The Mad Scene

The mad scene was a popular convention of Italian and French opera in the early decades of the nineteenth century. It is most popularly associated with works of the bel canto period, though examples may also be found in earlier works, such as George Frederick Handel's Orlando and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Idomeneo.

Mad scenes were often created as a way to offer a star singers a chance to show off their abilities as singers, though many of them are also very dramatic. The vocal writing is often exciting and highly demanding, requiring immense skill. Most mad scenes were composed for the soprano voice, but there are examples for the baritone and the tenor. Almost all mad scenes were composed for either opere serie or opere semiserie; Gaetano Donizetti was probably the most famous exponent of the form.

The convention of writing mad scenes largely died out after the bel canto era, as composers sought to inject more realism into their operas. More recently, some composers have returned to the form for dramatic effect, most notably Benjamin Britten in the final act of Peter Grimes.

Examples

Gaetano Donizetti

• Lucia di Lammermoor ("Il dolce suono... Ardon gl'incensi... Spargi d'amaro pianto").
• Linda di Chamounix ("Linda! Ah che pensato").
• Maria Padilla
• Torquato Tasso
• Il furioso al'isola di Santo Domingo
• Anna Bolena ("Piangete voi... Al dolce guidami... Coppia iniqua").

Vincenzo Bellini

• I puritani ("O rendetemi... Qui la voce sua soave... Vien, diletto, e in ciel la luna")
• Il Pirata ("Cor sorriso d'innocenza... Oh, Sole! ti vela di tenebra fonda")
• La Sonnambula ("Oh! se una volta sola... Ah! non credea mirarti... Ah! non giunge uman pensiero"). (not strictly a mad scene, as it is written for a character who is sleepwalking rather than losing her mind)

Ambroise Thomas

• Hamlet ("Partagez-vous mes fleurs").

Benjamin Britten

• Peter Grimes (Mad scene).

Giuseppe Verdi

• Macbeth ("Una macchia").

Parodies

Gilbert & Sullivan

• Ruddigore ("Cheerily carols the lark").

Benjamin Britten

• A Midsummer Night's Dream (the Pyramus and Thisbe scene).

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