Give me a remedial/ end o'life Soylent Green type list of OPERA to listen to

[UTUSN]

I've been mostly a symphonic type, but the Xmas music of PAVAROTTI et al., certainly grabs me. I'm not a TOTAL ignoramus, O.K.?


I just finished reading a bio of my ever idol TCHAIKOVSKY, and have never heard The Queen of Spades or Eugene ONEGIN, O.K.?

But there are more top of the line things I should hear before I check out, O.K.?

(I'm not planning on checking out soon because I don't know my schedule, O.K.? Just want to do the whats-it-all-about NEAR-end-summary- thing, O.K.?)

So, BIZET's Carmen was and will be my forever thing, as for Pyotr. ROSSINI is one of my all timers, O.K.?!1


So here's my plan: I know Don Giovanni is a major deal. After that, wherever "Nessum Dorma" came from, I'm THERE!1, O.K.?!1


I've looked up Wiki and want a list of the Top 10 operas, maybe the next Top 20, and my plan is to get DVDs and play all of these danged things in the background while I do DU and start to LIMIT DU while I sum up the rest of My Life for my life, O.K.?!1


So, below are a couple of paragraphs from Wiki on the topic of "opera." You can forgit GLUCK and all of those early dudes. I'm starting with Wolfie. Also, you can forget about WAGNER, O.K.?!1 We're going from MOZART into the Italian jobs.

**********QUOTE**********

Opera started in Italy at the end of the 16th century (with Jacopo Peri's lost Dafne, produced in Florence around 1597) and soon spread through the rest of Europe: Schütz in Germany, Lully in France, and Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the 17th century. However, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, except France, attracting foreign composers such as Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his "reform" operas in the 1760s.

Today the most renowned figure of late 18th century opera is Mozart, who began with opera seria but is most famous for his Italian comic operas, especially The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte, as well as The Magic Flute, a landmark in the German tradition.

The first third of the 19th century saw the highpoint of the bel canto style, with Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini all creating works that are still performed today. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Meyerbeer. The mid-to-late 19th century was a "golden age" of opera, led and dominated by Wagner in Germany and Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the verismo era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Puccini and Strauss in the early 20th century.

**********UNQUOTE*********

[UTUSN]

1. O.K., here's an internet list, am skipping WAGNER, adding TCHAIKOVSKY

http://www.squidoo.com/top10operas

La Boheme - Puccini

Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ("The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution") - Rossini

Die Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute") - Mozart

Carmen - Bizet

Don Giovanni - Mozart

Aida - Verdi

Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) - Wagner

Fidelio - Beethoven

Arabella - Strauss, Richard

Die Fledermaus ("The Bat") - Strauss II, Johann

Tosca - Puccini

Le nozze di Figaro - Mozart

Otello - Rossini

Norma - Bellini

L'elisir d'amore - Donizetti

The Flying Dutchman - Wagner

Macbeth - Verdi

Elektra - Strauss, Richard

Madame Butterfly - Puccini

Manon Lescaut - Puccini

Tristan und Isolde - Wagner

Rigoletto - Verdi

The Daughter of the Regiment - Gaetano Donizetti

[Richardo]

2. I am NOT an opera buff, but I recently came across "Giulio Cesare in Egitto" by Handel...

...and I AM a Handel buff. Ergo, the first opera I really like. :thumbsup:

[UTUSN]

3. Thanks, my erudite friend. You're getting beyond the basics I'm aiming for. I love you!1 n/t

[Lilyhoney]

4. Ca Ira by Roger Waters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87a_Ira



I love this opera. It is a real opera by British rock star about the French Revolution. In English. I hope you give it a chance and enjoy it. Please let me know if you do. Thanks

Lilyhoney

[nolabear]

5. La Traviata, Don Giovanni, Porgy and Bess, The Ballad of Baby Doe

The first are just stunning classics, Porgy and Bess is beautiful beyond measure and people are a little afraid of it these days, but it's one of the few truly great American operas, as is The Ballad of Baby Doe.

I love a number of others but they've been mentioned.

[bif]

6. Tips from a long-time opera buff

I've been going to the opera since I was in college back in the mid-70s. Here is how I'd go about. Start with some of the more accessible stuff. Puccini and Verdi. Then move on to the other stuff if you like it. Best bet is to either see it live if you can. BTW "Nessun Dorma" is from Puccini's Turandot.

[hifiguy]

7. FWIW, I find Philip Glass' "Akhnaten"

stupendously beautiful.

Mozart and Rossini are definitely places to start, and Bizet's "Carmen" as well.

[UTUSN]

8. Thanks, all.Here's what I've culled from your insights & 'net lists.

I've deliberately excluded Carmen because it is the ONE that I *am* intimately familiar with. I realize these choices are obvious to connoisseurs but the ground rule was that this is a Beginner's deal, eh? TCHAIKOVSKY might not be in the top rank with these others but he's TCHAIKOVSKY. One of the reviews said about his operas that they were good for their music, not especially for their operatic drama, and I say: That's FINE with me!1

And WAGNER: No. Just, no.

There was one of many "100 best operas" lists and all of these were on it. Any of these anybody want to STRIKE (from this BASIC list)?!1


Mozart:
Marriage of Figaro
Don Giovanni
Cosi Fan Tutti
Magic Flute

Rossini
Italian in Algiers
Barber of Seville
La Cenerentola
La Gazza Ladra
Semiramide
William Tell

Tchaikovsky
Eugene Onegin
The Queen of Spades

Verdi
Ernani
Rigoletto
Il Trovatore
La Traviata
Masked Ball
La forza del destino, 10 November 1862
Don Carlos, 11 March 1867
Aida, 24 December 1871
Otello, 5 February 1887
Falstaff,

Puccini
La Bohemme
Tosca
Madame Butterfly
Girl of the Golden West
Turandot

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. I would not strike any of those.

No Wagner... I understand. If I see it live that is one thing, but Wagner is too damn heavy just to listen to. I also have seen a couple of Richard Strauss operas and I got absolutely nothing out of Elektra. It was just a bunch of screaming crazy women. He did not like to write parts for males.

IMNSHMO, Don Giovanni is the best opera ever written.

I would add: The Elixir of Love, which is a showpiece for the bass who is a con artist (Dr. Dulcamara) and also a comedy with a couple of romances on the side.

If you can see any of these live at a good opera company, that will enhance your experience immeasurably. People who don't like the opera don't know what they are talking about. Nowadays the sets and lights are spectacular, as in any other live performance, and the singers have to know how to act. Every production is different and quite imaginative.

I used to go to the opera in Houston, which has world-class productions. They used to do Hansel and Gretel in English for their children's christmas show. Then one year they did a stunning production of Babes in Toyland. Then they stopped doing Christmas shows. I am mad about that.

Some of the love duets can get pretty close to turning into the horizontal bop. I also saw simulated rape in a production of Porgy and Bess.

That said, I hope you have a wonderful time at the opera!!!! :bounce:

[haele]

10. Wagner's Miestersingers of Nurenburg is his lightest -

and it even has jokes (well, operatic versions of jokes) in the plot. It's the Wagner for those who hate Wagner.

Here's some other Operas that haven't been listed:

Modern -
Scott Joplin's Tremonisha

Beethovan -
Fidelio

And did you know Vivaldi wrote at least 50 known - perhaps as many as 90 operas? They were more like vaudiville or musical television (Cop Rock, anyone?) than they were what we today think of as opera, but the few I've heard were ... interesting, to say the least.
Haele