GMG's Greatest Opera Poll of 2017

[aesthetic]

10 - Glass: Les Enfants Terribles
9 - Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
8 - Glass: Akhnaten
7 - Dvořák: Rusalka
6 - Verdi: Macbeth
5 - Purcell: The Fairy Queen
4 - Adams: Nixon in China
3 - Handel: Xerxes
2 - Vivaldi: Giustino
1 - Feldman: Neither

[TheGSMoeller]

10 - Glass: Les Enfants Terribles
9 - Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
8 - Glass: Akhnaten
7 - Dvořák: Rusalka
6 - Verdi: Macbeth
5 - Purcell: The Fairy Queen
4 - Adams: Nixon in China
3 - Handel: Xerxes
2 - Vivaldi: Giustino
1 - Feldman: Neither

Great list, aesthetic. Especially your top 3.

[schnittkease]

TheGSMoeller - you can break ties by the amount of users that nominated each work. Just a thought.

[TheGSMoeller]

TheGSMoeller - you can break ties by the amount of users that nominated each work. Just a thought.

Good idea, I will use that. Good news for this poll is that the first tie is for 15th place.

[TheGSMoeller]

The Top Ten

1. Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro - 85
2. Wagner: Tristan und Isolde 65
3. Berg: Wozzeck - 57
4. Mozart: Don Giovanni - 53
5. Wagner: Die Walkure - 49.5
6. Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande - 49
7. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte - 34
8. Monteverdi: L'Orfeo - 33
9. Puccini: Turandot - 27
10.Wagner: Parsifal - 26


11. Verdi: Falstaff - 25.5
12. Berlioz: Les Troyens 24
13. Purcell: Dido & Aeneas 23
14. Verdi: Otello 23
15. Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov 22
16. Mozart: Cosi fan tutte 22
17. Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle 21
18. Strauss: Salome - 21
19. Dean : Bliss 20
20. Wagner: Das Rheingold 18.5
21. Wagner: Die Meistersingers 18
22. Wagner: Götterdämmerung 17.5
23. Janáček: Cunning Little Vixen 17
24. Szymanowski: King Roger 15
25. Bizet: Carmen 13

[Mirror Image]

Good to see Berg's Wozzeck has such a strong standing after the dust has settled.

[Florestan]

1. Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro - 85

I saw that coming! Yay! 

25. Bizet: Carmen 13

Well, at least it's there... 

[Wanderer]

An excellent list, except for a minor blip near the end.

[Wanderer]

21. Wagner: Die Meistersingers 18

...von Bonn? ...von Hamburg? ...von Friedrichshain?   

[Florestan]

For the next round, may I suggest "Greatest Solo Piano Works (non-sonata, only one per composer, could be an individual piece or a whole cycle)"? 

[GioCar]

+10 Le nozze di Figaro
+9 Luci mie traditrici (Salvatore Sciarrino.... no one else will vote for this so I'm giving it lots of points)
+8 Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern
+7 Così fan tutte
+6 Don Giovanni
+5 Boris Godunov (original version preferably)
+4 Mittwoch aus Licht
+3 Die Soldaten
+2 Das Rheingold
+1 Le grand macabre

I don't listen to opera a lot.

Bonus list, musical edition:

+10 Fiddler on the Roof
+9 West Side Story
+8 My Fair Lady
+7 1776
+6 A Chorus Line
+5 Guys & Dolls
+4 Avenue Q
+3 Rent
+2 The Producers
+1 Les Miz

10 Bliss (Dean)
9 Tristan und Isolde
8 Luci Mie Traditrici
7 Shadowtime
6 Punch and Judy
5 Lear
4 Hamlet (Dean)
3 Götterdämmerung
2 Le Grand Macabre
1 Die Walküre

The Sciarrino took 17 points so it should be somewhere in the list...

[Spineur]

I saw that coming! Yay! 

Well, at least it's there... 

The list is in fact remarkably close from the most performed opera, except of course the order. 😀
Maybe the Dean and Szymanowski would not have made it.  And of course many more Verdi's opera would be on the list.  Already, if TsarasLondon would have participated, Verdi would have gotten 45 extra points !

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

The Sciarrino took 17 points so it should be somewhere in the list...

I had a Sciarrino opera phase earlier in the year. This one is probably his best.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Good to see Berg's Wozzeck has such a strong standing after the dust has settled.

Well............GMG isn't a huge forum and the amount of people voting in this poll gives a lot of voting power to very few voters I guess

[TheGSMoeller]

The Sciarrino took 17 points so it should be somewhere in the list...

Good catch, Gio, the second list there didn't have composer names so I must've filed it differently when I compiled them all. Thanks!

[Florestan]

The list is in fact remarkably close from the most performed opera, except of course the order. 😀
Maybe the Dean and Szymanowski would not have made it.  And of course many more Verdi's opera would be on the list.  Already, if TsarasLondon would have participated, Verdi would have gotten 45 extra points !

Call me an old fart but for me a list of Top 25 Greatest Operas with no Handel, Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti is deeply flawed. I mean, seriously guys, no Baroque (other than... Purcell?) and no Belcanto at all? Will the Doom&Gloom Brigade ever be defeated? 

[André]

Norma was my # 1 choice and yet it didn't make the list. I'll bet that fewer than 25% of those who voted ever heard it in full. Mind you, that's the case for me with a lot of works others seem to love 

[ritter]

First and foremost, thanks to TheGSMoeller for organizing this poll (and the previous ones)! 

As for the results, I'd say they clearly show this is a classical music forum, rather than an opera one. In general, the I'd say results seem to reflect the pereceived "absolute" musical quality of the works voted for, rather than their popularity  on the opera stage. I'm sure in a "pure" opera forum, we'd have much more Verdi and Puccini, some bel canto, probably less Wagner,  and even Massenet and that sort of thing. I'm not saying this as a criticism of any sort: 7 of my choices made it to the top 25 list (reflecting the exquisite taste we all have here on GMG  ).

And I'd say it's worth pointing out that the first "real" opera, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, made it to the top 10; what a miraculous work!   

[Spineur]

I would add to your wise remarks, that the lack of interest in bel canto and more generally the italian operatic heritage may in fact prefigure what may happen to the real operatic scenes in the 21st century.  Taste do change (Meyerbeer went to glory to demise).  I go to about to 8 live operas a year mostly in Paris and Lyon, and the programation of these scenes has become far more diverse (in fact far more diverse than this poll says).  But it is true that the programmation for italian opera is receeding some, not so much Verdi and Puccini than the bel canto composers.
What is clearly wrong, is the absence of Baroque operas which have been the programmatic favor in the past few years.  Who would have believed that Cavalli Eliogabo would ever be programmed at the Paris opera.  This programmatic renewal has not benefited to contemporary operas which still have a lot of trouble to make it beyond their creation.

[Florestan]

this is a classical music forum, rather than an opera one.

I'm afraid I don't quite get the difference. Is not Opera a subgenre of Classical Music? The list of composers who wrote both operas and "absolute music" is a very long one.