Thread: Verdi Operas Beginner

I am someone looking to aquire a taste for Verdi. I absolutely love Puccini's La Boheme, and I love his orchestration. However, when I listen to Verdi I find that the orchestra is almost completely neglected. However, because so many people find his operas genius, I thought I'd give them another go. I need an opera with great arias and perhaps a bit more orchestra involvement. In layman's terms, I need a really good Verdi opera.

Verdi wasn't as great an orchestrator as Puccini IMO. But there are lots of Verdi operas with great arias - Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Don Carlos, Aida, etc. Hard to single out any one of them, and I'm terrible at predicting what other people will like - but if you would hold a gun to my head I'd say "try Aida."

I would start off with three: La Traviata (part of his series of "galley operas", I believe), Aida, and Otello. You might especially like Aida, as the orchestra plays some great Egyptian-tinged music (appropriately).

It depends on your appreciation level.If you are the beginner of verdi.I think La Traviata .Rigoletto,definetly will be the good choice to start verdi journey.as to Aida and Otello you could listen that later.good luck