Opera songs sung by the dead or dying (perhaps of consumption)

Cafe Society
1

In this thread, cjepson asks about songs sung by the dead or dying; most of the responses are from “popular” music, from folk to death metal, but there’s several mentions of opera’s fondness for people to be singing from their deathbed or worse.

Some mentions from that thread:

commasense, Tristan und Isolde’s Liebestod
ElvisL1ves, Aida and Radames while entombed alive, in Aida.
panache mentions the genre but doesn’t name either operas or songs.
Me, La Traviata, no specific songs named, with Mimí theoretically dying from consumption while hitting notes out of the theater…

To those Dopers with better classical music culture than mine, mind giving us some specific examples of deathbed songs from opera? Preferably with a bit of context, both of the opera and the song itself.

Thank you!

2

There’s always Gilda’s last whimpers from Rigoletto. Nice girl, but a real twit.

Also Margarite (sp?) from Faust. Dies and goes to heaven singing.

Antonia literally sings herself to death in Tales of Hoffmann.

I’m sure others will chime in.

3

Mimí, while she indeed dies of consumption, appears in La Bohéme, not La Traviata. La Traviata features Violetta.

Mimí’s death is considerably more realistic.

To actually contribute: Desdemona’s final words in Otello.

4

Thank you, evidently I had the wrong literary reference.

5

Here are some famous deaths in opera; there are a whole lot more. I’m pretty sure all of these sing as they are about to die, but I may be mistaken.

Carmen’s death in Carmen
Floria’s death in Tosca
Gilda’s death in Rigoletto
Liu’s death in Turandot
Cio-Cio San’s death in Madama Butterfly
Manon Lescaut’s death in Manon Lescaut
Mario’s death in Tosca
Mimi’s death in La Bohème
Nedda’s death in I Pagliacci
Romeo’s death in Roméo et Juliette
Scarpia’s death in Tosca
Valentin’s death in Faust
Violetta’s death in La Traviata

6

By the rules of the originating thread, I’m not sure these count. None of them sing after the fatal blow is struck; they are not actively dying while they’re singing.