opera Archives - Bone and Sickle

Robert the Devil: Medieval Legend, Gothic Opera

June 6, 2026 boneandsickle chapbooks, demons, Devil, diabolism, EPISODE, folklore, France, ghosts, Gothic, gothic literature, history, horror, legends, literature, medieval, Middle Ages, nuns, opera, Paris Opera, Robert le diable, Robert the Devil, Romanticism, The Monk, theater, Victorian

Robert the Devil is a supernatural medieval legend that inspired a 19th-century French opera, which incorporates key elements from a[…]

Bird-Women of Greece and Russia

September 18, 2021 boneandsickle Aeolus, Alkonost, antiquity, bestiaries, Bird-Women, classical music, folk tales, folklore, Gamayun, Greece, Greek myth, harpies, legends, mermaids, monsters, opera, pagan, paganism, Russian, seduction, sirens, Sirin

Bird-women hybrids of Greek legend and Russian folklore are uniquely ambivalent, sometimes bringing death and destruction and at others, prophetic wisdom[…]

Slavic Mermaids: Water Ghosts and Goblins

May 29, 2020 boneandsickle classical music, death, demons, EPISODE, fairies, fairy tales, folk customs, folk music, folk tales, folklore, ghost stories, ghosts, Green Christmas, history, horror, legends, literature, mermaids, movies, mythology, opera, pagan, paganism, Romanticism, rusalia, Rusalka, Russian, Semik, Slavs, vodnik, Whitsunday

Quite distinct from their Western equivalent, Slavic mermaids might better be described as water ghosts, as they are almost always[…]