Even the great Caruso was permitted to cry Manly Tears once in a while.
Of course, you don't have to attend the opera, unless it'll make you cry.
- "Vesti la giubba
", from Pagliacci, sung by Canio, a cuckolded tragic Sad Clown.- This was one of Enrico Caruso's best known roles, although he had a huge repertoire. Ironically, he had to sing it immediately after his long-time partner Ada Giachetti deserted him.
- Cavalleria Rusticana: The Intermezzo Sinfonico. It was used very effectively in the Rurouni Kenshin anime, the opening credits to Raging Bull and the ending of The Godfather Part III.
- La Traviata. At first, it looks as if it's just going to have a tragic ending, with Violetta hoping to the last that her lover will return to her — in vain because she is dying of TB and has given him up in any case so his family won't suffer from the scandal. They twist the knife by having the lover return (improbably), just in time for her to experience spes phthisica, a false recovery typical of TB, and die after a happy reunion scene.
- Almost any Puccini opera's got somewhere in them where you want to cry. Most notably, the final scene from La Bohème, in which Mimi dies, was enough to make Puccini himself cry his eyes out like a father whose child had just died. This final scene is bound to move entire audiences to tears.
- Not that Gianni Schicchi doesn't have any Tear Jerkers, as shown with "O Mio Babbino Caro".
- Another of Puccini's operas, Tosca, has the incredibly emotional finale, beginning with E Lucevan Le Stelle, Cavaradossi's final goodbye to his love as he is about to be executed, their duet as she tells him how she got Scarpia to order a fake execution (many tenors play it as Mario knowing it probably isn't but letting on to Tosca that they believe it), all the way through to Tosca's final piece when she realises that Scarpia had tricked her and Cavaradossi has actually been executed. The way she says his name and calls for him to hurry before the soldiers return, and when she figures out he's dead, are heartbreaking.
- Madame Butterfly. When she starts singing "Un Bel Di Vedremo", then in the ending where she commits seppuku, there's not a dry eye in the house.
- The death of Liù in Turandot also had Puccini crying. Liu was based on Doria Manfredi, a housemaid who worked for Puccini and his wife Elvira. Elvira fired the girl believing she was having an affair with the composer. She hadn't been. It gets much worse.
- Suor Angelica ("Sister Angelica") is about a young noblewoman whose family dumped her in a convent after she had a baby out of wedlock seven years earlier. Her aunt, a rather stern princess, arrives on the eve of the wedding of Angelica's younger sister, explaining that Angelica must sign a document renouncing her claim to her inheritance. Angelica replies that she has repented of her sin, but she cannot offer up everything in sacrifice to the Virgin since she cannot forget the memory of her illegitimate son, who was taken from her seven years ago. Her aunt at first refuses to speak, but finally coldly informs Angelica that her son died of fever two years ago. Angelica, devastated, signs the document and collapses in anguish. The Princess leaves. Angelica's aria "Senza Mamma" ("Without Mama") is absolutely heartbreaking. And worse, she concocts a poison but realizes after drinking it that suicide is a deadly sin; she desperately prays to Mary for mercy as she dies, and she sees a miracle in which Mary appears before her with Angelica's little boy, who runs to embrace her.
- Not that Gianni Schicchi doesn't have any Tear Jerkers, as shown with "O Mio Babbino Caro"
- Otello: You can expect this, since it's based off Shakespeare's original tragedy, of course. But Act IV is filled with this. First, there's Desdemona's haunting Willow Song and beautiful "Ave Maria", and also Otello's "Niun mi tema", right after he realizes the truth and that Desdemona was innocent, is downright painful to listen to. And of course, his suicide and the moments where he sings his last lines before dying is also quite heartwrenching.
- Orfeo ed Euridice: The aria "Che farò senza Euridice?" Orpheus has gone to Hades to retrieve his wife Eurydice, who has just died, only to lose her again when he looks back at her.
- Boris Godunov: The King on His Deathbed scene. The czar, Boris Godunov, is dying, and before he dies, he wants to impart some advice to his son.
- Der Rosenkavalier: The final trio. It was performed at the funeral of its composer, Richard Strauss, and the sopranos couldn't make it through without stopping to cry.
- Dido and Aeneas: "When I Am Laid in Earth" is quite a downer. While singing before committing suicide is common in opera, Dido's swan song is much more melancholy than any Wagnerian heroine's... and, unlike most other operas, it's sung in English.
- Rigoletto: Rigoletto is already treated poorly by everyone around him, doubly so for his disabilities, and then, in the end, he loses his daughter Gilda, the one person who truly mattered to him; who he loved and who loved him in return. The ending is absolutely heartbreaking because of this.
