Could we face unexpected sequels to a range of operas in which the lead character's death mightn't be all it's cracked up to be? Just imagine...
Don Giovanni: the Commendatore drags the Don away ostensibly to hell - but once they're at a safe distance from the house he unmasks and turns out to be Giovanni's brother Giorgio in disguise, come to rescue baby bro from all those harpies. The boys run off and set themselves up with false papers on a yacht in Marbella.
Götterdämmerung: Brunnhilde utters her Immolation Scene, rides into the flames...and out the other side. She and her trusty Grane escape the apocalypse on the Rhine and cross the sea to a green and pleasant land, where they live quietly in the countryside before winning both the Derby and the Grand National. Brunnhilde becomes a famous equestrian champion and marries an aristocrat; Grane, on his retirement, sires a new generation of British racehorses with apparently magical powers.
Got any more?
(PS - have been writing my official response to the Opera North/Lee Hall situation, so watch that space...)
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Speaking of Ring-ing Twice:
The ending of the Copenhagen Ring has Brunnhilde (SPOILER ALERT) starting a new life as a single mother.
And some time after the death of Mimi, Rodolpho Prunier meets a girl called Lisette who works as a maid for a celebrated courtesan named Magda ...
La Boheme II: The return of Mimi.
Mimi's genetic resistance to tuberculosis kicks in and they realize she was only comatose, not dead. The landlord, fearing a health dept. citation, offers Mimi and Rodolfo a free six-week stay at an exclusive Alpine sanatarium, where she recovers completely.
In the sequel to the sequel, Mimi discovers that, during her convalescence, her father has promised her to another man. Unable to comprehend life without Rodolfo, she rushes into the Alps, where she is killed in an avalanche, a la "La Wally". Tragic, but circular.
Don Giovanni sequel has already been written, though it's a play, not an opera. Max Frisch's play "Don Juan or The Love of Geometry" portrays the descent into hell as a scene staged to avoid confrontation with betrayed women and angry husbands. At the end of the play Don Juan is married, still involved with geometry and quite happy not to have to sleep with countless women.
The obvious choice is Don Carlo. After being dragged into his grandfather's tomb, he's reunited with Posa who was only pretending to be dead. They use the tomb's escape tunnel to run off and start a B&B in Sitges, where they're often visited by wacky neighbor and fag-hag Eboli.
Peter Grimes sinks his boat, but swims ashore to live in hiding at Ellen's house and claim life insurance.
In a sequel to Rigoletto, Gilda awakens after having momentarily passed out in the arms of her father who mistakenly thought she was dead. As the long-suffering Duchess takes ill and passes away, the Duke decides to marry Gilda who is expecting his child. She gives birth in the second act to a baby boy - who has inherited his grandfather's hunchback. Torn between his responsibility as the little heir's father and his prejudices and disgust towards physical deformity, the Duke finds himself genuinely distressed for the first time in his life. Gilda, having developed some back-bone and a becoming mean streak after her brush with death, decides to add insult to injury by insisting they name the kid Gualtier Maldé. "After his father" as she viciously adds. There's an elaborate christening scene in which Gilda triumphantly holds the baby to the font, singing a minor key, bizarro version of "Caro Nome".
Aida: Seizing the initiative, Aida rigs the tomb to collapse and escapes with Rademes. With he a traitor in Eygpt and an enemy in Ethiopia, there is plenty more drama to be had.
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