Is opera the most misogynistic art form?

They stab themselves, throw themselves on funeral pyres, go mad and die. From Aida to Lulu, opera is extravagantly cruel to its female characters. Isn’t it time the divas were free to sing to their own tune?How can I love an artform that is so consistently, insistently cruel to its female characters? Operatic heroines are delivered into numberless violent deaths. In Rigoletto, Gilda sacrifices herself to save the life of the faithless duke. Leonora in Il Trovatore takes poison in order to