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Rank your 10 favorite Verdi operas........................

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12K views 60 replies 27 participants last post by  DavidA  
#1 ·
From your favorite on down.
Your most favorite as 1 on down to 10.
:)
 
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#2 · (Edited)
1. Otello
1a. Simon Boccanegra
2. La Forza del Destino
3. Un Ballo in Maschera
4. Don Carlos (French original five-act version, not Don Carlo)
5. Rigoletto
6. Nabucco
7. Requiem (not his "best opera" but pretty good, particularly the Ingemisco)
8. Attila
9. Falstaff
10. Il Trovatore (a sentimental favorite as it was my first complete opera recording)

(Edited to correct a senior moment that made me omit my avatar, Simon Boccanegra. To make it worse it's actually my second favorite.)
 
#3 ·
Revenant said:
1. Otello
2. La Forza del Destino
3. Un Ballo in Maschera
4. Don Carlos (French original five-act version, not Don Carlo)
5. Rigoletto
6. Nabucco
7. Requiem (not his "best opera" but pretty good, particularly the Ingemisco)
8. Attila
9. Falstaff
10. Il Trovatore (a sentimental favorite as it was my first complete opera recording)
Click to expand...
Very interesting list. Is it the Abbado you have for Don Carlos?
 
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#57 ·
My list is the same as yours except that the first eight are Otello, followed by Falstaff twice!!
 
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#9 · (Edited)
Well I once remarked to a friend that my favourite Verdi opera tended to be whichever one I was listening to or watching at the time. However, with the memory of my recent Verdi marathon in mind, I'll give this a try, secure in the knowledge that tomorrow I'll have changed my mind. I find it interesting that Aida, which was once Verdi's most performed opera hasn't turned up on anyone's list so far.

Anyway here goes, with my preferred recording alongside

1. Don Carlo (preferably in the 5 act version, though Italian is fine with me) EMI/Giulini
2. La Traviata Callas live from Covent Garden 1958
3. Otello Serafin
4. Simon Boccanegra Abbado
5. Un Ballo in Maschera Callas/Votto
6. Rigoletto Serafin
7. Il Trovatore Karajan I
8. Falstaff Karajan I
9. Stiffelio Gardelli
10. Macbeth Callas/De Sabata live from La Scala but also Abbado

But I feel terrible about the ones I've left off :cry: I thought of making them all 10th equals
 
#16 · (Edited)
Yeah, what is it about Aida? There's nothing wrong with it, is there? But I don't care that much about it and it would take some incredible (probably deceased Golden Age) singers to induce me to see it. It is, to quote Ed Sullivan, a "really big shoe," but maybe that gets in the way of the human situation, or maybe everybody in it, except perhaps Amneris, is a little boring... I don't know. Those pseudo-Egyptians just don't "get" me emotionally like Violetta, Otello or Rigoletto, and for me that's what Verdi is about above all (except in Falstaff, where I mainly just love listening to the orchestra chuckle and chortle and shimmer).

What do others think about this?
 
#11 ·
Unfortunately, I'm really not familiar with Verdi's late-middle-period operas, like BALLO IN MASCHERA, so this list will probably change somewhat as I get familiar with them:

1. Rigoletto (not likely ever to change)
2. Luisa Miller
3. La Traviata
4. Otello
5. Macbeth
6. Don Carlo (in Italian)
7. Ernani
8. Il Trovatore
9. Simon Boccanegra
10. Attila
 
#18 ·
Bellinilover said:
But hey, at least I can say I like TROVATORE now! It used to be that I didn't like it much at all.
Click to expand...
I'm still not there. I do like a rousing "di quella pira" once in a while. But remind me now: who is it that's throwing babies in the fire? Or am I thinking of Hansel and Gretel? And is that a bunch of anvils making all that racket? Oh wait - that's Rheingold.

Sigh. :(
 
#17 ·
I'm actually a bit surprised Aida seems to be held in relatively low estimation. Maybe its a bit of a backlash to all its pompousity and grandeur, and maybe to the fact that it is or has been his most popular work although not his greatest. But for all of its extravagance and ornament and ceremony, I actually find it to be quite poignant in places. And I can't lie, I simply love its rich music and impassioned arias. Was Verdi ever more evocative than in Act 3 with those astonishing woodwinds that transport us directly to the Nile? And the music for the final scene is some of the most luminous and delicately nuanced he ever wrote. An uneven work perhaps, but totally indispensable nonetheless in my opinion.
 
#20 · (Edited)
SilenceIsGolden said:
An uneven work perhaps, but totally indispensable nonetheless in my opinion.
Click to expand...
I don't think Aida is uneven. Quite the reverse in fact. It is from beginning to end a masterly score, with many felicitous touches in the orchestra. The problem for me is that it rarely involves me, the characters being more operatic archetypes than flesh and blood creations like Violetta, Don Carlo, Philip or Simon Boccanegra, to name a few of Verdi's great characterisations. I admire it, but I don't love it.

The same could be said for Il Trovatore of course, but for some reason I respond more to its rude vigour, the dark tinta of the score, particularly the crepuscular cantabile of Leonora's music.
 
#41 ·
So many to choose from!

I couldn't do a top ten, but my favourite is probably (though I'm not sure!), Otello. I love La traviata as well (who doesn't?) and Rigoletto is pretty great. Macbeth, Aida and Falstaff are also favourites, and I am tempted to say Don Carlo (only ever heard it in Italian) as well.
 
#43 · (Edited)
Falstaff
Un Giorno di Regno (weird I know :)) maybe even no. 1 :eek:
Rigoletto
Il Trovatore
Macbeth
Carlos
Simon B.
the rest...............
 
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J
#47 ·
Some of my favorites have inane plots, but I am going to rank them primarily from a musical standpoint. For example, Don Carlos' ending is nonsensical and Il Trovatore is overall ridiculous and convoluted, but their scores are beyond compare. If I were to rank the operas overall and as objectively as possible, Aida would be top and Traviata a close second.

1. Don Carlos (5 act but in Italian!)
2. Aida
3. Il Trovatore
4. Rigoletto
5. La Traviata
6. Otello
7. In Ballo in Maschera
8. Macbeth
9. Simon Boccanegra
10. La Forza del Destino

I've never seen Luisa Miller. I watched Falstaff with great anticipation, and did not like it. I like my Verdi dark and bombastic. Falstaff sounds like Verdi trying to be someone else. I respect it but did not enjoy it.
 
#50 · (Edited)
Un Giorno di Regno
Rigoletto
Trovatore
Falstaff

Don't listen to others much anymore.
 
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