French Opera?

[springrite]

Wow, the opera no one knows, mentioned by someone other than myself.

Sweet!!

That's one of my favourite French opera as well!

Benvenuto Cellini
The Trojan
Carmen
The Pearl Fisher
Joan of Arc (Is it alright to include this Swiss one since it is in French as is the subject?)

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Just realized: doesn't Don Carlos count as a french opera? Yes, the composer is italian but the original version is most certainly sung in french. So make that top 6 french operas 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

I haven't heard Les troyens yet. It took me remarkably long to start listening to Berlioz's music. Which is a shame, because I like most of what I heard (some parts of Symphonie fantastique, however, have not found their way in my heart yet).

[pjme]

I want something like Ave maria but in french. Because Im trying to learn french I thought listening to some classical music in french would really do the trick at night when Im falling asleep. It has to contain singing of course.

I really love ave maria so something like that in french would be brilliant.

So, SKYIO did you find your French Ave Maria-like song/melodie/aria??

P.

[Mandryka]

Renaud:
Renaud Séchan, dit Renaud, est un auteur-compositeur-interprète et poète français né le 11 mai 1952 à Paris.

Mais s'il est anglais et conservateur . . .

https://youtube.com/v/MJcUMKGCdrY

Le Français de Renaud est pas évident pour un débutant. J'ai commencé avec Cloclo et Brassens.

[kishnevi]

Les Troyens
Le Prophete
Contes dHoffmann
Don Quichotte
Castor et Pollux.

Benevenuto Cellini would have made the list if we do not include Baroque.
                         

[kishnevi]

Just realized: doesn't Don Carlos count as a french opera? Yes, the composer is italian but the original version is most certainly sung in french. So make that top 6 french operas 

Guilliame Tell also falls into that category.  And (I may be wrong). Love for Three Oranges.

[EigenUser]

I second Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges. Also, if you find that you ever have 4 hours to spare, Olivier Messiaen's St. Francis d'Assise is worth hearing.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

La princesse jaune, by Saint-Saëns. Pure beauty.

[Henk]

La princesse jaune, by Saint-Saëns. Pure beauty.

Thanks, will try that.

[The new erato]

A thing of beauty:

[asin]B0000CCW38[/asin]

[Tsaraslondon]

Wow, the opera no one knows, mentioned by someone other than myself.

Sweet!!

Who says no one knows it. A joyous, life-enhancing work.

My top 5 French operas would be

Les Troyens
Benvenuto Cellini
Pelleas et Melisande
Carmen (a work of total brilliance that falls victim to its popularity)
Werther

[zamyrabyrd]

Manon!!!

(Glad to see there is some action on this thread...)

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Who says no one knows it. A joyous, life-enhancing work.

My top 5 French operas would be

Les Troyens
Benvenuto Cellini
Pelleas et Melisande
Carmen (a work of total brilliance that falls victim to its popularity)
Werther

Agree with 4 first ones of those but I prefer Thaïs to Werther (and Manon). Not that Werther is a bad work at all.

[Tsaraslondon]

Agree with 4 first ones of those but I prefer Thaïs to Werther (and Manon). Not that Werther is a bad work at all.

To be honest, I find it hard to choose between Werther and Manon, which is actually a much truer representation of Prevost's novel than Puccini's opera. Thais, on the other hand, I find enjoyable enough (especially in the Fleming recording) but really it's a load of sentimental,quasi religious twaddle. It seems to me that both Werther and Manon are much more serious works, with a great deal more to say about the human condition.

[The new erato]

To be honest, I find it hard to choose between Werther Manon, which is actually a much truer representation of Prevost's novel than Puccini's opera. Thais, on the other hand, I find enjoyable enough (especially in the Fleming recording) but really it's a load of sentimental,quasi religious twaddle. It seems to me that both Werther and Manon are much more serious works, with a great deal more to say about the human condition.

I agree with you, even though I find the human condition is full of religious twaddle.

[Tsaraslondon]

I agree with you, even though I find the human condition is full of religious twaddle.

Ha Ha Ha! I wish we had a like button!

[zamyrabyrd]

Having some free time, I finally got around to reading, albeit in an English translation, "The Sorrows of Young Werther", getting to understand why Goethe in his later years distanced himself from this work. It is difficult to get away from the self-absorption and the solipsism of the original in the opera and so mars the experience for me.
I read Abbé Prévost's "Manon Lescaut" many times, so the opera derived from it is dearer to me than "Werther" for its subject matter and the complexity of its treatment. But this is personal, of course.

Zb (zee flat)

[Tsaraslondon]

Having some free time, I finally got around to reading, albeit in an English translation, "The Sorrows of Young Werther", getting to understand why Goethe in his later years distanced himself from this work. It is difficult to get away from the self-absorption and the solipsism of the original in the opera and so mars the experience for me.
I read Abbé Prévost's "Manon Lescaut" many times, so the opera derived from it is dearer to me than "Werther" for its subject matter and the complexity of its treatment. But this is personal, of course.

Zb (zee flat)

As we get older, our experience alters. I view Werther as the personification of youthful passion. All of us can do and feel things when young, that later we feel slightly embarrassed about, and maybe this is why Goethe distanced himself from it.

But I also view it as a study of obsession, and obsession can still take over at any time in one's life, as it most assuredly does in many of Iris Murdoch's novels, particularly The Sea, The Sea. The trouble with obsession is that we don't see that we are in the grip of it, until that obsession has played its way out, and people in the grip of obsession are often, as you say, totally self-absorbed.  Both Albert and Charlotte have their part to play of course, but, ultimately, it is Werther who takes his own life, an act perpetrated when the balance of his mind was disturbed. From that point of view, it seems totally believable to me.

[JCBuckley]

I think my shortlist of five would be:

Lully: Atys

Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie

Charpentier: Médée

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande

Messiaen: François d'Assise