History NightmareFuel / Opera

* If you think some of the Verdi sections included are scary, try the original ending of ''La Foza del Destino''. In it, Don Alvaro, having seen Leonora and her entire family perish, jumps off a cliff after cursing humanity, right in front of the horrified monks! Even for the most seasoned opera-goer, this is a pretty intense ending. Thankfully, Verdi revised it by 1869, and it is the 1869 version we are most familiar with.

* Can you believe they made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8kOARObQd4 an opera]] out of TheShining/Literature?

* Can you believe they made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8kOARObQd4 an opera]] out of TheShining?

* The finale of Verdi's ''Theatre/{{Aida}}''. Radamès is sentenced to be buried alive for betraying Egypt, and he's just been entombed when he sees Aida in the tomb with him. The music when the priests and priestesses sing above is absolutely chilling, and the desperation in Radamès voice when he tries to free them both is equally ominous. At this point, both Radamès and Aida have accepted their fate, which is [[AFateWorseThanDeath very much worse than death]], and just sing their farewell to the world as they prepare to pass into the next world. The resignation of the melody is both haunting and [[TearJerker saddening]].

* Betty having needles placed under her eyelids and taped there.

!! From the Dario Argento film:

** A raven [[EyeScream gouges out and devours the killer's eye]]

* Peter Maxwell Davies' ''[[https://youtu.be/m6357vL9TPg Eight Songs for a Mad King]]'' is a depiction of King George III in his last years when he had succumbed to dementia. The whole opera is set to hair-raising atonal music and features extended singing techniques [[UncannyValley that makes the baritone sound inhuman]]. The most shocking moment occurs in the seventh scene, when King George ''[[spoiler:grab's the violinist's violin and smashes it into pieces]]''.

* Peter Maxwell Davies' ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6357vL9TPg Eight Songs for a Mad King]]'' is a depiction of King George III in his last years when he had succumbed to dementia. The whole opera is set to hair-raising atonal music and features extended singing techniques [[UncannyValley that makes the baritone sound inhuman]]. The most shocking moment occurs in the seventh scene, when King George ''[[spoiler:grab's the violinist's violin and smashes it into pieces]]''.

* Alban Berg's ''[[Theater/{{Woyzeck}} Wozzeck]]'', like its source material, is filled with nightmare fuel on multiple levels, from the title character's descent into madness to the [[HumansAreBastards cruelty of the society around him]], all amplified by Berg's atonal, expressionist score. One of the most terrifying parts is Act 3, Scene 2, the scene where Wozzeck kills his mistress Marie. Wozzeck's unhinged, creepy behavior is underscored by absollutely chilling music, featuring the constant appearance of a B-natural note (symbolising Wozzeck's obsession with murder). At the moment when he kills her, this B-natural is pounded on the timpani.

* Arnold Schoenberg's opera ''Erwartung'' is the operatic equivalent of a psychological horror movie. The only role is an unnamed woman, sung by a soprano, who is searching for her lover in the woods at night. Upon coming across a tree trunk that she thinks is her lover, she unleashes a tirade of fears and emotions. But when she comes across the actual body of her lover, she tries reviving him and even accusing him of being unfaithful to her. It's honestly terrifying.

* The finale of Verdi's ''Theatre/{{Aida}}''. Radamès is sentenced to be buried alive for betraying Egypt, and he's just been entombed when he sees Aida in the tomb with him. The music when the priests and priestesses sing above is absolutely chilling, and the desperation in Radamès voice when he tries to free them both is equally ominous. At this point, both Radamès and Aida have accepted their fate, which is [[AFateWorseThanDeath very much worse than death]], and just sing their farewell to the world as they prepare to pass into the next world. The resignation of the melody is both haunting and [[TearJerker saddening]].

** Lucia's mad scene from Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' is both NightmareFuel and TearJerker. Already, Lucia is a fragile character, but her mental state rapidly deteriorates when her brother Enrico threatens to haunt her if she doesn't marry his ally Arturo. Lucia's offstage murder of Arturo sets the tone for the incoming aria "Il dolce suono" before she comes in with a bloody wedding dress and completely unaware of her crime, instead singing about a supposed happy life with her lover Edgardo. The way she acts as if he's there and singing to him is both chilling and heartbreaking. Even worse, Lucia ''dies'' from her madness, which really emphasizes how frail of a woman she really was.

* A good part of Act Four of Verdi's ''Theatre/{{Otello}}''. We have Desdemona's Willow Song, especially when she sings 'Salce, Salce' in an almost haunting voice. And then when Otello enters the bedroom, the score becomes much more sinister and dark, and you can practically feel the tension. And moments before Otello kills Desdemona, especially when he's confronting her, the music is very ominous, building all the way up to when Otello finally kills Desdemona.

* The end of Mozart's ''Theatre/{{Don Giovanni}}'', when Donna Anna's father, the Commendatore, rises from beyond the grave in statue form and drags Don Giovanni to Hell as punishment for his sins.

* Yet another Richard Strauss opera, ''Elektra'' also contains plenty of nightmare fuel. After King Agamemnon of Mycenae is murdered by Klytämnestra and her consort Aegisth, Agamemnon's daughter Elektra becomes obsessed with avenging her father's death to the point of insanity. Elektra repeatedly fantasizes about avenging her father's death, and even dreams of dancing in celebration. However, things reach the breaking point when her brother Orest returns to Mycenae, and it results in a ''bloodbath'', in which Klytämnestra, Aegisth, and all their followers are massacred. But what truly makes this creepy is at the end of the massacre, Elektra is so elated with avenging Agamemnon's death that she ''dances herself to death''. And to top it all off, when her sister Chrysothemis to get Orest, there's no answer at all. Real chilling.

* Heinrich Marschner's ''Der Vampyr'' could put ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' to shame with its plot.

* Already the story of ''Der Freischütz'' by Carl Maria von Weber is scary enough, what with a hunter making a DealWithTheDevil for magic bullets, but there's the scene in the Wolf's Glen. The last bullet's path is not controlled by Max, but by the Devil himself.

* Puccini's ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}'' has quite a bit of this. Act I has Scarpia's plans to kill Mario Cavaradossi and rape his lover Floria Tosca, but it's nothing compared to Act II. The second act features Cavaradossi's offstage torture, in which he's described as having a strap on his head with hooks digging into his skin that make him bleed whenever he refuses to tell the truth. Worse, we don't even see it; all we hear is Cavaradossi crying out in pain offstage and Tosca's own horrified and despairing reactions as she begs Scarpia for mercy. Then, there's Scarpia's [[ScarpiaUltimatum namesake ultimatum]] in which he attempts to blackmail Tosca into sleeping with him in exchange for her lover's life.
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** ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' by Ambroise Thomas, again based on Shakespeare's famous play, has Ophélie's mad scene. To start off, Ophélie has gone mad from Hamlet's rejection of her, and has wandered into the countryside, encountering some peasants while dressed in a nightgown and having flowers and vines in her hair. She tells the peasants not to believe the news of Hamlet's rejection of her, hands flowers to the young girls in an upbeat melody, before shifting to a somber melody and singing about water sprites that drown lovers. And at the very end, Ophélie drowns in the river, just like Shakespeare's play. It even follows Gertrude's description of Ophelia's death in Shakespeare's play!

** Lucia's mad scene from Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' is both nightmare fuel and Tearjerker. Already, Lucia is a fragile character, but her mental state rapidly deteriorates when her brother Enrico threatens to haunt her if she doesn't marry his ally Arturo. Lucia's offstage murder of Arturo sets the tone for the incoming aria "Il dolce suono" before she comes in with a bloody wedding dress and completely unaware of her crime, instead singing about a supposed happy life with her lover Edgardo. The way she acts as if he's there and singing to him is both chilling and heartbreaking. Even worse, Lucia ''dies'' from her madness, which really emphasizes how frail of a woman she really was.

** ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' by Thomas, again based on Shakespeare's famous play, has Ophélie's mad scene. To start off, Ophélie has gone mad from Hamlet's rejection of her, and has wandered into the countryside, encountering some peasants while dressed in a nightgown and having flowers and vines in her hair. She tells the peasants not to believe the news of Hamlet's rejection of her, hands flowers to the young girls in an upbeat melody, before shifting to a somber melody and singing about water sprites that drown lovers. And at the very end, Ophélie drowns in the river, just like Shakespeare's play. It even follows Gertrude's description of Ophelia's death in Shakespeare's play!

** Yet another Donizetti opera, ''Anna Bolena'', has a mad scene. It focuses on the final days of Anna Bolena (Anne Boleyn) as the wife of King Enrico VIII (Henry VIII) of England. Not only is she in the Tower of London awaiting execution, but when she goes mad, she imagines that she's marrying Enrico, before imagining Riccardo Percy and asks him to take her back to her childhood home. Even worse, right before her execution, Anna snaps out of her madness, and despite being condemned to death by her husband because he took on a different woman, she ''doesn't wish any ill upon them''.

* Yet another Richard Strauss opera, ''Elektra'' also contains plenty of nightmare fuel. After King Agamemnon of Mycenae is murdered by Klytämnestra and her consort Aegisth, Agamemnon's daughter Elektra becomes obsessed with avenging her father's death to the point of insanity. Elektra repeatedly fantasizes about avenging her father's death, and even dreams of dancing in celebration. However, things reach the breaking point when her brother Orest returns to Mycenae, and it results in a ''bloodbath'', in which Klytämnestra, Aegisth, and all their followers are massacred.

* Richard Strauss' ''Salome'' is incredibly messed up, in addition to being scary. There's Salome, who's willing to strip for her ''stepfather'' before demanding the head of Jochanaan. If that weren't enough, at the end, Salome actually ''kisses Jochanaan's severed head and declares her love for it''.
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* Richard Strauss' ''Salome'' is incredibly messed up, in addition to being scary. There's Salome, who's willing to strip for her ''stepfather'' before demanding the head of Jochanaan. If that weren't enough, at the end, Salome actually ''kisses Jochanaan's severed head and declares her love for it''.