Top Ten Favorite Operas

[dwil9798]

You asked for it pml, I answered. It will be hard for me to pick just 10. I'll start from the top and go down (you can list less if you like).

10. Schoenberg - Moses und Aron. Awesome music and contains one of twentieth century opera's most fantastic scenes (the Golden Calf scene!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

9. Korngold - Die tote Stadt. Contains my favorite opening of any opera. Glorious music mixed with divine singing make it my number 9 (IMO better than most of R. Strauss's operas)

8. Poulenc - Dialogues des Carmélites. I defy you to find a heart-wrenching work.

7. Mozart - Die Zauberflöte. Always enjoyable no matter how many imes you listen to it. Great music and libretto.

6. Berg - Lulu. Contains the most beautifully complex opera characters ever devised, with extremely beautiful music to accompany her. Finale always shocking.

5. Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Some of Wagner's most original music with a prelude that tops them all.

4. Messiaen - Saint Francois d'Assise. I've always loved Messiaen's music, and this work sums up all his life's work. Fantastic orchestration, enormous amounts of percussion, leitmotifs: Who could ask for more.

3. Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen. I know I'm pushing it a bit as this is four operas but together they form one cohesive story line. Indescribable (I'll leave it at that).

2. Berg - Wozzeck. Really fantastic opera. Highlights social differences and asks one of my favorite questions of all time: Who is more evil? The person who committed the crime, or the society that brought it about?

1. Wagner -Tristan und Isolde. One of the most important pieces of music ever written, this opera combines fantastic music, great singing, modernism, leitmotifs, brilliant orchestration, and tragedy into one awesome work.

[vinteuil]

1. Verdi: Falstaff
2. Berlioz: Les Troyens
3. Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito
4. Berio: Un re in Ascolto
5. Beethoven: Fidelio
6. Gluck: Orfeo
7. Monteverdi: L'orfeo
8. Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro
9. Carter: What Next?
10. Schumann: Genoveva

[sbeckmesser]

Choosing only ten is difficult, but it is no coincidence that I've seen live productions of all my choices-- opera is a theatrical art and must be heard live for the full composer-intended effect. Most video productions aren't good enough to promote an opera upward (but they are very good at downgrading my opinions). Several operas that I like didn't make the list because I have yet to see a live production (like some of my Britten favorites). This list is not in any particular order and is not stable (i.e. ask me tomorrow and some may drop off while others move on):

Puccini: La Boheme (unlike his other famous pieces -- Tosca, Butterfly, Turandot -- in this opera I feel Puccini's musical skills are optimally matched to the story)

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (this must be heard complete and in a theater for its extraordinary power to be appreciated. It's where the famous Liebestod works best)

Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (after 5+ hours in a theater with Meistersinger I emerge exhausted but also refreshed)

Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (this has the most fascinating libretto of all the Strauss operas and he makes the most of it)

Strauss: Elektra (talk about catharsis! Aristotle would be proud.)

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (I was a stage manager for a production of this in college and while Don Giovanni might be a greater work I enjoy going to Nozze more. Both Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte would be in the next 10)

Mozart: Die Zauberflote (I played 2nd violin for a production of this in college)

Berg: Wozzeck (applause should not be allowed after a performance of this piece, since it always destroys the tragic power of the ending. Berg's Lulu would also be in my next 10)

Verdi: Otello (one of the two greatest 19th century operas, Tristan being the other)

Bizet: Carmen (this was the first opera I liked when I was a kid and now I still feel it is one of the greatest, with a theatrically surefire final scene)

--Sixtus

PS: just missing from the top ten are my favorite works of Britten, Janacek, Rossini and Handel, as well as the Ring, Parsifal, Pelleas, Boris, Hansel und Gretel, Verdi's Falstaff, The Rake's Progress and, so help me, Werther! And becasue I like them so much and they are so rare I'd go to see any nearby production of any baroque opera, such as those by Monteverdi, Rameau, Cavalli, Vivaldi, Charpentier and Lully.

[allegroamabile]

I barely ever listen to opera (my least favorite genre of classical music), but the only two that I seem to enjoy are Barber's A Hand of Bridge and Borodin's Prince Igor.

[pocoallegro]

This is a tough one, but I might say:

10. Die Gezeichneten (Schreker)
9. La Boheme
8. Kata Kabanova (Janacek)
7. The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky)
6. Der Rosenkavalier
5. Falstaff
4. Die Walkuere
3. Don Giovanni
2. Madama Butterfly
1. Pelleas et Mellisande

[dwil9798]

and, so help me, Werther!

Don't feel too bad, I actually like Herodiade, but if you said Thais I would have requested your account disabled.

[sbeckmesser]

Don't feel too bad, I actually like Herodiade, but if you said Thais I would have requested your account disabled.

What's interesting is the complete absence from anybody's top-10 list so far of not only most French operas but of the entire bel canto repertory. I mentioned Rossini as appearing in my top 20, but does nobody have a work by Donizetti or Bellini in their top 10? If not, I can understand why. None of their operas would appear in my top 20 or even top 30, as much as I like truly outstanding complete performances of this repertory, which are actually quite rare. I've found that in a bel canto opera one mediocre singer (usually the lead tenor) is enough to spoil the whole thing, regardless of the quality of the lead soprano or mezzo.

--Sixtus

[dwil9798]

Good point made. I would never hate to see a Donizetti or Rossini production, but they are nowhere near my favorite operas. Probably wouldn't even be in my top 50. I've always felt it a shame that here in America we see more of that type of opera and and not enough lesser known operas, for instance Russian (Rimsky-Korsakov and Prokofiev especially) operas, as well as the fantastic operas of Britten (Billy Budd would fit right between 3 and 4 on my list. Embarassed I forgot it) Janacek, and Hindemith.