Jenůfa as well (I'd mentioned Kostelnička as a stepmother, but forgot about Jenůfa herself.
Sharp Ears, the vixen?


Klytemnestra in Elektra and Herodias in Salome


Lucrezia Borgia!

And the Monteverdi?

Penelope in Ritorno d'Ulisse?

Thousands? In 337 years? 

(I can only assume she's counting her grandkids etc. as well...)

Hm, I could get those accents for you, DB. Just a tick.

...you quite sure about 'trabantu' though?

Although of course we never see their mothers,  HOUSE OF THE DEAD has an axiomatic phrase which epitomises the human suffering at the centre of every prison-dossier statistic:

"Even HE had a mother"  (said over "Filka's" dead body).  (A phrase which LJ requoted and expanded in letters to Stosslova during the composition of the opera - explaining to her why the phrase had such meaning for him).

I already mentioned "Mila's mother" in OSUD a little earlier on.

Oooh, another Tchaikovsky one we forgot...  Natalya's mother in THE OPRICHNIK all but steals the show in Act One, with an outrageously over-the-top aria,  and her imprecation to Andrei Morozov not to join the Oprichina (the Tsar's Secret Police), "ty umirat' ne nado!" ("No, you should not die!") - which she says about a dozen times.  OPRICHNIK is the black sheep of the Tchaikovsky canon, and is rarely played... Tchaikovsky himself is said to have grown to detest the piece.

Staying with the Russian repertoire, Parasha's mother in MAVRA (Stravinsky) is another matronly lady we've overlooked.  And since we've mentioned Parasha,  we can quickly double back on our tracks to include Khivrya in SOROCHINSKY FAIR too

Baronesse Rhomboidal in L'ILE DE TULIPATAN is the mother of a son whom she's brought-up as a daughter, to save him from being drafted into the Army (see DISGUISES a few pages back).

Now, here are three mothers we've not mentioned so far... all of whom have a rather unhealthy relationship with their sons, to differing degrees?

1) who finds out she can't marry the young man she's set upon, as he turns out to be her son (and her lawyer is his father)?

2) who has a knowingly incestuous relationship with her son, to the full knowledge of his mezzo wife... both of whom bear him daughters?  (a total of six daughters, the last being the result of his incestuous relationship with the eldest daughter?)

3) who marries her son without realising his identity, and then kills herself once she discovers who he is, and that he unknowingly slew his own father at a crossroads? blimey, that ought to be enough of a clue, surely? (There are multiple operas you might mention with this story - extra points for naming more than one).

Jocasta in:
Stravinsky - Oedipus Rex
Enescu - Oedipe
Wolfgang Rihm's - Oedipus

I did need the display in the Real Player titles (although I'd have worked out it was by Philip Glass) to track down Queen Tye, mother of Akhnaten. I was busy getting caught up in Greek mythology and Zeus' various 'relationships'!