Fore me it is these six operas that I love every note of:
Fidelio,
La Cenerentola,
Der fliegende Hollander,
L'elisir d'amore,
La Fille du Regiment,
Martha.
I really would not want to cut any opera, but could see an easier time of Meistersinger if it were shorter. And Strauss' Capriccio should be cut to about half the time. Great story, but no action equals boring. I like La Sonnambula a lot but it has its slow parts that make it a tad tedious.
Capriccio, really? A wonderfully composed look at the merits of opera and the eternal debate over which is more important, the words or the music with a fantastically witty libretto. Couldn't lose a word or note of this one either. I could see a good chunk of Sonnambula deleted with little loss to my appreciation of it though! I'm afraid I find pretty well everything Rossini wrote a bit tedious. Some nice overtures but that's about it really.
Berg's Wozzeck - its proportions seem ideal to me. Similar story with Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Britten's The Turn of the Screw, Orff's Der Mond and Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg.
I wouldn't necessarily want to cut an opera just because I found certain portions of it less lovable than others. Nearly all operas, including the very greatest, have moments or scenes we find less exciting or inspired. Nearest to totally lovable on my list are probably Fidelio, Die Walkure, Gotterdammerung, and Parsifal.
In addition to William Tell............
Tales of Hoffman
Faust
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lohengrin
The Ring
L'Elisir D'Amore
L'Italiana in Algeri
Un Giorno di Regno
Mefistofele
I love norns. I like the word: "norns." I like soprano norns, mezzo-soprano norns, and contralto norns. If you have any extra norns lying about, please send them my way.
As of now, Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde, Fidelio, and Pelléas et Mélisande. As soon as I finish the Ring cycle, I'll most likely be able to update my list.
Cos fan tutte
Figaro
Don Giovanni
Zauberflote (not including dialogue)
Carmen
Falstaff
Otello
Rigoletto
Trovatore
Don Carlo
Aida
Fidelio
Boheme
Tosca
Cenerentola
Don Carlos: Verdi
Il Trovotore: Verdi
La Donna Del Lago: Rossini
Orpheus et Eurydice: Gluck
Don Giovanni: Mozart
Cosi Fan Tutte: Mozart
Suor Angelica: Puccini
I'll add to these:
Aida: Verdi
Rigoletto: Verdi
La Traviata: Verdi
Katya Kabanova: Janacek
Lucia Di Lammermoor: Donizetti
Carmen: Bizet
La Boheme: Puccini
So difficult there are operas that I certainly love but they can have a tiny moment that I don´t like but operas were I like every part.
Simon Boccanegra
Don Carlo
Lohengrin
The Flying Dutchman
Götterdämmerung
Siegfried
Das Rheingold
Tristan und Isolde
Der Freischütz
I do have the intention to sing each role as it's on :lol:
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