

That evening, I joined my fellow interns for a night at the movies and Chilli’s. Best tableside guac I ever had. Also, Maleficient was not as bad as I had originally thought. I actually enjoyed it. But I digress that the real point it that I am actually making some awesome friends and we are really getting along. Which is good, because I have to live and work with them for two months. But then again, who wouldn’t want to work with such amazing people and brilliant talents.

Speaking of brilliant talents, I began this Friday morning at the winds and brass sectional for Don Giovanni. Chills! It was so good. And these musicians have only had the music for a few days at the most. The assistant counductor Maestro Repicky was so insightful about the history and plot of the opera. He even relealed a few double entendres. Later that afternoon, Maestro Moore, assistant conductor for Madama Butterfly, led the winds and brass sectional. It was another spine chillingly wonderful rehearsal led by another incredibly insightful conductor. He even was singing along with the score, having quite the baritone vocal skills.

Entrance at Morning

After a long day, I did laundry and had some help cleaning up the house before the rest of the roommates came back from the wine tasting event out in Culpepper. We had another night of Cards Against Humanities, some of the players not understanding references, making it twice as hilarious. But we took a break to walk outside to enjoy the beautifully clear night sky and the dazzling firefly display. Plus, I managed to fall off the trampoline that happens to be on our property. Good Times.

But now that the evening has settled, I write these words down in anticipation of more things to come, especially since we have our first orchestra run through of Madama Butterfly tommorrow morning. I look forward to the inspiring sounds of a professional level orchestra. Let the magic begin.

Until next Saturday, this has been another edition of The Castleton Diaries. Now, here is a photo of a Zonkey!

Coming Soon: Blogging from Castleton Opera Festival

If you don’t normally don’t read my blog, here is an update. I am spending this next week, plus June and July, working at the Castleton Opera Festival in Virginia as an Orchestra Management intern. I will be at rehearsals daily, which will be led by Lorin Maazel, former music director of the NY Philharmonic and current chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. The music this summer will include Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni (of which he recorded the score for the 1979 Joseph Losey film), a staged reading of Don Juan in Hell by George Bernard Shaw, and plenty of concerts featuring Mozart, Prokofiev, Maazel’s own compositions for children, and plenty of others. Special guests include Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sir James Galway, Eric Silberger, Alisa Weilerstein, and more. Performances start June 28th.

Now that I’m done advertising, I’m here to inform you that I will be blogging about here and on my Tumblr page: <http://www.maestroweinstein.tumblr.com>. Be sure to read all about it starting this Saturday.