Opera can get a bad rap for how many female characters in the genre are treated, but let's not talk about that. Instead, let us take this opportunity to honor some of the fiercest women in opera.

1. Manon Lescaut-- Giacomo Puccini

Manon knows how to use her beauty and charisma to get what she wants. Whether it's charming people into helping her out of a convent, deportment, or poverty, Manon Lescaut looks out for number one, stringing along a handsome young student all the while.

2. Carmen-- Georges Bizet

Carmen is a heroine determined to live her own life; she sings and dances and loves as she pleases. And when a lovesick tenor tries to tie her down, she dumps him with no regrets. (Lovesick tenor does kill her in the end for this, but that's his problem)

3. Turandot-- Giacomo Puccini

The princess Turandot loves being a strong independent woman so much, she'll kill any man who tries to marry her. If a suitor wants her hand, he has to answer three impossible riddles; if he loses, he'll be subjected to a horrible death. Turandot does not play around, making her one of the most badass characters Puccini ever wrote.

4. Leonore from "Fidelio"-- Ludwig van Beethoven

When Leonore's husband, Florestan is wrongfully thrown in prison, she just goes, "No big, I'll just disguise myself as a man and break him out." Her tenacity and determination end up being her husbands salvation, and everyone gets a happy ending, all thanks to Leonore's badassery.

5. Marie from "La Fille du Regiment"-- Gaetano Donizetti

Marie is a headstrong, self-assured woman. How would you expect any less from a girl who was adopted as a baby and raised by a regiment of French Soldiers? Marie is fiercely independent, and when she does fall in love, she gives the tenor a run for his money (and his high C's).

6. Laurie from "The Tender Land"-- Aaron Copland

For most of this opera, Laurie seems like the the basic lyric soprano heroine: head in the clouds, dreams of adventure, falls in love with a tenor she just met, plans to elope him, etc. But on the morning of the elopement, Laurie is stood up. Instead of collapsing into despair, she decides to go out into the world by herself, tenor or no tenor. I've always been really fond of that kind of character arc: a girl thinks she's doing something for someone else, but then she makes the choice to do it for herself.

7. Joan of Arc from "Orleanskaja Deva"-- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky's opera "Maid of Orleans" tells the story of the fearless female warrior, Joan of Arc. After being called by God to defend her country and her faith, this girl says, "Okay, sure," and after a stunning aria bidding farewell to her homeland, she becomes its savior and eventually martyr. Joan of Arc is a badass heroine at her finest.

8. Abigaille from "Nabucco"-- Giuseppe Verdi

Abigaille is the ambitious daughter of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. When she discovers she is actually his adopted daughter and that she is descended from slaves, she schemes to take the throne of Babylon, and uses her power to crush not only her adopted father, but her sister (and rightful heir) Fenena, and the Israelites. She may be the villain of this story, but you cannot deny how badass she is.

9. La Gioconda-- Amilcare Ponchielli

Gioconda can be pretty ruthless when it comes to getting what she wants. When she falls in love with the tenor in her story, she plots and schemes to get him, including fighting his lover, scaring her off, and calling the navy to his pirate ship. but my favorite part about Gioconda's character is the compassion she ends up having for her romantic rival (a mezzo by the name of Laura). At the end of the opera, Gioconda uses her wiles not to make sure she comes out on top, but to make amends: to reunite Laura and the tenor, risking the wrath of the authorities. In a truly selfless act, she lets the couple go, only asking that they love each other and find a way to be happy. To me, there's nothing more badass than selflessly letting the mezzo win.

10. Sister Helen Prejean from "Dead Man Walking"-- Jake Heggie

Sister Helen is so metal she'll spread the gospel to men on Death Row. Based on the real Sister Prejean's memoir of the same title, the opera tell the story of Sister Helen and the first inmate she spiritually advised. It is an incredible opera about service, the criminal justice system, and the grace of God, and at its center is a powerful and independent Southern woman.

11. Lady Macbeth from "Macbeth"-- Giuseppe Verdi

No list like this is complete without Lady M herself, and this one is just as ruthless and badass as the Shakespearean woman she is adapted from. Lady Macbeth is unstoppable when it comes to fulfilling her ambition, so much so that she destroys herself and nearly destroys Scotland in the process.