Ten favourite operas

[mercia]

would be interesting (for me) to know the reasons behind people's choices
perhaps that would be a step too far
shopping lists are all very well

[Biffo]

After four Mozarts

Le nozze di Figaro
Don Giovanni
Cosi fan tutte
Die Zauberflote

I restrict myself to one each

Monteverdi Orfeo
Beethoven Fidelio
Berlioz Les Troyens
Verdi Un ballo in maschera
Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen (cheating but I am obsessed)
Jancacek The Makropoulos Case

[kuligin]

In no particular order:

Salome
Elektra
Die Frau ohne Schatten
Wozzeck
Tristan und Isolde
Der Ring des Nibelungen (if it's not cheating to count that as one!)
A Midsummer Marriage
Doktor Faust
Turandot (either of them - now that IS cheating, I suppose!)
Die Soldaten.

A fellow admirer of BusoniandTippett! They are in my list too

Impossible to list " favourites" so just the ten that music/ singers/ production really worked for me

Cosi fan Tutte Covent Garden in the 1970s
Wozzeck Covent Garden Geraint Evans
The Midsummer Marriage Welsh on tour Opera House Manchester Jill Gomez
Mastersingers Covent Garden Haitink
Die Brautwahl Berlin UDL Barenbiom
Le Compte Ory Glyndebourne on tour Barry Banks
Guilio Cesare Glyndebourne Sarah Connolly
Penthisilea Basel
Les Indes Galantes Paris Opera
War and Peace ENO twice about 15 years apart

[french frank]

Giulio Cesare Glyndebourne Sarah Connolly

One of the few (okay, about three) DVDs I possess. I can never quite believe that Connolly isn't Handel's Caesar. Clearly she doesn't date back to Roman days (!) but her performance is the most 'manly' of all - the complete actor-singer in this production.

[ardcarp]

Leaving aside whether it is strictly an opera or not, would anyone include Berlioz Damnation of Faust on their list? Saw most of it tonight on BBC4 (Gilliam's fascist interpretation) and I congratulate them for screening it. Some great singing and superb playing. Less than the sum of its parts for me though.

Mary, how do you rate Owen Wingrave, the so-called TV opera?

[aeolium]

I can never quite believe that Connolly isn't Handel's Caesar.

Although Handel's real Caesar was a castrato, Senesino. I agree, though - Connolly is wonderful. I also very much admired Patricia Bardon as Cornelia. Danielle de Niese certainly had the looks as Cleopatra, but I thought was slightly disappointing in the great aria Se pietà di me non senti. A compelling production which I first saw in an Odeon cinema - the four and a half hours just flew by.

La Damnation de Faust might well be one of my choices (if it is indeed an opera rather than a series of tableaux) - I think it's a superb work, with Benvenuto Cellini one of Berlioz' finest. It was good to see the ENO production on BBC4 yesterday, though I rather wish Gilliam had gone with his usually fantastic and surreal imagination rather than the 'build up to Nazism' theme.