# Mad scene

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{{Short description|Conventional scene depicting madness in opera}}{{More citations needed|date=November 2022}}{{Distinguish|The Mad Scene}}A '''mad scene''' (French: {{lang|fr|[scène de folie](/source/%3Afr%3Asc%C3%A8ne_de_folie)}}, Italian: {{lang|it|[scena della pazzia](/source/%3Ait%3Ascena_della_pazzia)}}, or German: {{lang|de|[Wahnsinnsszene](/source/%3Ade%3AWahnsinnsszene)}}) is a depiction of [insanity](/source/insanity) in [opera](/source/opera), theater,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=McCarren |first=Felicia M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7_GZs9P2HF4C |title=Dance Pathologies: Performance, Poetics, Medicine |date=1998 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-3524-7 |pages=106–107 |language=en}}</ref> or other forms. It may occupy a discrete [number](/source/number_(music)), appear or recur in [through-composed music](/source/through-composed_music), anchor a [finale](/source/finale_(music)), or constitute the entire work. Mad scenes are often dramatic [virtuoso](/source/virtuoso) pieces for [opera singer](/source/opera_singer)s, sometimes specific singers.

==History==
The mad scene likely first appeared in [17-century Venetian opera](/source/Italian_opera) with Cavalli's ''[La Didone](/source/Didone_(opera))'' and, for male {{lang|lt|[inamorato](/source/Inamorata_(disambiguation))}}, in ''[L'Egisto](/source/L'Egisto_(opera))''. In [18th-century Italian opera](/source/Italian_opera), especially ''[opera seria](/source/opera_seria)'' or ''[opera semiseria](/source/opera_semiseria)'', examples are found in Handel's ''[Orlando](/source/Orlando_(opera))'' and, farcically, ''[Imeneo](/source/Imeneo)''.

In [early Romantic music](/source/Romantic_music), the convention was popularized in French and especially Italian {{lang|it|[bel canto](/source/bel_canto)}} opera. Likely modeled on Bellini's ''[I puritani](/source/I_puritani)'', Donizetti's ''[Lucia di Lammermoor](/source/Lucia_di_Lammermoor)'' is the most famous example. Gilbert and Sullivan satirized it via Mad Meg in ''[Ruddigore](/source/Ruddigore)''. As {{lang|it|[verismo](/source/verismo)}} pushed toward [artistic realism](/source/realism_(arts)), composers integrated mad scenes more organically. In [Romantic music](/source/Romantic_music), Tchaikovsky often deployed them as [finale](/source/finale_(music))s.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} Meanwhile, [ballet](/source/ballet) had its own landmark: Adam's ''[Giselle](/source/Giselle)''.<ref name=":0" />

Amid [scientific advances in psychiatry](/source/History_of_psychiatry), many [modernist](/source/modernist) composers revived and transformed the form in [expressionist music](/source/expressionist_music), including operas, [melodrama](/source/melodrama)s, and [monodrama](/source/monodrama)s. In early [20th-century classical music](/source/20th-century_classical_music), Strauss's ''[Salome](/source/Salome_(opera))'' and ''[Elektra](/source/Elektra_(opera))'', Schoenberg's ''[Pierrot lunaire](/source/Pierrot_lunaire)'' and ''[Erwartung](/source/Erwartung)'', and Berg's ''[Wozzeck](/source/Wozzeck)'' and ''[Lulu](/source/Lulu_(opera))'' depicted madness in new, [dissonant](/source/Consonance_and_dissonance) idioms. Berg, Stravinsky (''[The Rake's Progress](/source/The_Rake's_Progress)''), and Britten (''[Peter Grimes](/source/Peter_Grimes)'') wrote such scenes for male roles. Britten also wrote a mad scene [parody](/source/parody) for ''[A Midsummer Night's Dream](/source/A_Midsummer_Night's_Dream_(opera))''. After ''Pierrot'', Davies' ''[Eight Songs for a Mad King](/source/Eight_Songs_for_a_Mad_King)'' further extended the form into modernist [music theatre](/source/music_theatre).{{cn|date=May 2026}}

[Musical theatre](/source/Musical_theatre) more generally drew on the tradition, as in Lloyd Webber's ''[Sunset Boulevard](/source/Sunset_Boulevard_(musical))'' and Sondheim's ''[Sweeney Todd](/source/Sweeney_Todd_(musical))''.{{cn|date=May 2026}} In Porter's ''[Kiss Me, Kate](/source/Kiss_Me%2C_Kate)'' (written 1947–1948), the act 1 finale ("Kiss Me") parodies Lucia's mad scene as Kate's forced kiss sparks an angry [cadenza](/source/cadenza) on "never". When [Jarmila Novotná](/source/Jarmila_Novotn%C3%A1) declined the role, Pole created the moment for Lucia star [Lily Pons](/source/Lily_Pons), who also declined.{{sfn|Robbins|2026|loc=89–92}}

==Selected examples==

===Baroque===
[Francesco Cavalli](/source/Francesco_Cavalli)
*''[La Didone](/source/Didone_(opera))'', Act 2
*''[L'Egisto](/source/L'Egisto_(opera))'', Act 3
*''[Giasone](/source/Giasone)''

[Alessandro Stradella](/source/Alessandro_Stradella)
*''[Il Trespolo tutore](/source/Il_Trespolo_tutore)''

[Jean-Baptiste Lully](/source/Jean-Baptiste_Lully)
*''[Roland](/source/Roland_(Lully))'', Act 4, Scene 5, "Je suis trahi! Ciel!"

[George Frideric Handel](/source/George_Frideric_Handel)
*''[Orlando](/source/Orlando_(opera))'', "Ah! stigie larve... Vaghe pupille"
*''[Hercules](/source/Hercules_(Handel))'', "Where shall I fly?"

[Johann Adolph Hasse](/source/Johann_Adolph_Hasse)
*''[Artaserse](/source/Artaserse)'', "Pallido il sole"

===Classical===
[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart](/source/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart)
*''[Idomeneo](/source/Idomeneo)'', "D'Oreste, d'Ajace"

[Ferdinando Paer](/source/Ferdinando_Paer)
*''[Agnese](/source/Agnese_(opera))''

===Romantic===
[Gioachino Rossini](/source/Gioachino_Rossini)
*''[Ermione](/source/Ermione)'', "Essa corre al trionfo"
*''[Semiramide](/source/Semiramide)'', "Deh! Ti ferma"

[Gaetano Donizetti](/source/Gaetano_Donizetti)
*''[Lucia di Lammermoor](/source/Lucia_di_Lammermoor)'', "[Il dolce suono](/source/Il_dolce_suono)... Ardon gl'incensi... Spargi d'amaro pianto", the {{lang|lt|locus classicus}}{{sfn|Albright|2021|loc=150, 165}}
*''[Linda di Chamounix](/source/Linda_di_Chamounix)'', "Linda! Ah che pensato"
*''[Maria Padilla](/source/Maria_Padilla)''
*''[Torquato Tasso](/source/Torquato_Tasso_(opera))''
*''[Anna Bolena](/source/Anna_Bolena)'', "Piangete voi... Al dolce guidami... Coppia iniqua"

[Vincenzo Bellini](/source/Vincenzo_Bellini)
*''[I puritani](/source/I_puritani)'', "O rendetemi... Qui la voce sua soave... Vien, diletto, e in ciel la luna"
*''[Il pirata](/source/Il_pirata)'', "Col sorriso d'innocenza... Oh, Sole! ti vela di tenebra fonda"
*''[La sonnambula](/source/La_sonnambula)'', "Oh! se una volta sola... Ah! non credea mirarti... Ah! non giunge uman pensiero"

[Giuseppe Verdi](/source/Giuseppe_Verdi)
*''[Nabucco](/source/Nabucco)'', "Chi mi toglie"
*''[Macbeth](/source/Macbeth_(Verdi))'', "Una macchia"
*''[Attila](/source/Attila_(opera))'', "Mentre gonfiarsi l'anima"

[Richard Wagner](/source/Richard_Wagner)
*''[Die Feen](/source/Die_Feen)'', Act 3, "Halloh! Halloh! Lasst alle Hunde los!"
*''[Tristan und Isolde](/source/Tristan_und_Isolde)''

[Giacomo Meyerbeer](/source/Giacomo_Meyerbeer)
*''[L'étoile du nord](/source/L'%C3%A9toile_du_nord)'', Act 3
*''[Dinorah](/source/Dinorah)'' (originally ''Le Pardon de Ploërmel''), "Ombre légère"

[Ferenc Erkel](/source/Ferenc_Erkel)
*''[Bánk bán](/source/B%C3%A1nk_b%C3%A1n)'', Act 3, "Tudsz-e madárról éneket?"

[Ambroise Thomas](/source/Ambroise_Thomas)
*''[Hamlet](/source/Hamlet_(opera))'', "Partagez-vous mes fleurs"

[Johannes Brahms](/source/Johannes_Brahms)
*''[Ophelia–Lieder](/source/List_of_compositions_by_Johannes_Brahms)'', setting [Ophelia](/source/Ophelia)'s words from the mad scene of Shakespeare's ''[Hamlet](/source/Hamlet)''<ref>{{cite news |author=<!-- not stated --> |date=23 November 1934 |title=4 UNKNOWN SONGS BY BRAHMS FOUND; Settings to Text in 'Hamlet' for Ophelia Discovered by Dr. Karl Geiringer. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/11/23/archives/4-unknown-songs-by-brahms-found-settings-to-text-in-hamlet-for.html |work=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times) |access-date=18 May 2026}}</ref>

[Modest Mussorgsky](/source/Modest_Mussorgsky) 
*''[Boris Godunov](/source/Boris_Godunov_(opera))'', "Oi! Duschno, Duschno"

[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky](/source/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky)
*''[The Oprichnik](/source/The_Oprichnik)'', finale
*''[Mazeppa](/source/Mazeppa_(opera))'', finale
*''[The Enchantress](/source/The_Enchantress_(opera))'', finale

[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov](/source/Nikolai_Rimsky-Korsakov)
*''[The Tsar's Bride](/source/The_Tsar's_Bride_(opera))'', "Ivan Sergeyich, khochesh' v sad poydem"

===Since 1900===
[Richard Strauss](/source/Richard_Strauss)
*''[Salome](/source/Salome_(opera))'', finale
*''[Elektra](/source/Elektra_(opera))'', finale

[Arnold Schoenberg](/source/Arnold_Schoenberg) 
*''[Erwartung](/source/Erwartung)'', {{lang|lt|in toto}}{{sfn|Albright|2021|loc=150, 165}}

[Max von Schillings](/source/Max_von_Schillings)
*''[Mona Lisa](/source/Mona_Lisa_(opera))'', Act 2, "So! so! Hab' ich dich!"

[Alban Berg](/source/Alban_Berg)
*''[Wozzeck](/source/Wozzeck)'', Act 1, Scene 2, "Du [Andres], der Platz ist verflucht!"{{efn|"You [Andres], this place is cursed!"}}
*''[Wozzeck](/source/Wozzeck)'', Act 3, Scene 4, "Das Messer! Wo ist das Messer?"{{efn|"The knife! Where is the knife?"}}
*''[Lulu](/source/Lulu_(opera))'', Act 2, Scene 1, "Du Kreatur, die mich durch den Strassenkot zum Martertode schleift!" (Dr. Schön's five-strophe aria)

[Sergei Prokofiev](/source/Sergei_Prokofiev)
*''[Semyon Kotko](/source/Semyon_Kotko)''

[Benjamin Britten](/source/Benjamin_Britten)
*''[Peter Grimes](/source/Peter_Grimes)'', "Steady. There you are, nearly home"
*''[Curlew River](/source/Curlew_River)''

[Igor Stravinsky](/source/Igor_Stravinsky)
*''[The Rake's Progress](/source/The_Rake's_Progress)''

[Francis Poulenc](/source/Francis_Poulenc)
*''[Dialogues des Carmélites](/source/Dialogues_des_Carm%C3%A9lites)''
*''[La voix humaine](/source/La_voix_humaine)''

[Hans Werner Henze](/source/Hans_Werner_Henze)
*''[Elegy for Young Lovers](/source/Elegy_for_Young_Lovers)''

[Peter Maxwell Davies](/source/Peter_Maxwell_Davies)
*''[Eight Songs for a Mad King](/source/Eight_Songs_for_a_Mad_King)''

[Leonard Bernstein](/source/Leonard_Bernstein)
*''[Mass](/source/Mass_(Bernstein))'', XVI. Fraction: "Things get broken"

[Dominick Argento](/source/Dominick_Argento)
*''[Miss Havisham's Fire](/source/Miss_Havisham's_Fire)'', finale

[John Corigliano](/source/John_Corigliano)
*''[The Ghosts of Versailles](/source/The_Ghosts_of_Versailles)'', "They are always with me"

[André Previn](/source/Andr%C3%A9_Previn)
*''[A Streetcar Named Desire](/source/A_Streetcar_Named_Desire_(opera))''

===Since 2000===
[Daniel Catán](/source/Daniel_Cat%C3%A1n)
*''[Salsipuedes: a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies](/source/Salsipuedes%3A_a_Tale_of_Love%2C_War_and_Anchovies)'' (2004), Act 3, Scene 3, "Guzmán, Guzmán, ayúdame" (General García)

==Comparable examples==
[Francesco Sacrati](/source/Francesco_Sacrati)
*''[La finta pazza](/source/La_finta_pazza)'', Act 2, Scene 10 (Deidamia)

[Henry Purcell](/source/Henry_Purcell)
*"From rosy bow'rs" from ''[The Comical History of Don Quixote](/source/The_Comical_History_of_Don_Quixote)'', described by [Edward Joseph Dent](/source/Edward_Joseph_Dent) as a "mad song"

[Jean-Philippe Rameau](/source/Jean-Philippe_Rameau)
*''[Platée](/source/Plat%C3%A9e)'', Air de la [Folie](/source/Maniae)

[Giuseppe Verdi](/source/Giuseppe_Verdi)
*''[La traviata](/source/La_traviata)'', "É strano! ... Sempre libera"

[Arnold Schoenberg](/source/Arnold_Schoenberg)
*''[Pierrot lunaire](/source/Pierrot_lunaire)''

[Giacomo Puccini](/source/Giacomo_Puccini)
*''[Suor Angelica](/source/Suor_Angelica)'', arguably {{lang|lt|in toto}}

[Milton Babbitt](/source/Milton_Babbitt)
*''[Philomel](/source/Philomel_(Babbitt))''{{sfn|Albright|2021|loc=150}}

[Luciano Berio](/source/Luciano_Berio)
*''[Sequenza III](/source/Sequenza_III)''

[Olga Neuwirth](/source/Olga_Neuwirth)
*''[Lost Highway](/source/Lost_Highway_(opera))'', Scene 5.4, "There's no smoking here"

[Michael Finnissy](/source/Michael_Finnissy)
*''[Gesualdo: Libro Sesto](/source/Gesualdo%3A_Libro_Sesto)'', IV. "Quel 'no' crudel"

===Parodies===
[Jacques Offenbach](/source/Jacques_Offenbach)
* ''[Le pont des soupirs](/source/Le_pont_des_soupirs)'', "Ah! le Doge, ah! Les plombs, le canal Orfano l'Adriatique, c'est fini je suis folle"

[Gilbert and Sullivan](/source/Gilbert_and_Sullivan)
* ''[Ruddigore](/source/Ruddigore)'', "Cheerily carols the lark"
* ''[The Grand Duke](/source/The_Grand_Duke)'', "I have a rival! Frenzy-thrilled, I find you both together!"

[Benjamin Britten](/source/Benjamin_Britten)
* ''[A Midsummer Night's Dream](/source/A_Midsummer_Night's_Dream_(opera))'', the [Pyramus and Thisbe](/source/Pyramus_and_Thisbe) scene

[Leonard Bernstein](/source/Leonard_Bernstein)
* ''[Candide](/source/Candide_(operetta))'', "Glitter and be gay"

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==See also==
*[Female hysteria](/source/Female_hysteria)
*[Hysteria](/source/Hysteria)
*[Jean-Martin Charcot](/source/Jean-Martin_Charcot)
*[Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital](/source/Piti%C3%A9-Salp%C3%AAtri%C3%A8re_Hospital)
*[Rage aria](/source/Rage_aria)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
*{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Albright|2021}}|reference=[Albright, Daniel](/source/Daniel_Albright). 2021. ''Music's [Monism](/source/Monism)s: Disarticulating [Modernism](/source/Modernism)'', fwd. [Alexander Rehding](/source/Alexander_Rehding). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|978-0-226-79136-4}} (ebk). {{ISBN|978-0-226-79122-7}} (hbk). {{doi|10.7208/chicago/9780226791364.001.0001}}.}}
*Anderson, James (1993)  ''The Complete Dictionary of Opera & Operetta'', New York
*{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Enrique Arias|1999}}|reference=Arias, Enrique. 1999. "Reflections from a Cracked Mirror: Madness in Music and Theory of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries—An Overview". In ''A Compendium of American Musicology: Essays in Honor of John F. Ohl'', eds. Enrique Arias, Susan M. Filler, William V. Porter, and Jeffrey Wasson, 133–154. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8101-1536-1}} (hbk).}}
*Ewen, David  (1963) ''Encyclopedia of the Opera'', New York
*{{cite book |author-last1=Robbins |author-first1=Hannah Thuraisingam |chapter=Preparing ''Kiss Me, Kate'' for Broadway |title=Too Darn Hot: Kiss Me, Kate & the Making and Remaking of a Broadway Musical |language=en |publication-place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |publication-date=2026 |doi=10.1093/9780190082437.003.0006 |isbn=978-0-19-008240-6 }}
*[http://www.wqxr.org/#!/blogs/operavore/2012/jan/25/top-10-mad-scenes-opera/ The Top 10 Mad Scenes in Opera] WQXR Operavore retrieved 13-08-13
*Любимов, Д.В. Осторожно, сумасшествие! // Оpera musicologica. 2021. Т. 13. № 4. С. 172–178. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26156/OM.2021.13.4.008.
*Любимов, Д.В., Кром, А.Е. «Сцена безумия» в опере: проблемы дефиниции // Музыкальный журнал Европейского Севера. 2022. № 2 (30). С. 60–74. URL: http://muznord.ru/images/issue/30/30_Lubimov_Krom.pdf
*Любимов, Д.В. Лючия и Марфа: безумные невесты в оперном театре XIX века // Opera musicologica. 2022. Т. 14, № 3. С. 30–45. DOI 10.26156/OM.2022.14.3.002.
*Любимов, Д.В. Феномен безумия в европейской опере и его научное осмысление: к проблеме периодизации // Музыкальная академия. 2022. № 4. С. 180–195. DOI: 10.34690/278.
*Любимов, Д.В.Лючия и Жизель: безумные героини в музыкальном театре XIX века. DOI 10.24412/2658-7858-2023-33-61-69 // Музыка в системе культуры: Научный вестник Уральской консерватории.–2023.– Вып. 33.– С. 61–69.
*Любимов, Д.В. Сюжетный мотив безумия в театральном творчестве А.Е.Варламова // Вестник Саратовской консерватории. Вопросы искусствознания. 2023. №4 (22). С. 65-72. URL: https://sarcons.ru/image/publikacii/vestnik_sgk/%D0%92%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%20%D0%A1%D0%93%D0%9A.2023%20%E2%84%964(22).pdf
*Любимов, Д. В. Уберто и Мельник: безумные отцы в оперном театре XIX века // Опера в музыкальном театре: история и современность. Тезисы VI Международной научной конференции, 11–15 марта 2024 г. / ред.-сост. Н.В. Пилипенко, под ред. И.П. Сусидко, Н.В. Пилипенко, А.И. Масловой / Российская академия музыки имени Гнесиных. — М.: Издательство «Российская академия музыки имени Гнесиных», 2024. - С. 120-121. URL: https://gnesin-academy.ru/upload/iblock/8c7/45titr0z13o7jvzvuuwjnvtpr2gm2xcp/AbstractsBook_Conf_Opera_2024.pdf
* Любимов Д. В. Сцена безумия Мелинды из оперы Ф. Эркеля «Банк Бан»: преломление европейских и национальных традиций // Музыка в системе культуры: Научный вестник Уральской консерватории.–2024.– Вып. 37.– С. 6–14.

{{Opera topics}}

Category:Opera terminology

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Mad scene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_scene) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_scene?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.