Ten favourite operas

[Panjandrum]

Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex

More opera than oratorio eh?

[Don Basilio]

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?

I'm sure I like it, but if I had to throw one out of the boat, that would be it. Eugene Onegin, instead, probably. Note in my list A total lack of Puccini and B no composter more than once.

What's bawdy about Elgar's Caractacus? Was in dedicated to Edward VII?

Sorry, IGI, but life is cruel at times.

Noye's Fludde has cropped up twice. My big operatic regret in life is that due to flu, I missed the school performance of it, although I sat in on the trebles being rehearsed. (Music lessons were an excuse to rehearse the trebles, of which I was not one, in the end of term show.)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What's bawdy about Elgar's Caractacus? Was in dedicated to Edward VII?

It was dedicated to Queen Victoria (with permission).
I referred not to any bawdiness (of which there is none) but to the fact that Caractacus is a cantata in name, but an opera in spirit.

[EdgeleyRob]

I am ashamed to say I've never been to see a live opera but in my CD collection my favourites are the following:

Gloriana
Peter Grimes
Billy Budd
Death in Venice
Hugh The Drover
Fidelio
Pilgrims Progress
Carmen
Magic Flute
Tosca

[Suffolkcoastal]

For me they are:

Barber: Antony & Cleopatra
Britten: Peter Grimes
Britten: Billy Budd
Copland: The Tender Land
Hanson: Merry Mount
Puccini: Madam Butterfly
Puccini: Turandot
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin
Vaughan Williams: Riders to the Sea
Robert E Ward: The Crucible

There are about another 20 or so that almost get on the list too.

[MrGongGong]

So its only me who likes

The Minotaur
Le Grande Macabre
Idomeneo
Einstein on the beach (but NOT what came after )
Perfect Lives

then ?

[Mr Pee]

So its only me who likes

The Minotaur
Le Grande Macabre
Idomeneo
Einstein on the beach (but NOT what came after )
Perfect Lives

then ?

Yup.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

So its only me who likes

The Minotaur
Le Grande Macabre
Idomeneo
Einstein on the beach (but NOT what came after )
Perfect Lives

then ?

Presumably you aren't the only one who goes to see them?

[perfect wagnerite]

Only ten ... so:

Monteverdi - Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria
Mozart - Die Zauberfloete
Weber - Der Freischuetz
Verdi - Don Carlo
Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen (yes, I know, but I'm counting it as one)
Wagner - Parsifal
Tchaikovsky - Evgeny Onegin
Nielsen - Maskarade
Tippett - The Midsummer Marriage
Birtwistle - The Mask of Orpheus

No Handel, Mussorgsky or Gluck - none of which I could really bear to be without ...

[umslopogaas]

Try again, its too late on Saturday for sober rationality, but here goes. Ten operas:

Berg: Lulu
Busoni: Doctor Faustus
Cherubini: Medea (with Callas)
Honegger: Joan of Arc
Janacek: Makropoulos Case
Moussorgsky: Boris Godunov (RK version)
R. Strauss: Salome
Rosenkavalier
Verdi: er, a lot, but here only: Don Carlos
Wagner: Parsifal

Is that ten? I'm going to bed, to eliminate Puccini entirely from a choice of top ten operas is too painful to bear. And Wagner's Ring? Oh I cant bear any more, who dreamed up this torture?

[moeranbiogman]

Vaughan Williams: Pilgrim's Progress
Puccini: Turandot
Puccini: Tosca
Wagner: Gotterdammerung
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
Delius: A Village Romeo and Juliet
Walton: Troilus and Cressida
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
Bizet: Carmen
Gounod: Faust

[Richard Tarleton]

Die Meistersinger
The Ring (counted as one!)
Der Rosenkavalier
Marriage of Figaro
Don Carlo
Simon Boccanegra
Jenufa
Les Troyens
Lucia di Lammermoor
Marta

My list coloured by particular memories from the opera house and seeing some of the great singers of the 20th century. The last might seem out of place in such company but it's a small piece of light operatic perfection.

[Eudaimonia]

More opera than oratorio eh?

Well, I like it well enough to grab it over everything else as I'm running out the door in a fire, so that ought to count for something! Bluebeard's Castle too.

So its only me who likes
The Minotaur
Le Grande Macabre
Idomeneo
Einstein on the beach (but NOT what came after )
Perfect Lives

then ?

The Minotaur and Grand Macabre made my short list...as did der Zwerg, but were all rejected for being too depressing. Not that the ones I chose were a barrel of laughs by any means, but for some reason it was enough to push them down and off the list. When you're thinking of which ten you'd choose if you couldn't have anything else, it puts a slight spin on your decision-making.

Wouldn't it have been fun to try to play "match the poster to their list"? Not that I would have gotten many right...people are surprising.

[Mandryka]

Limited to one per composer:

Wagner Tristan Und Isolde
Strauss:Die Frau Ohne Schatten
Britten: Billy Budd
Berg: Wozzeck
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana (no apologies for this - its the only Italian opera I really like)
Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk
Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande
Korngold: Die Tote Stadt
Hindemith: Mathis der Mahler
Bartok: Duke Bluebeard's Castle

[StephenO]

I could probably fill an entire list with just Wagner (from the Flying Dutchman onwards) but, variety being the spice of life, my Top 10 are:

Wagner - Gotterdammerung
Wagner - Parsifal
Debussy - Pelleas et Melisande
Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro
Mozart - Die Zauberflote
Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov
Puccini - Turandot
Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier
Verdi - Otello
Weber - Der Freischutz.