La Mujer Fatal en la Ópera

This article studies some of the most remarkable female roles in opera repertoire: Manon, Carmen, Dalila, Mélisande, Salomé and Lulú, exploring the similarities that can be found among them at different levels, despite the disparity of their literary origin and conception. The central point is constituted by their relationship with the features of the Femme Fatale. The article takes an etymological starting point such as the interpretation of the term «fatale» which relates the attraction they provoke in men with a tragic fate that inexorably links love and death in an inexorable way. We focus only on certain important features such as the tremendous impression they cause on men, their musical presentation and their premonition or prediction of death.