Overtures!

[relm1]

Sometimes an overture is really a symphonic poem.  For example, Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture.  I think most of the overtures Malcolm Arnold wrote were symphonic poems.  I guess there is an overlap. 

[(poco) Sforzando]

There are stand-alone concert overtures that can overlap with symphonic poems, and overtures to operas which may or may not be the same as preludes. Is the Meistersinger an overture or prelude? Wagner calls it a Vorspiel, same as Parsifal, which I could translate as Foreplay except that sounds a bit scatalogical and I'm sure Jo498 would correct my faulty German. But Wagner also calls the overture to the Flying Dutchman (which Tovey, Hurwitz, and others consider the best thing in the opera) an Ouverture. So there.

Lots of good examples above. Let me add the overtures to the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, the best of which in my opinion are Iolanthe and The Yeomen of the Guard. And from American musical comedy, the tiny overture (scored for a huge orchestra of piano and harp) from Jones' and Schmidt's The Fantasticks.

[kyjo]

Some important changes:

Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Festival (probably my all-time favorite overture)
Korngold: Schauspiel-Ouvertüre (a recent mind-boggling discovery)
Prokofiev: Russian Overture
Rossini: Semiramide
Suppé: Dichter und Bauer
Braga Santos: Symphonic Overture No. 3
Ibert: Ouverture de fête
Schreker: Ekkehard (or Fantastische-Ouvertüre)
Villa-Lobos: Alvorada na Floresta Tropical
Weber: Euryanthe
Klami: King Lear
Berlioz: Le Corsaire
Kodály: Theatre Overture
Arnold: Tam O' Shanter (or Peterloo)
Chabrier: Gwendoline
Mendelssohn: The Hebrides
Weinberger: Schwanda the Bagpiper
Wagner: Tannhäuser
Saint-Saëns: Spartacus
Janacek: From the House of the Dead
Tchaikovsky: Ouverture miniature from The Nutcracker

Time to stop, I suppose...

A fantastic list, to which I will add just a few () additional favorites of mine:

Arnold: Peterloo, Commonwealth Christmas Overture
Atterberg: Aladin
Auber: Masaniello
Austin (Frederic): The Sea Venturers
Bacewicz: Overture
Barber: The School for Scandal
Bax: Overture to a Picaresque Comedy
Beethoven: The Consecration of the House, Leonore No. 3, Egmont
Berlioz: Le carnaval romain, Benvenuto Cellini, Les francs-juges
Bizet: Patrie
Bernstein: Candide
Britten: An American Overture
Cherubini: Anacreon
Copland: Outdoor Overture
Dvořák: Carnival, Othello, In Nature's Realm, Othello, My Home, Hussite Overture
Elgar: Cockaigne, In the South
Enescu: Concert Overture on Popular Romanian Themes
Gade: Echoes of Ossian
Glinka: Ruslan and Ludmila
Hába (Alois): Overture, Op. 5
Haydn: L'isola disabitata
Holst: A Fugal Overture
Ireland: A London Overture
Joachim: Hamlet
Kalliwoda: Overtures Nos. 10 and 16
Klami: Suomenlinna
Leifs: Landfall
Leigh (Walter): Agincourt
Lilburn: Aotearoa, Drysdale Overture, Festival Overture
Maes (Jef): Ouverture Concertante
Moeran: Overture to a Masque
Nelson (Ron): Savannah River Holiday
Nicolai: The Merry Wives of Windsor
Nielsen: Helios
Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes
Raff: The Tempest, Macbeth, Dame Kobold, Die Parole
Rawsthorne: Corteges
Respighi: Belfagor
Rossini: La gazza ladra
Saint-Saëns: Andromaque, La princesse jaune
Schierbeck: Fête galante
Smetana: The Bartered Bride
Suppé: Light Cavalry; Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna
Taneyev: Oresteia
Tchaikovsky: Hamlet
Tormis: Overture No. 2
Vaughan Williams: The Wasps
Walton: Portsmouth Point, Johannesburg Festival Overture
Weber: Der Freischütz, Oberon
Williams: The Cowboys
Wirén: Concert Overtures, Op. 2 and 16

In conclusion, overtures are just so much fun! It's a shame that they've become less common on concert programs in favor of longer, more "profound" works. You'd think that with everyone saying that people's attention spans are shortening (which is likely true), the opposite would be occurring!

[Karl Henning]

That's an interesting q. @kyjo Should we "accommodate" the purported shrinkage of folks' attention span by circumscribing (Procrustes-like) the repertory, or should we adopt the increasingly unpopular rôle of benign educators of the public and help them expand their aural perspective. Anyway, from my standpoint, no, the Overture as a form suffers no negative prejudice in programming decisions. 

[Christo]

Arnold, Peterloo
Barber, The School for Scandal
Beethoven, Leonore No. 3
Bizet, La Patrie
Braga Santos, Symphonic Overture No. 3
Brian, The Tinker's Wedding
Copland, An Outdoor Overture
Dvořák, Carnival Overture
Glinka, Ruslan and Ludmila
Holst, A Fugal Overture
Ireland, A London Overture
Janáček, From the House of the Dead
Kodály, Theatre Overture
Leifs, Landfall
Leigh, Agincourt
Lilburn, Aotearoa
Nielsen, Helios
Respighi, Belfagor
Reznicek, Donna Diana
Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian Easter Festival
Saint-Saëns, La princesse jaune
Strietman, An Indoor Overture
Tchaikovsky, Hamlet
Tormis, Overture No. 2
Vaughan Williams, The Poisoned Kiss
Villa-Lobos, Alvorada na Floresta Tropical
Walton, Portsmouth Point

[Cato]

Johann (Jan) Kalliwoda must not be forgotten!

For him the overture was a major outlet, and not connected to any opera.

One source says he composed 24 overtures (another had the number at 18).

CPO Records seemed to be on their way 20 years ago to recording all of them, along with all the symphonies, but sadly, no, that did not happen.

Nevertheless: