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The Puccini Heroine: Female Characters in Puccini's Operas
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The Puccini Heroine: Female Characters in Puccini's Operas
Maddie Hanrahan
The Puccini Heroine
- The Puccini Heroine
- faces a tragic ending (usually)
- suffers for love
- Mother fixation (Carner)
- Puccini wrote 12 operas
- only 5 of the heroines are left alive at the end of the opera
- Mimi & Musetta (La Boheme), Tosca (Tosca), Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), Angelica (Sour Angelica), and Turnadot & Liu (Turnadot)
La Boheme
Synopsis
- Follows four bohemians
- Rodolfo, Marcello, Colline, and Schaunard
- Rodolfo falls in love with his neighbor, Mimi
- Marcello runs into his former lover, Musetta (singer)
- she flirts with him even though she is with someone else
- Rodolfo and Mimi separate because she is sick and he can't help her
- Mimi dies of consumption
- Rodolfo reunites with Mimi on her deathbed
Mimi
&
Musetta
Mimi
- Sweet, coy, innocent
- Consumption
- Deals with the abusive behavior of Rodolfo
- pushes her away because he can't help her get better
- Seeing another wealthy man
- Rodolfo only returns because she is dying
Musetta
- flirty, femme fatale
- portrayed as unfaithful
- deserting current lover for Marcello and leaving him with the check
Tosca
Synopsis
- The painter Mario Cavaradossi helps hide Cesare Angelotti, an escaped prisoner
- Cavaradossi's lover, Floria Tosca (a singer) thinks Cavaradossi is hiding an affair
- Tosca leads the police chief, Baron Scarpia to Cavaradossi and Angelotti
- Scarpia tortures Cavaradossi in front of Tosca
- Tosca reveals Angelotti's hiding place
- Cavaradossi is to be executed, but if Tosca gives herself to Scarpia he will be saved
- Tosca agrees, gets a notice of safety for her and Cavaradossi, and then kills Scarpia
- Cavaradossi is executed and Tosca kills herself
Floria Tosca
Floria Tosca
- Independent, diva, sensual
- When Tosca tells Scarpia where Angelotti is hiding in order to protect Cavaradossi, Cavaradossi is upset with her
- Treated as an object by Scarpia
- She kills herself after Cavaradossi dies, despite her successful career as a singer
Madama Butterfly
Synopsis
- American Lieutenant Pinkerton is leasing a property in Japan that comes with a geisha wife, Cio-Cio-San
- Pinkerton and Cio-Cio-San go through with the marriage
- Cio-Cio-San is denounced by her family
- Pinkerton abandons Cio-Cio-San and their son
- Pinkerton returns years later with his American wife, Kate
- Cio-Cio-San dies "honorably" by committing suicide in front of her son
Cio-Cio-San
Cio-Cio-San
- pure, sweet, submissive
- strong, courageous
- essentially purchased by Pinkerton
- left to raise their son on her own
- switches religion for Pinkerton
- abandoned by her family because of this
- Pinkerton still abandons her and gets remarried
- Killing herself is seen as the "honorable" thing to do
Suor Angelica
Synopsis
- Angelica is a part of a convent
- The sisters all discuss their desires
- They believe Angelica's deepest desire is to be reunited with her wealthy family that denounced her
- Angelica is visited by her aunt, the Princess
- Her sister is to be married and that she needs to renounce her inheritance for that to happen
- Angelica asks about her illegitimate son
- he has died
- Angelica commits suicide
- She prays for forgiveness and is greeted by the Virgin Mary and her son
Angelica
Angelica
- pure; dedicated life to the convent
- disowned by family
- separated from son, who eventually dies
- Her aunt is making her renounce her inheritance
- Her suicide is seen as a sin
- still needs to suffer to get her happy ending
- victim of fate
- she is blamed for the birth of her illegitimate son
Turnadot
Synopsis
- All of Princess Turnadot's potential suitors must answer three riddles correctly in order to marry her
- those who get the riddles incorrect are killed
- Prince Calaf decides he wants to win Turnadot
- His father and their slave girl, Liu, try to stop him
- Prince Calaf answers the riddles correctly
- Turnadot begs her father to not give her away
- Calaf tells Turnadot that if she can guess his name, he will kill himself
- Liu protects Calaf's identity because she loves him
- she is tortured and then kills herself
- Calaf kisses her before she can react and they fall in love
Turnadot
&
Liu
Turnadot
- Icy, cold, closed-off
- Treated like an object to be won
- doesn't want to be given away to Calaf
- obsessive love
- about lust and desire
- she never "melts"
Liu
- selfless, brave, heroic
- willing to do anything for love
- gets tortured for Calaf while he watches
- dies for him
- unrequitted love
Ed il mio bacio scioglierà
(And my kiss will dissolve)
Il silenzio che ti fa mia!
(the silence that makes you mine!)
Vincerò! Vincerò!
(I will win! I will win!)
Nessun Dorma (1:45)
Works Cited
Sources
“BACKGROUND & SYNOPSIS - Suor Angelica.” Opera Fusion, www.operafusion.org/
suor-angelica-gianni-schicchi/background-synopsis-suor-angelica/.
Costa, Daniela. Heartbreak and Tragedy: The Women in Puccini. www.daniela-costa.com/
articolo.pdf.
Fleeton, George. “PUCCINI'S HEROINES.” SimpleSite.com, 2015,
www.georgefleeton.com/316605806.
“La Bohème.” Opera North, www.operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/la-boheme/.
“Madama Butterfly.” Metropolitan Opera | Madama Butterfly, www.metopera.org/Discover/
Synopses/Madama-Butterfly/.
Roberts, Maddy Shaw. “What Are the Lyrics to 'Nessun Dorma'?” Classic FM, 22 Oct. 2020,
www.classicfm.com/discover-music/periods-genres/opera/guides/nessun-dorma-translation/.
Sterne, Joseph R. L. “Puccini's Mimi Still Baltimore's Most Glorious Heroine of Them All.”
Baltimoresun.com, 9 Dec. 2018, www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2000-05-07-0005170326-story.html.
“Tosca.” Metropolitan Opera | Tosca, www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/tosca/.
“Turandot.” Metropolitan Opera | Turandot, www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/
turandot/.
Wigler, Stephen. “Sexual Obsession Underscores the Story and Music of Turandot.”
Baltimoresun.com, 25 Oct. 2018, www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1992-10-11-1992285147-story.html.