Thread: Favourite opera overture

I wonder why thread like this is missing here.

So what is your favourite opera overture/prelude?

Please don't discuss about your favourite operas in this thread, but really about opera overtures. It can be considered as a separate work and often is performed in this manner. Excellent overture can introduce poor opera and and excellent opera can starts with poor overture.

My favourites are:

Marriage of Figaro
Oberon
Ruslan and Ludmilla
Meistersinger
La forza del destino (there are two versions I think)
Carmen
Pelleas et Melisande
The Cunning Little Vixen

Haha, these I'm more familiar with, if only slightly so...

Oberon
Russlan and Ludmilla
Der Freischutz

And after that I draw a blank... but still, better than my list of favorite operas which still numbers precisely one!

Tannhauser is my absolute favorite. Karajan is good with this, as is Tennstedt.

Anything by Rossini (Barber of Seville, Thieving Magpie, William Tell)
Beethoven's Fidelo/Leonora overtures
Mozart (The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni)

Der Freischütz
The Force of Destiny
Light Cavalry
Fidelio
The Flying Dutchman

The above overtures are great, but I'm really a bigger fan of concert overtures.

Tannhauser
Der Fliegende Hollander
Der Rosenkavalier
Capriccio
Le Nozze di Figaro
Die Zauberflote
Carmen
Fidelio
Candide
Ruslan and Ludmilla
La Forza del Destino
Die Fledermaus
...and about half a dozen of Rossini's overtures.

Oooh, Carmen is another good one. Love it, love it!

Tristan und Isolde

Rigoletto because of its short, brutal, no-nonsense introduction to the terrible events to unfold.

Le Nozze di Figaro for its high spirit and great lyric range. It tells you that some fun is soon to appear.

Don Giovanni because it sets us up for some drama yet tempers that with a lighter less tragic tone. It also starts the opera right away without any wasted time.

Originally Posted by Tapkaara

Tannhauser is my absolute favorite. Karajan is good with this, as is Tennstedt.

It is my favourite too.I recommend Haitink and Klemperer for the recordings.As you said Tennstedt is also very good.

Originally Posted by Atabey

It is my favourite too.I recommend Haitink and Klemperer for the recordings.As you said Tennstedt is also very good.

Hmm, I've not heard either of these. I'm sure the Klemperer is very good.

My favourites are:

Tannhauser ( Original and Paris Version with Ballet attached)
La Forza del Destino
Parsifal
Die Fledermaus
Prelude to Eugene Onegin ( not technically an overture)
Nabucco
Aida (Overture, not Prelude)

My few favorites would be:

Egmont (If that can count)
The Thieving Magpie
The Marriage of Figaro
Candide

Originally Posted by Yagan Kiely

Tristan und Isolde

Great overture to an at least equally great opera.

Originally Posted by Rachovsky

The Thieving Magpie

Yeah! That's another good call- and one I didn't think of instantly!
[Edit- I just saw that Sid entered this one earlier!]

The ones I did think of instantly were:
Beethoven: Leonore #3
Wagner:
Tannhäuser Overture & Venusberg Music
Die Meistersinger
Prelude Act III/Lohengrin
and, of course, Dutchman, Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, Rienzi, hel... pretty much all of them (even Das Liebesverbot!)

And in the "warhorses" category...
Hérold's Zampa
Thomas- Mignon
Suppé's Boccaccio

Oooh, good question-- and hard to answer with a limited list.

But here goes (not in any particular order)....

1) Beethoven: Lenore #3
2) Janacek: Jealousy
3) Rubinstein: Dmitri Donskoi
4) Reznicek: Donna Diana
5) Wagner: Tristan and Isolde
6) Wagner: The Flying Dutchman
7) Rossini: The Barber of Seville
8) Rossini: William Tell
9) Rossini: Cinderella
10) Kabalevsky: Colas Breugnon