A number of popular operas end with the death of the heroine. Mimi of La Boheme succumbs to consumption in a Parisian garret. Tosca flings herself from the battlements. Carmen is stabbed by her former lover, and Madame Butterfly stabs herself.

I’ve just seen La Traviata for the sixth or seventh time. It ends with Violetta, after a moment’s revival, collapsing in the arms of Alfredo. I believe this is the first time I’ve seen her do it from a standing position on her bed.

If you know anything about how these things are staged, please tell me because I’m curious: does the stage director decide how she slumps or flops or stiffens and drops, whether she leaps or tumbles, whether she crumples over the knife or flings back her arms, whether she gets her head held up or has to belt out her last notes while lying on the floor? Does the singer try out various fatal poses and pick one? Is there a focused attempt to make it “different”? picturesque? how about realistic?

Topics: opera, tragic endings, death on stage, dramatic demises, Violetta