Thread: Top 20 Overtures

Name your top 20 overtures.

It's a bit hard for me to list them in any order, so I write down some of them in order to edit the whole thing later.

Meistersinger von Nürnberg's Overture (Wagner)
The Flying Dutchman's Overture (Wagner)
Julius Caesar (Schumann)
Egmont's Overture (Beethoven)
Prince Igor's overture (Borodin)
Ouverture solennelle (Glazunov)
Overture No.1 on Three Greek Themes (Glazunov)
King Lear's Overture (Balakirev)
Russlan and Lyudmila's (Glinka)
Carnival Overture (Dvorak)
Karelia Overture (Sibelius)
Overture: Ruy Blas (Mendelssohn)
Music To 'Rosamunde' - Overture (Schubert)

And several more I write later.

Do vorspiels/preludes/introductions count? If so then:

1. Ligeti: all the preludes from Le Grand Macabre
2. Wagner: Prelude to act I of Tristan und Isolde
2. Glinka: Ruslan und Ludmilla
2. Handel: Giulio Cesare
2. Bach: Overture from orchestral suite no. 3
2. Rameau: Naïs
2. Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress
2. Wagner: Prelude to act III of Lohengrin
2. Bach: Overture from orchestral suite no. 4
2. Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream
2. Handel: Messiah
2. Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio
2. Wagner: Prelude to act III of Tristan und Isolde
2. Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
2. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
2. Verdi: The Force of Destiny
2. Glass: Prelude to Akhnaten
2. Wagner: Prelude to act I of Lohengrin
2. Mendelssohn: Trumpet Overture
2. Wagner: Prelude to act I of Parsifal

In a general guide, but not specific, order:

Bach's 3rd Orchestral Suite Overture
1812
Coriolan
Consecration of the House
Hebrides
Bach's 2nd Orchestral Suite Overture
Marraige of Figaro
Midsummer Night's Dream
Handel's Fireworks
Judus Maccabaeus
Magic Flute
Don Giovanni
Tristan Und Isolde act 1, at certain times of day

I like:
- the ouverture of Monteverdi's l'Orfeo
- the ouverture of Mozart's Zauberflöte
- the ouverture of Verdi's Nabucco
- the ouverture (sonatinao) of J.S. Bach's Actus Tragicus Cantate BWV 106

Favourite ones include

Mendelssohn The Hebrides
Beethoven Coriolan
Mozart Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Die Entführung
Schreker Vorspiel zu einen Drama
Wagner Parsifal (indeed)
Schumann Manfred
Tchaikovsky Hamlet (Simon recording)
Delius Irmelin
Langgaard Antichrist, prelude (Stupel recording)

No Order:

Magic Flute
Figaro
Seraglio
Clemenza di tito
Don Giovanni
Cosi Fan Tutte
Oberon
Euranthe
Der Freischutz
Barber of Seville
Thieving Magpie
William Tell
Forza Del Destino
Ruslan and Ludmilla
Fierrbas

Of concert overtures: Schumann's Manfred Overture is a masterpiece I think. Berlioz wrote lots of good ones (including the interesting but often forgotten Tempest Overture); my favourite is the relatively famous King Lear. Also Mendelssohn wrote some good ones

Of operatic overtures: in addition to the well known overtures from his late operas, Mozart's The Impressario has a fine overture. Pretty much all of Wagner's are fantastic.

I do think some distinction should be made between concert overtures and operatic ones. Concert overtures are essentially tone poems before the term was coined.

Strauss - Die Fledermaus (The Bat)

Best overture ever made

My top 5

Marriage of Figaro - Mozart
Cosi Fan Tutte - Mozart
Barber of Seville - Rossini
Midsummer Night's Dream - Mendelssohn
Candide - Bernstein

Schumann Manfred
Schumann Braut von Messina
Schumann Julius Caesar
Schumann Herman und Dorothea
Beethoven Egmont

Beethoven: Egmont
Mozart: The Magic Flute
Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro
Schumann: Manfred
Rossini: The Barber of Seville
Wagner: Tannhauser
Schoenberg: Gurrelieder
Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress

I love Poet and Pesant and William Tell. So much fun!

Barber: The School for Scandal
LvB: Leonora 3
LvB: Egmont
Berlioz: Rob Roy
Bernstein: Candide
Brahms: Academic Festival
Brahms: Tragic
Dvorak: Carnival
Elgar: Alassio: In the South
Gershwin: Cuban
Mendelssohn: Hebrides
Mozart: Marriage of Figaro
Mozart: Cosi fan tutte
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Mozart: Magic Flute
Nielsen: Maskarade
Rossini: William Tell
Schubert: Rosamunde
Schumann: Manfred
Tchaikovsky: Romeo & Juliet Fantasy

Nicolai: Der Tempelritter
Rossini: Il Signor Bruschino
Sullivan: Il Ballo
Brahms: Academic Festival
Von Suppe: Light Cavalry
Beethoven: King Stephen
Smetana: The Bartered Bride
Dvorak: Carnival
" In Nature's Realm
Elgar: In the South (Alassio)
Bizet: La Patrie
Wagner: Rienzi
Thomas: Mignon
Auber: The Crown Diamonds
Offenbach: Overture To A Grand Orchestra
Nielsen: Helios
Walton: Scapin
Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini
Berlioz: Roman Carnival

I haven't made my mind yet, too busy currently.

Keep up the good work with posting interesting overtures

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Edit to add, in no specific order:

Academic Festival (Brahms)
Tragic (Brahms)
Manfred (Schumann)
Braut von Messina (Schumann)
Philemon und Baucis (Haydn)
L'Isola Disabitata (Haydn)
Il Ritorno di Tobia (Haydn)
Fireworks Overture (Handel)
The Force of Destiny (Verdi)
Lohengrin preludes (Wagner)
Smetana - all of his overtures!
and some of Mozart and Rossini's overtures.

My problem about Wagner is I don't have many Operas from him, but I have two CDs of his preludes and overtures (Decca and Naxos Best of Wagner). So I just know them not the Opera themselves.