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Operas you do get, or like...

2K views 24 replies 10 participants last post by  sharkeysnight 
#1 · (Edited)
A companion thread to Itullian's...

Post your favourite operas!

The Conte: Perhaps it would have been easier to tell us the few operas you don't have a problem with?
Always happy to oblige! :)

I'm limiting myself to those I think are excellent (A's, not B's; the five-star brigade)

18th century
Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie
Gluck: Iphigénie en Aulide; Iphigénie en Tauride; Armide ; Paride ed Elena
Mozart : Idomeneo ; Don Giovanni ; The Marriage of Figaro ; Così fan tutte; La clemenza di Tito
Salieri: Les Danaïdes
Grétry: Richard Coeur-de-lion
Maybe Sacchini's Oedipe à Colone, too?

19th century
Italian
Rossini: L'italiana in Algeri; Barber of Seville; Cenerentola; Donna del lago; Mosè; Ermione; Maometto II; Matilde di Shabran; Guillaume Tell; Le comte Ory
Donizetti: Imelda de' Lambertazzi; Lucia di Lammermoor; Maria Stuarda; Lucrezia Borgia; Roberto Devereux; La favorite
Bellini: I puritani
Mercadante: Orazi e Curiazi; Virginia
Verdi: Macbeth; Rigoletto; Ballo in maschera; Don Carlos; Aida; Otello

German
Beethoven: Fidelio
Weber: Der Freischutz
Wagner: Flying Dutchman; Lohengrin
Lortzing: Zar und Zimmermann

French
Boieldieu : La dame blanche
Meyerbeer : Les Huguenots ; Le prophète ; Dinorah ; Vasco da Gama
Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini; La damnation de Faust; Les Troyens
Auber: Fra Diavolo; Le cheval de bronze; Gustave III
Halévy: La juive; La reine de Chypre
Offenbach : Ba-ta-clan; M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le…; Orphée aux enfers; La belle Hélène; La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein; Les brigands; La Périchole; Les contes d'Hoffmann
Adam: Le toréador
Gounod: Faust
Reyer: Sigurd
Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII
Massenet: Thaïs; La navarraise; Cendrillon; Grisélidis; Le jongleur de Notre-Dame; Chérubin; Thérèse; Ariane; Roma; Don Quichotte; Amadis

Slavic
Glinka: A Life for the Tsar; Ruslan & Lyudmila
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Rimsky-Korsakov: Sadko; The Snow Maiden; Kashchey the Deathless; The Invisible City of Kitezh
Borodin: Prince Igor
Tchaikovsky: The Maid of Orleans
Moniuszko: Straszny dwór
Smetana: The Bartered Bride

British
Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial by Jury; Pirates of Penzance; Patience; Iolanthe; Princess Ida; Mikado; Grand Duke

20th century
Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande
Strauss: Salome; Rosenkavalier; Ariadne auf Naxos; Schweigsame Frau; Friedenstag; Daphne
Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen
Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle
Puccini: Gianni Schicchi; Turandot
Paliashvili: Abesalom da Eteri
Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmélites
Britten: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Bernstein: West Side Story
Sondheim: Follies; A Little Night Music; Pacific Overtures; Sweeney Todd; Into the Woods
Theodorakis: Antigone; Elektra; Medea
Glass: Satyagraha; Akhnaten

I imagine that Schillings' Mona Lisa would be gripping onstage. And there are a few operas I'd like to hear properly, such as Barber's Antony & Cleopatra, Tippett's King Priam, Gershwin's Porgy & Bess, Walton's Troilus & Cressida, Dupont's Antar, Prokofiev's War and Peace, and more Milhaud. (Bolivar is rather good, but no score or libretto unavailable.)
 
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#3 · (Edited)
1. Boito: Mefistofele
2. Verdi: Don Carlo/Otello/Turandot/Rigoletto/Traviata/Trovatore/La Forza
3. Puccini: Madama Butterfly/Tosca/Boheme/Fanciulla del West/Manon Lescaut
4. Menotti: The Consul/Saint of Bleecker Street
5. Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites
6. Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin
7.Giordano: Andrea Chenier
8. Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur
9. Janacek: Jenufa
10. Strauss: Salome
11. Gounod: Romeo et Juliette/Faust
12. Halevy: La Juive
14. Montemezzi:L'amor dei tre re
15.Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana
16. Leoncavallo: Pagliacci
17. Bellini: Norma
18. Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor
19. Massenet: Manon
20. Wagner: Parsifal/Gotterdammerung
21. Bizet: Carmen
22. Britten: Billy Budd
23. Mozart: Don Giovanni
24. Sondheim: Sweeney Todd (is this REALLY permitted? Not by Sondheim it isn't!)
25. Bernstein: West Side Story (are you kidding me? Since when?)
 
#4 · (Edited)
TOP TWO:

Bellini: La Sonnambula

Flotow: Martha

OTHERS HIGH ON MY LIST:

Auber: Haydee

Beethoven: Fidelio

Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi

Cimarosa: Il Matrimonio Segreto

Donizetti:
Anna Bolena,
Maria Stuarda,
Roberto Devereux,
La Fille Du Regiment,
L'elisir D'amore

Gluck: Orphee et Eurydice

Handel: Giulio Cesare,

Lehar: Land des Lachelns

Mascagni: L'amico Fritz

Monteverdi:
L'Orfeo,
Il Ritorno D'Ulisse in Patria

Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov

Paisiello: Nina O Sia la Pazza per Amore

Pergolesi: La serva Padrona

Puccini:
La Fanciulla del West,
Tosca

Rossini:
Barbiere di Siviglia,
La Gazza Ladra

Saint Saens: Henry VIII

Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten

Tchaikovsky:
Eugene Onegin,
Iolanta

Verdi: il Trovatore

Weber: Der Freischutz

Wagner:
Der fliegende Hollander,
Rheingold,
Walkure,
Siegfried,
Gotterdammerung,
Lohengrin,
Tristan und Idolde,
Meistersinger,
Parsifal
 
#5 · (Edited)
Foe me it's pretty easy.
Almost exclusively German opera:
Wagner
Gluck
Von Weber
R. Strauss
Korngold
Humperdinck

Don't care for Russian or French operas.
Only enjoy Italian comic operas.
 
#9 ·
^^^I can listen to Manon, which I like ok.

Not Boheme or Butterfly though.

I buy Vicky's collection cds which I like love. :)
 
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#12 ·
Parsifal #1, Tristan #2. These leave me stupefied.

Otherwise I don't want to rank things, but, taking them more or less chronologically:

Zauberflote
Der Freischutz
The rest of Wagner
Otello
Falstaff
La Fanciulla del West (I don't know why this spaghetti western is here when I'm not a great Puccini fan)
Anything with Callas in it even if I wouldn't be caught dead listening to anyone else sing it
 
#21 ·
OperaComposer Year
OrfeoMonteverdi1607
L'incoronazione di PoppeaMonteverdi1635
Acis et GalatéeLully1686
Dido and AeneasPurcell1689
RinaldoHändel1711
Giulio CesareHändel1724
TamerlanoHändel1724
Tito ManlioVivaldi1733
La serva padronaPergolesi1733
Les Indes GalantesRameau1735
Orfeo ed EuridiceGlück1762
Die Entführung aus dem SerailMozart1782
Le Nozze di FigaroMozart1786
Don GiovanniMozart1787
Così fan tutteMozart1790
La Flauta MágicaMozart1791
Il matrimonio segretoCimarosa1792
MedeaCherubini1797
TancrediRossini1813
L'Italiana in AlgeriRossini1813
FidelioBeethoven1814
Il barbiere di SivigliaRossini1816
Der FreischützWeber1821
SemiramideRossini1823
La sonnambulaBellini1831
NormaBellini1831
L'elisir d'amoreDonizetti1832
I puritaniBellini1835
Lucia di LammermoorDonizetti1835
Maria StuardaDonizetti1835
La JuiveHalévy1835
Les HuguenotesMeyerbeer1836
MacbethVerdi1843
Der fliegende HolländerWagner1843
TannhäuserWagner1845
LohengrinWagner1848
RigolettoVerdi1851
Les TroyensBerlioz1853
La TraviataVerdi1853
Il trovatoreVerdi1853
FaustGounod1859
Tristan e IsoldaWagner1859
HamletThomas1868
Don CarloVerdi1867
Die Meistersinger von NürnbergWagner1867
AidaVerdi1871
Boris GodunovMussorgski1872
Der Ring des NibelungenWagner1874
CarmenBizet1875
Samson et DalilaSaint-Saëns1877
Eugene OneginTchaikovsky1879
Les Contes d'HoffmannOffenbach1880
La GiocondaPonchielli1880
ParsifalWagner1882
OtelloVerdi1887
PagliacciLeoncavallo1890
Cavalleria RusticanaMascagni1890
Píkovaya damaTchaikovsky1890
Adriana LecouvreurCilea1892
WertherMassenet1892
FalstaffVerdi1893
ThaïsMassenet1894
Andrea ChénierGiordano1896
La BohèmePuccini1896
ToscaPuccini1900
RusalkaDvorak1901
Pelleas et MelisandeDebussy1902
JenufaJanacek1904
Madama ButterflyPuccini1904
SalomeStrauss1905
ElektraStrauss1909
Der RosenkavalierStrauss1911
Ariadne auf NaxosStrauss1912
A kékszakállú herceg váraBartok1913
Die GezeichnetenSchreker1915
Il TritticoPuccini1917
Die Tote StadtKorngold1920
Katia KabanovaJanacek1921
WozzeckBerg1925
Doktor FaustBusoni1925
CardillacHindemith1926
Věc MakropulosJanacek1926
TurandotPuccini1926
Moses und AronSchönberg1934
Lady MacbethShostakovich1934
Porgy & BessGershwin1935
LuluBerg1937
Peter GrimesBritten1945
Voiná i mirProkofiev1945
The ConsulMenotti1950
Billy BuddBritten1951
The rake's progressStravinski1951
Boulevard SolitudeHenze1952
The Turn of the ScrewBritten1954
Dialogues des CarmélitesPoulenc1957
Die SoldatenZimmermann1965
Saint François d'AssiseMessiaen1983
Nixon in ChinaAdams1987
Luci mie traditriciSciarrino1998
L'amour de loinSaariaho2000

Restricting the list up to the 20th century, as per the OP.
 
#25 ·
I (at the very least) like most of the operas I've seen, but in particular:

Satyagraha & Einstein on the Beach - two very different sides of Philip Glass's abilities, both totally enrapturing. I'll never forget how I fell in love with Satyagraha from the first three notes, and how it carried that feeling all the way to the end without breaking the spell once. Einstein on the Beach was like being picked up by a UFO and being shown a totally alternate and previously unthinkable form of living.

The Exterminating Angel & Breaking the Waves, which I'm grouping as being based on movies. Both are terrifying and exhilirating, though I think Breaking the Waves has a slight edge - Angel is beautiful (the "closet duet"!), but Waves has such a distinct sound that I love.

The Tales of Hoffman, Hansel and Gretel, & La Cenerentola - I love fairy tales so of course I turn up for these. Hoffman and Hansel both have a number of terrific songs, and Cenerentola is just fun from start to finish (particularly with the lovely Joyce DiDonato, who just breaks your heart).

Die Meistersinger - I was gripped by the psychologies of this. It's wonderfully detailed in its observations about life, goes deeply into a unique craft, and has great dramatic intrigue.

Capriccio & Salome - two different sides of Strauss. Capriccio had me from the start with its ambiguous discussion of conflicting art forms and the tragic necessity of living only one life at a time, and only in one direction. Salome, on the other hand, is disgustingly lurid, which I'm absolutely here for.

Nixon in China - my favorite of Adams's works, and so far my favorite post-1800s opera. "This is prophetic!" is such an incredible piece of work, and is representative of the opera's charms - the libretto's poetics are nothing short of astonishing, and the music is so propulsive that listening to it becomes an act of compulsion.
 
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