Favourite Opera

[BachQ]

Die Walküre in d minor .........  0:)

[hornteacher]

For me the one perfect opera is Le Nozze di Figaro.  I love the characters, the humor, the class warfare, the battle between the sexes, the message of love and forgiveness.  The music has the best melodies in opera and I could listen to the overture every day.

[Anne]

When I first got into opera, it was I Puritani.  Then next it was Rossini's Semiramide.  Now it would be Tristan und Isolde.  Some day I hope it will be Pelleas et Melisande.  I keep working on that opera again and again but still not there yet.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Die Walküre in d minor .........  0:)

It starts in d minor but rather quickly goes to a lot of other places ..........

[springrite]

It starts in d minor but rather quickly goes to a lot of other places ..........

Maybe he only listens to the beginning.

[Operahaven]

Some day I hope it will be Pelleas et Melisande.  I keep working on that opera again and again but still not there yet.

Keep at it Anne...   

Oh, is it ever worth the effort!..... P&M  truly is one of the most rewarding of all operas.

(I better stop here.... )

[Operahaven]

The music has the best melodies in opera and I could listen to the overture every day.

Hmm...

As far as best melodies goes I would probably rank  Die Zauberflote  a bit higher....

[Anne]

Keep at it Anne...   

Oh, is it ever worth the effort!..... P&M  truly is one of the most rewarding of all operas.

(I better stop here.... )

Thank you for the encouragement.  Anything you want to say about P et M, I am interested in hearing.   

[(poco) Sforzando]

Oh, is it ever worth the effort!..... P&M  truly is one of the most rewarding of all operas.

It also opens in D minor.

[wagnernn]

Otello and Madame Butterfly.

[The new erato]

Otello and Madame Butterfly.

My favorite operas from those two composers. But my opera favorites tend to lie outside the romantic era, and I have problems deciding;  Debussy, Janacek, Mozart, Shostakovich et al are more likely to be it (but can't decide).   

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I can't choose Wagner, as I love all his mature operas. So the battle is on between Pelléas et Mélisande and Duke Bluebeard's Castle...

Debussy it is. Pelléas et Mélisande is the most poetic and subtle opera I know.

[The new erato]

Debussy it is. Pelléas et Mélisande is the most poetic and sublte opera I know.

I'm very close to being of the same opinion, but find it a difficult decision.

[Ephemerid]

I can't choose Wagner, as I love all of his mature operas. So the battle is on between Pelléas et Mélisande and Duke Bluebeard's Castle...

Debussy it is. Pelléas et Mélisande is the most poetic and subtle opera I know.

Yes, yes, yes!  Pelleas it is for me too!!  0:)

[Sergeant Rock]

Thank you for the encouragement.  Anything you want to say about P et M, I am interested in hearing.   

Please, Anne...don't encourage him. You don't know what a can of worms you'd be opening 


Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

But when all is said and done I think it would have to be  Das Rheingold.....

I'm shocked, shocked. Not P&M??   

Sarge

[BachQ]

When I first got into opera, it was I Puritani.  Then next it was Rossini's Semiramide.  Now it would be Tristan und Isolde.  Some day I hope it will be Pelleas et Melisande.  I keep working on that opera again and again but still not there yet.

Very interesting perspective:  "Some day I hope [that my favorite opera] will be Pelleas et Melisande."

[Wendell_E]

Of course not, it would be kind of hard to stage. Of course you can guillotine a bunch of mannequins in the opera house I suppose.

Hard (and kinda gross) to stage realistically, though a couple of productions (available on DVD) have done stylized versions:  Marthe Keller's National du Rhin production has them fall to the floor at the sound of the guillotine.  Robert Carsen's production, which I saw at Lyric Opera of Chicago, but is available on DVD from La Scala has the nuns doing stylized movements (someone said it looked like tai chi) as they sing the chorus.  As we hear the guillotine chops, the nuns, slowly lying down on the stage, whith their arms outstretched, forming crosses.

I hated the Carsen production (and I usually love his work), especially that final scene.  I'm always in tears at that point, but in Chicago I was just really pissed off.

Speaking of DVDs, it'd be nice if that Met Bluebeard/Erwartung double bill, which was televised, would come out on DVD.  It's not as if the catalogue is bulging with versions of either of those operas.  I'd love to have the Met Carmelites telecast on DVD as well (offstage deaths in the final scene), even though, as with the Bluebeard, it's in English.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Very interesting perspective:  "Some day I hope [that my favorite opera] will be Pelleas et Melisande."

She obviously has quality built-in radar...

[lukeottevanger]

I can't choose Wagner, as I love all of his mature operas. So the battle is on between Pelléas et Mélisande and Duke Bluebeard's Castle...

Debussy it is. Pelléas et Mélisande is the most poetic and subtle opera I know.

I know I've already suggested that Bluebeard is one of my own most select bunch of operas - P+M happens to be one of the others*. Reading something into Jezetha's post which he may not have intended, its nice to see I'm not alone in feeling that these two operas somehow make a worthy pair. Comparing the two is interesting, of course....

*Three Janacek operas make up the balance!