…please.
I’m looking for a female character in an opera who is a manipulator–tries to control everyone around her, men and women. I’m not trying to identify a particular opera, just looking for any that might fit the bill. Carmen is a little limited in scope. I’m thinking more of say a (Game of Thrones characters) Varys or Baelish, but female and in an opera.
Thank you in advance.
Not really that manipulative but the Countess Rosina.
Lucrezia Borgia
Brünnhilde
Delilah
Elektra
Turandot. Although she mainly just manipulates her father into letting her murder as many men as possible. And manipulates men into falling in love with her so she can murder them.
Azucena.
The Queen of the Night.
Not really manipulative at all. She just wants her husband back.
How is Brünnhilde manipulative?
Lulu.
Seconding Lulu.
Also, how about Katerina in ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’?
I always think of her as a victim of circumstances, more than as a manipulator.
There’s always Lady Macbeth from Verdi’s Macbeth, of course.
Lohengrin’s Ortrud.
Thank you all for your suggestions.
The title character of Cherubini’s Médée (based upon Euripides’ Medea) is mighty manipulative. When her man (Jason) leaves her for another woman, Médée makes a statement by murdering her own children (after poisoning Jason’s fiancee). Yikes.