Thread: Best Mozart Opera

What is your favorite Mozart opera and why?
Personally I like the Magic Flute.

I still have wonderful and vivid dreams of this,...dreams I've had since childhood.


Been a long time since I last enjoyed throughout,...any good dvd recommends, Alma?

I voted 'Other' for Idomeneo.

No opera ever written is as perfect as Le Nozze di Figaro.

If I were to vote I might be forced to vote "Other" because I would be nearly evenly torn between the 4 big Mozartian operas: Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, and Die Zauberflote. I don't think I could choose between them.

Our Talk Classical "Most recommended operas" thread pegged 'Figaro' as the top-ranked Mozart opera, and (as it still is my favorite of our various 'lists') I'm not going to dispute the finding.

However, if the issue is "favorite," I'll agree with the Original Poster and say "Zauberflöte."

Originally Posted by TrazomGangflow

What is your favorite Mozart opera and why?
Personally I like the Magic Flute.

Welcome to the forum.
I think you should have included a few more of Mozart's major operas, at the very least Così fan Tutte and Idomeneo.
In any case, I voted for Nozze.

There seems to be general (comparative) lack of Don Giovanni love on this board, before this forum I thought it was pretty clear-cut that Don Giovanni is held to be Mozart's greatest work.

If the poll had said 'greatest' opera, I'd have voted for Don Giovanni; since it said 'favorite', I voted for Cosi Fan Tutte, which, in my opinion, should have had a slot of its own in the poll. (I could listen to Ah Guarda, Sorella all day long.)

The Magic Flute was my first love, though.

The poll is flawed because the obvious two other mature operas were omitted: Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito. These two works could be described as "other" but their stature get lost that way.

I enjoy all his operas including his early ones. Don Giovanni might have a slight edge owing to its unusual breadth if I had to unfaithfully pick one, largely in the name of fun for the purpose of this poll.

I voted for Die Zauberflöte ...

Don Giovanni

No Cosi?? To me that is the perfect Mozart opera. Surely the first act (and some parts of the second) rank as the finest pieces of ensemble writing. Nothing is better than to hear the finest individual voices singing together in concert to produce transcendental sound and Cosi has that in spades. But it isn't just that the music is so beautiful - it's how Mozart weaves pathos against chuckling laughter in the quintet singing of "Muoio d'affano! Di scrivermi ogni giorno" and the sextet at the end of Act 1 that underlines the genius he had. That balance and interplay surely makes it his finest opera ever!

I can't decide between Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte.

I voted for Die Zauberflöte, but I also love La Clemenza di Tito.