Top 10 Favorite Operas

Started by kyjo, September 17, 2013, 01:19:20 PM

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TheGSMoeller

#40
Quote from: mc ukrneal on September 17, 2013, 08:42:23 PM
Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel.

Was my first opera I ever saw live, such a wonderful expeirence. Great pick, Neal.

Sammy

Mozart - Magic Flute
Handel - Agrippina
Handel - Ariodante
Handel - Giulio Cesare
Moore - Ballad of Baby Doe
Copland - The Tender Land
Beethoven - Fidelio
R. Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier
Shostakovich - Lady Macbeth
Weinberg - The Passenger

mc ukrneal

Quote from: TheGSMoeller on September 17, 2013, 08:50:42 PM
Was my first opera to ever saw live, such a wonderful expeirence. Great pick, Neal.
One of my first as well. I like to recommend this opera as a way to test interest in the genre. Being in German, it doesn't have the stigma that Italian opera sometimes has, it is a story most people know, and it doesn't last overly long.
Be kind to your fellow posters!!

Octave

#43
Always the nuisance, I feel compelled by compulsion to request that contributors revise their lists with very brief notes on a strongly preferred recording for each or some of their selections, if one stands out as a massive favorite for a given opera.  No ASIN links/images are necessary.
I only ask for posterity's sake.  Do it if the spirit moves you!
Help support GMG by purchasing items from Amazon through this link.

Christo

Not an opera fan - I prefer the music in them.  ;) Operas that I enjoyed, partly because I saw them in live performances:

Wagner - Parsifal
Borodin - Prince Igor
Dvořák - Rusalka
Janáček - Jenůfa
Janáček - Z mrtvého domu (From the House of the Dead)
Respighi - La Fiamma
Respighi - Maria egiziaca
Gershwin - Porgy and Bess
Vaughan Williams - The Pilgrim's Progress
Barber - Anthony and Cleopatra
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

Wanderer

I'm giving you 15. One per composer and in no particular order (runners-up in parentheses):

Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde)
R. Strauss: Elektra (Salome, Die Frau ohne Schatten)
Schreker: Die Gezeichneten
Zemlinsky: Eine florentinische Tragödie (Der Zwerg)
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni)
Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle
Szymanowski: Król Roger
Berlioz: Les Troyens
Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin
Korngold: Die tote Stadt (Das Wunder der Heliane)
Vaughan Williams: The Pilgrim's Progress
Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmélites
Puccini: Tosca
Offenbach: Les contes d'Hoffmann (La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein)


Drasko

#46
Few more than ten, I'm weak.

Monteverdi - L'incoronazione di Poppea
Lully - Armide
Lully - Roland
Rameau - Zoroastre
Rameau - Les Boreades
Gluck - Iphigenie en Tauride
Mozart - Cosi fan tutte
Verdi - Il Trovatore
Verdi - Otello
Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin
Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov
Debussy - Pelleas et Melisande
Strauss - Salome
Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier
Poulenc - Les mamelles de Tiresias
Stravinsky - Oedipus Rex

Quote from: Octave on September 17, 2013, 10:14:57 PM
Always the nuisance, I feel compelled by compulsion to request that contributors revise their lists with very brief notes on a strongly preferred recording for each or some of their selections, if one stands out as a massive favorite for a given opera.  No ASIN links/images are necessary.
I only ask for posterity's sake.  Do it if the spirit moves you!

Poppea Jaroussky/De Niese/Christie DVD, Armide Herreweghe 2, Roland Rousset, Zoroastre Christie, Boreades Gardiner on CD or Christie DVD, Gluck Minkowski, Cosi my favorite is Della Casa Bohm but is seriously cut so not really a recommendation, Trovatore Mehta, Otello Del Monaco live, either Scala Votto or Serafin RAI, both '54 I think, neither sounding great, Onegin Hvorostovsky/Bychkov + Nortsov/Kozlovsky/Melik-Pashayev on Naxos, Boris that is really tough maybe Gergiev 2 version box, Pelleas Boulez DVD + one of the older French recordings like Desormiere or Inghelbrecht, Salome Welitsch '49, Der Rosenkavalier Kleiber DVD either one, Poulenc Denise Duval/Cluytens, Stravinsky himself in stereo + Ozawa DVD.

The new erato

Quote from: Drasko on September 18, 2013, 02:10:32 AM
Few more than ten, I'm weak.

Poulenc - Les mamelles de Tiresias
Fun one that (I've seen it live).

Many favorites here among the pre-Tchaikovsky crowd though I would have included Monteverdi's Orfeo + a handful of Handel (nice alliteration if I'm permitted to point it out).

Drasko

Quote from: The new erato on September 18, 2013, 02:28:04 AM
Many favorites here among the pre-Tchaikovsky crowd though I would have included Monteverdi's Orfeo + a handful of Handel (nice alliteration if I'm permitted to point it out).

I was thinking about including Orfeo.
As for Handel, beyond discs of arias I just can't seem to get into him. I've tried operas, cantatas ... but in longer stretches he just bores me to tears, and that's strange give that I enjoy immensely operas that many find far more boring (like recitative heavy, aria light French tragedies lyriques or early Venetian stuff for that matter).

Cato

#11 - Rimsky-Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

bhodges

Quote from: Cato on September 18, 2013, 03:10:52 AM
#11 - Rimsky-Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya

I feel very lucky to have seen this staged, some ten years ago when Valery Gergiev brought several Kirov productions to the Met - a thrilling experience.

Just checked the Met's archive - for any Rimsky-Korsakov - and they have done Le Coq d'Or (on an interesting double-bill with Cavalleria Rusticana) and (believe it or not) Sadko, but the last show of either was...1932:o

--Bruce

TheGSMoeller

Quote from: Octave on September 17, 2013, 10:14:57 PM
Always the nuisance, I feel compelled by compulsion to request that contributors revise their lists with very brief notes on a strongly preferred recording for each or some of their selections, if one stands out as a massive favorite for a given opera.  No ASIN links/images are necessary.
I only ask for posterity's sake.  Do it if the spirit moves you!

Monteverdi: Orfeo  -  René Jacobs/Concerto Vocale/Harmonia Mundi
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas - Currentzis/MusicAeterna/Alpha
Rameau: Castor et Pollux -  Kevin Mallon/Ensemble Aradia/Naxos
Mozart: The Magic Flute - René Jacobs/Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/Harmonia Mundi
Berg: Lulu - Boulez/Opera de Paris/DG
Berg: Wozzeck - Ingo Metzmacher/Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg/EMI
Prokofiev: The Fiery Angel - Neeme Jarvi/Gothenburg Symphony/DG
Britten: Death in Venice - Richard Hickox/City of London Sinfonia/Chandos
Britten: Midsummer Nights Dream - Richard Hickox/City of London Sinfonia/Virgin
Glass: Beauty and the Beast - Reisman/Philip Glass Ensemble/Nonesuch

kyjo

Quote from: Christo on September 17, 2013, 10:43:27 PM
Not an opera fan - I prefer the music in them.  ;) Operas that I enjoyed, partly because I saw them in live performances:

Wagner - Parsifal
Borodin - Prince Igor
Dvořák - Rusalka
Janáček - Jenůfa
Janáček - Z mrtvého domu (From the House of the Dead)
Respighi - La Fiamma
Respighi - Maria egiziaca
Gershwin - Porgy and Bess
Vaughan Williams - The Pilgrim's Progress
Barber - Anthony and Cleopatra

Nice list, Johan! Interesting to see Respighi made it onto your list. I've been meaning to investigate his operas for quite some time. Where would you recommend starting? :)

kyjo

Can't believe I forgot about Enescu's masterful Oedipe:

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The overwhelmingly enthusiastic Amazon reviews say it all. A couple say that it is the greatest opera of the 20th century, and I think they've got a point! It's a highly dramatic and original work with lots of colorful impressionism and even some expressionism thrown in there. If you like his Symphony no. 3, you'll love Oedipe!

Christo

Quote from: kyjo on September 18, 2013, 11:12:21 AM
Nice list, Johan! Interesting to see Respighi made it onto your list. I've been meaning to investigate his operas for quite some time. Where would you recommend starting? :)

Thanks, Kyle!  :) I myself always had a special liking for 'late' Respighi, mid 1920s till his death. That includes his three final operas, Maria egiziaca (Mary from Egypt), La Fiamma, and also Lucrezia, finished by Elsa Respighi I think. To be honest: I never heard the other ones, as I don't hear operas that often at all. These woke my interest when I heard Maria egeziaca, and that's still were I would turn to first. It's very much in his late 'mystic neo-classicist' style that I like most.  ;)
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

kyjo

Quote from: Christo on September 18, 2013, 12:06:41 PM
Thanks, Kyle!  :) I myself always had a special liking for 'late' Respighi, mid 1920s till his death. That includes his three final operas, Maria egiziaca (Mary from Egypt), La Fiamma, and also Lucrezia, finished by Elsa Respighi I think. To be honest: I never heard the other ones, as I don't hear operas that often at all. These woke my interest when I heard Maria egeziaca, and that's still were I would turn to first. It's very much in his late 'mystic neo-classicist' style that I like most.  ;)

Thanks, Johan! :) I think I'll start with this well-received recording of La Fiamma, as the (only?) recording of Maria egiziaca is terribly expensive and the Marco Polo recording of Lucrezia had received some middle-of-the-road ratings due to the performances:


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Lisztianwagner

#56
The temptation of including all Wagner's operas is very strong, but I'll put only some of them....

Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen
Wagner Tristan und Isolde
Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro
Bizet Carmen
Strauss Salomé
Berg Wozzeck
Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin
Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande
Ravel L'enfant et les sortilèges
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." - Gustav Mahler

nico1616

#57
My top 10 (and favorite recordings)

1) Mozart - Don Giovanni (Giulini/EMI)
2) Puccini - Il Trittico (Pappano/EMI)
3) Handel - Giulio Cesare (Minkowski/DG)
4) Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov (Abbado/Sony)
5) Verdi - Don Carlo (Solti/Decca)
6) Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin (Solti/Decca)
7) Offenbach - Les Contes d'Hoffman (Bonynge/Decca)
8. Rossini - La Cenerentola (Chailly/Decca)
9) Janacek - Jenufa (Mackerras/Decca)
10) Rameau - Platée (Minkowski/Erato)
The first half of life is spent in longing for the second, the second half in regretting the first.

PaulR

1) Shostakovich-Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
2) Shostakovich-The Nose
3) Weinberg-The Passenger
4) Verdi-La Traviata
5) Berlioz-Les Troyens
6) Musorgsky-Boris Godunov (his own, not Rimsky's)
7) Musorgsky-Khovanshchina (Shostakovich orchestration)
8) Verdi-Rigoletto
9) Gluck-Orphee ed Euridice
10) Rossini-The Barber of Seville.

kyjo

Quote from: PaulR on September 18, 2013, 06:24:16 PM
8) Verdi-Rigoletto

Ah, don't you love it when you put a parenthese after an 8 and it becomes a "cool" emoticon? :D