Women on the Verge

From Mozart to Donizetti to Verdi, mad scenes abound in the operatic repertoire—including three sung by the heroine of Bellini’s I Puritani. Discover some of the great divas (including Anna Netrebko, pictured above) who have thrilled and terrified Met audiences with their mad scenes over the past half-century.

Joan Sutherland as Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani, 1976

Renata Scotto as Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth, 1984

Carol Vaness as Elettra in Mozart’s Idomeneo, 1991

Natalie Dessay in the title role of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, 2007

Maria Guleghina as Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth, 2008

Marlis Petersen as Ophélie in Thomas’s Hamlet, 2010

Diana Damrau as Elvira in I Puritani, 2017