I've seen classical threads, but don't know if I've ever seen a thread devoted entirely to opera.
I've got to admit there are some opera composers that I never warmed to. Rossini being one of them.
Some of my favorites are German and Russian operas.
Modest Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov
Richard Wagner - Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, The Ring, hell all of his operas.
Richard Strauss - Elektra
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - the Snow Maiden
As far as Italian: Puccini's operas are magnificent.
Big opera lover here. Some of my favourites:
Parsifal
Le Nozze di Figaro
Boris Godunov
Elektra
Madama Butterfly
Aida...
Do you have favourite recordings as well?
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
The italian composers are amongst my favourites, Puccini, Verdi etc. I enjoy Rossini's operas - love Guillaume Tell, but also others like L'italiana in Algeri, La Cenerentola and La gazza ladra. The italian operas are generally expressed with an intensity to me like no other, especially the melodramma .
Other favourites:
Le Nozze di Figaro
Elektra
Carmen
Tristan und Isolde
As for favourite recordings I can pick just one for the moment, which was conducted by one of the greatest ever - Arturo Toscanini:
Puccini.jpg
"Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth. ". Ludwig van Beethoven
As an off-topic note, Choral music as well would make an interesting thread too.
"Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth. ". Ludwig van Beethoven
Although I am a huge classical fan (only 20th century and more recent, and contemporary), I have yet to warm up to opera.
As an Alban Berg fan, I recently bought the complete 'LuLu' opera, but have not had time to sit down with it yet. I also have Britten's 'War Requiem", which I have heard bits and pieces, and enjoyed what I heard.
I have heard individual arias from the classic operas, and have enjoyed and appreciated the skill, but if there is any hope for me to really get into opera, it will have to be 20th century and more recent.
And if there were a god, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence - Russell
Lulu is great, but Wozzeck is even better. If you like Berg you sort of know what you are in for musically, but I can't think of an opera that has a more shattering final scene - or maybe even any work of art for that matter.
That makes it a hard listen/watch - so I can't say it's an opera I love.
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
Some that own on CD:
Britten-The Turn Of The Screw, brilliant writing for chamber orchestra. The Collins recording re-issued on Naxos is one of the better performances. And the original Peter Grimes conducted by the composer on Decca. Albert Herring on Collins (Naxos re-issue) is also superb!
Shostakovich-Lady Macbeth Of Metsenk w/ Galina in the lead role on EMI
Mussorgsky's are all good, even if they were finished by Rimsky-Korsokov.
Schnittke-Life With An Idiot on Sony
Schoenberg-Moses Und Aaron by Boulez
Ligeti-Le Grand Macabre on sony
Poulenc-Dialogues des Carmelites conducted by Kent Nagano
Berlioz-Les Troyens, live version led by Sir Colin Davis
Hindemith-Mathis Der Maler on EMI; Cardillac on Decca; Das Nusch-Nuschi on Wergo
Janacek- The Cunning Little Vixen, I like the English version by Simon Rattle
There's also a cheap box set of 5 operas on Decca led by Sir Charles Mackerras. 9 CDs
For those who want the deluxe editions with libretto, look for used copies. I bought most of mine for 3-5 dollars. Much better than paying 30 bucks. Also check budget labels like Brilliant Classics. They have tons of good stuff really cheap. I have their Prince Igor by Borodin, and Beethoven's Leonore. Otherwise there's lots of cheap, no frills box sets, if you just want cardboard sleeves.
Last edited by Reid; 11-20-2015 at 12:03 AM.
Barbara Hannigan is one of the current top vocalists, and very funny.
In terms of great 20th C operas, other than Wozzeck and Lulu, I particularly like:
Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle - the recording by Boulez, the Chicago SO, Jessye Norman and Laszlo Polgar was my first exposure to this and it's outstanding.
Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise - the greatest composer of the century's greatest work IMO. The Kent Nagano live recording is splendid.
Birtwistle's Gawain - less ambitious than The Mask of Orpheus but much more profound musically. I've got the Elgar Howarth conducted recording on Collins Classics - not sure if it's still available.
[Pause to note the above three conductors all did recordings of Zappa's stuff. Hmm.]
Finally, George Benjamin's Written on Skin. It's 21st C, but IMO it's the best English language opera since Dido and Aeneas. There, I said it. The recording Benjamin conducted is the only one around.
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
I can appreciate the beauty of certain operatic songs as songs in themselves, but I have never particularly loved the opera as a medium of entertainment.
Being a massive Debussy fan, a few years ago I went to a performance of his opera Pelleas et Melisande. It did not convert me. I enjoyed the orchestral parts between the songs as music for its own sake, but, like all operas I have chanced to see, it seemed a very unnatural and convoluted way to tell a story.
Wagner
Puccini
That's it.
Anything by Wagner....and I mean anything!
Tommy, by The Who.
Some of my favorite recordings aren't always the critics favorites.
Wagner - Parsifal - Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic, Peter Hoffman DG
Verdi - Otello - Karajan, Vienna Philharmonic, Mario del Monaco, London
Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov - Fedoseyev, USSR Symphony, Alexander Vedernikov, Phillips
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West - Capuana, Orchestra e coro dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma, Tebaldi, London
Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen, Solti, London
Great recordings to check out here for sure, I love Karajan's interpretations but never listened to Parsifal. Neither that one conducted by the great Solti. Also undoubtly worth checking out Mussorgsky's, I know nothing of his (not even heard his PAAE), but with the URSS Symphonic Orchestra might be a no brainer imo, I have a recording with them of Strauss' Alpine Symphony conducted by Evgeni Svetlanov, which is one of my very favourites, awesome!Originally Posted by Fracktured
Last edited by Rick Robson; 11-22-2015 at 07:26 PM.
"Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth. ". Ludwig van Beethoven
Now that I'm an aging ninny and have a little free time, I can enjoy me some Opera
Paisiello: PULCINELLA VENDICATO and LA SERVA PEDRONA
Mayerbeer: ROBERT LE DIALBE
Piccinni: CECCHINA
Dvorak: RUSALKA
Bellini: Il Pirata
Donizetti: DON PASQUALE
Puccini: TURANDOT
Ferrandini: CANTON IN UTICA
Peri: EURIDICE
Monteverdi: RITORNO D'ULISEE IN PATRIA and L'ORFEO and POPPEA
Gounoud: FAUST
Respighi: LUCREZIA
Mercadante: MARIA STUARDA REGINA DI SCOZIA
Verdi: FALSTAFF and UN BALLO IN MASCHERA
Gallupi: MONDO ALLA ROVERSA
Can't share the love for Wagner. In the "War Of The Romantics", I feverishly side with Leipzig.
I didn't know this at all, but a friend recently loaned me his blu-ray of Renee Fleming doing this at the Met in NY. What a gorgeous score - and a gorgeous production, too.
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
I would have liked to seen this production. Me and my brother used to go to the Met every year but haven't gone in quite awhile.
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I have never sat through an entire opera, but I really enjoy the music from Alexander Borodin's - Prince Igor
I always equated opera with professional wrestling -- without the body slams.
I don't think there's even a come back for that.
I can't listen to opera since Pavarotti died!
I'll bet if I gave you ten plots, and ten character names, you'd be unable to separate Opera from Pro Wrestling.
And you can't seem to separate yourself from stupid comments.
NFW!
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