Ten favourite operas

[Don Basilio]

This has to be. I'll post my quirky ten favourites later, but in the meantime, feel free.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Puccini: Tosca
Puccini: La Boheme
Wagner: Die Meistersinger
Wagner: Gotterdammerung
Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Elgar: Caractacus
Vaughan Williams: Riders to the Sea
Britten: Noye's Fludde
Tchaikovsky: The Maid of Orleans

[french frank]

Britten: The Turn of the Screw
Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos
Janáček: Jenůfa
Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress
Puccini: La Bohème
Verdi: Don Carlos
Mozart: Cosí fan tutte
Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro
Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Handel: Serse

[Eudaimonia]

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
Verdi: Don Carlos
Strauss: Elektra
Schrecker: Der ferne Klang
Bartok: A kékszakállú herceg vára
Hindemith: Cardillac
Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex
Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress
Henze: Elegie für junge Liebende
Messiaen: Saint François d'Assise

[Don Basilio]

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
Handel: Semele (‘Tis no oratorio but a bawdy opera)
Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro
Rossini: La gazza ladra (This is the one I’m not totally sure about)
Bellini: Norma
Donizetti: L’elisir d’amore
Verdi:Il Trovatore (I’d like to say Rigoletto, Don Carlos, Otello or Falstaff, but candour compels me to admit Trovatore is the one, crummy though it is beyond parody in some ways)
Wagner: Parsifal
Sullivan: Patience
Vaughan Williams: Hugh the Drover

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Handel: Semele (‘Tis no oratorio but a bawdy opera)

Similarly, my inclusion of Elgar's Caractacus... Elgar would have liked it to have been staged, and even put some stage directions into the score. Recently, I suggested to Opera North that they might consider staging it, but there's been no response so far, other than a polite acknowledgement.

[vinteuil]

Limiting myself to operas before Mozart, ten current faves wd be:

Monteverdi: Poppea
Cavalli: la Calisto
Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie
Lully: Atys
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
Gluck: Alceste
Handel: Alcina
Campra: Idoménée
Traetta: Antigona
Keiser: Croesus

Limiting myself to operas after Mozart, ten current faves wd be:

Rossini: Matilde di Shabran
Weber: der Freischütz
Verdi: Don Carlos
Wagner: the Tetralogy
Verdi (and not Puccini): la Traviata EDIT: My thanks to Alpensinf for drawing my attention to my early morning gaffe...)
Strauss: die Frau ohne Schatten
Berg: Wozzeck
Janáček: Jenůfa
Chabrier: l' Étoile
Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Puccini: la Traviata

[french frank]

Rossini: La gazza ladra (This is the one I’m not totally sure about)

What is it you're not sure about, Don B? Whether you like it or not, or whether there are others that you can't think of for the minute that you like more?

[Mary Chambers]

I thought of the operas I would pay willingly to go to, even though I have seen them all before. (I could easily have chosen all Britten, but have spared you that )

Purcell, Dido and Aeneas
Handel, Jephtha
Verdi, La Traviata
Berg, Wozzeck
Britten, Turn of the Screw
Britten. Peter Grimes,
Britten, Billy Budd
Britten, Noye's Fludde
Britten, Midsummer Night's Dream
Britten, Death in Venice

[Chris Newman]

This is just the tip of a very big ice-berg (that gives me the hots)

Beethoven: Fidelio
Britten: Peter Grimes
Dvorak: Rusalka
Janacek: Jenufa
Monteverdi: L'Orfeo
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Nielsen: Maskarade
Tippett: A Midsummer Marriage
Verdi: Otello
Wagner: Die Meistersinger

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Just ten, Don Basilio? You're cruel!

I could easily fill my list with Verdi, but will confine myself to three 'essentials'. Still no room for Handel, Rossini or Britten though...

Verdi - Don Carlos
Puccini – Tosca
Wagner – Das Rheingold
Tchaikovsky – Yevgeny Onegin
Rimsky-Korsakov – The Golden Cockerel
Mozart – Le nozze di Figaro
Ponchielli – La Gioconda
Verdi – Otello
Massenet – Cléopâtre
Verdi – Il Trovatore

[Mr Pee]

Not really in any particular order, because I can't really rank them that precisely, but I think these are the ten that have most consistently hit the spot:-

Wagner:- Die Walkure
Wagner:- Gotterdamerung
Puccini:- Tosca
Humperdinck:- Hansel Und Gretel
Puccini:- Turandot
Wagner:- Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg
Wagner:- Tristan und Isolde
Wagner:- Parsifal
Puccini:- La Boheme
Bizet:- Carmen

[Pianorak]

No in any particular order of preference.

Puccini: Tosca
Puccini: La Boheme
Wagner: Walkuere
Wagner: Tristan & Isolde
Wagner: Parsifal
Verdi: Don Carlos
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Tchaikovsky: Queen of Spades
Strauss: Salome
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

[Panjandrum]

In (roughly) chronological order:

Monteverdi L'Orfeo
Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro
Mozart Don Giovanni
Strauss Der Rosenkavalier
Debussy Pelleas et Melisande
Bartok Duke Bluebeard's Castle
Ravel L'enfant et les sortileges
Zemlinsky Der Zwerg
Berg Wozzeck
Britten Billy Budd