Why do Women Die in Opera?

BBC Radio 3

Where would opera be without dead women? Associate editor of the Guardian and opera fanatic, Martin Kettle, considers the fact that, be it through suicide, murder, asphyxiation, drowning, execution,consumption, leaping off a balcony or dying in an avalanche, when it comes to the most popular tragic operas, to a disconcerting extent it’s the sopranos, and occasionally the mezzos, who get the chop.


 

Broadcast: June 2010