A couple of creepy/scary/uncanny classical pieces that don’t tend to make it to the mainstream classical music halloween lists.
The finale from Salome where Salome kisses and and sings to the the head of John the Baptist. From the Richard Strauss opera based on the Oscar Wilde play. Some stagings get grosser than others – this one’s a bit bloody but not too gory. (YT, 14:38. Text on screen)
(more below fold)
Wolf Glen scene from Carl Maria Von Weber’s Der Freischutz. Kaspar the Forester’s soul, which he had sold to Samiel the Black Hunstman for magic bullets, is due the following day. He returns to the Wolf Glen at midnight to offer Samiel the soul of his romantic rival and hunting companion, who is due to arrive on the scene, to prolong the time of his own demise another three years. (YT, 15:04. Text on screen)
Bluebeard’s Castle – Bartok’s only opera, in one act (YT, 56:23. Text on screen)
The Seance scene from Menotti’s The Medium, a two-act dramatic opera. (YT, 6:49. Text on screen). Full opera here (59:52).
(CW: parent mourning a child who has passed)(CW for full opera: a death via gun)
Two performances of Pierrot Lunaire – Arnold Schoenberg’s expressionistic melodrama about a moon-drunk Pierrot contains a setting of 21 poems selected from Albert Giraud’s 50 poem cycle. (YT, both about 40 mins. Text found here)
Title is taken from a line in Pierrot Lunaire and refers to both Salome and the Pierrot, who in their respective stories get stricken into a heightened/altered emotional and mental state by the moon.