Ten favourite operas

[Don Basilio]

Glad to see another Hugh the Drover (dum, de dum DUM) fan, Rob. Has it ever been staged, or even performed publicly since RVW's death?

[nersner]

I've found this much more interesting than the usual lists.
Britten: Gloriana
Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle
Britten: Midsummer Night's Dream
Debussy Pelleas et Melisande
Britten: Peter Grimes
Massenet: Manon
Britten: Death in Venice
Janacek: Cunning Little Vixen
Britten: Rape of Lucretia
Adams: Nixon in China

A curious list, I can't think what links them but I want drama served by the music, I could easily list all Britten. Manon I saw in a particularly good production at Opera North.

[3rd Viennese School]

How can anyone even have one favourite opera?

3VS

[3rd Viennese School]

The only opera I've ever sat down and intentionally played was Tchaikovsky Iolante.
I think I got drunk and fell asleep.

3VS

[Anna]

Possibly a couple of 'dubious' ones on my list:

Purcell: The Fairy Queen
Handel: Serses
Massenet: Cléopâtre
Ligeti: Le Grande Macabre
Shostakovich: Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk
Strauss: Salome
Cavalli: La Calisto
Henze: L’Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe
Rameau: Castor et Pollux
Boito: Mefistofele

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Glad to see another Hugh the Drover (dum, de dum DUM) fan, Rob. Has it ever been staged, or even performed publicly since RVW's death?

Yes, it was performed in York in 2007

[Mary Chambers]

The only opera I've ever sat down and intentionally played was Tchaikovsky Iolante.


3VS

Ideally, you don't sit down and play an opera. (Do you mean play a recording?) You go to it, in a theatre. That's what opera's meant to be.

[Anna]

Ideally, you don't sit down and play an opera. (Do you mean play a recording?) You go to it, in a theatre. That's what opera's meant to be.

Unless you live in the sticks, where opera is just not available, then you put on a cd or a dvd, which, probably, is why opera is only for the elite?

[Mary Chambers]

Unless you live in the sticks, where opera is just not available, then you put on a cd or a dvd, which, probably, is why opera is only for the elite?

That's why I said 'ideally'. DVD much better than CD usually, because you get the important visual element.

I don't know who the elite are, but I imagine they live everywhere (if they exist, which I doubt).

[Don Basilio]

Unless you live in the sticks, where opera is just not available, then you put on a cd or a dvd, which, probably, is why opera is only for the elite?

Growing up on the South coast I got the impression that opera was funny and rarefied. When I moved to London, my best friend was a clerk in Bethnal Green, living in a Hackncey Council flat. I went to the Colisseum frequently with him, and was the first person I could chat and gossip to about opera (which none of my contemporaris at Oxford were interested in.) I remember one Good Friday, watching a broadcast of Cavalleria Rusticana in that flat off the Hackney Road.

[french frank]

Unless you live in the sticks, where opera is just not available, then you put on a cd or a dvd, which, probably, is why opera is only for the elite?

Now that the non-elite shell out £200 for a basic ticket to Glastonbury, an overnight stay in London for a visit to the ROH shouldn't seem out of the way (there are some rotten seats in the balcony and stalls circle available for Fidelio tomorrow at £13.30). Cheap coach tickets and a cheap hotel - it won't feel elite

Edit: Having written this, I can't be sure that the cheapo tickets are actually available unless I try to buy one. But they were available. Amphitheatre £8.20.

[Petrushka]

I'm not much of a one for opera and the following list is of those I do like (though might have to count the Ring as 4 in order to make the 10).

Wagner: The Ring
Wagner: Parsifal
Wagner: Die Meistersinger
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
Strauss: Salome
Bartok: Duke Bluebeard's Castle
Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus
Berg: Wozzeck

These are the only operas I care about.

[Eudaimonia]

These are the only operas I care about.

P: Have you ever come across some of the more obscure late 19th/early 20th century works by people like Schrecker, Zemlinsky, Pfitzner...maybe even Henze and K.A. Hartmann? There are some real hidden gems out there which might appeal to you...you might find it worth an afternoon at the music library, at least.

[Petrushka]

P: Have you ever come across some of the more obscure late 19th/early 20th century works by people like Schrecker, Zemlinsky, Pfitzner...maybe even Henze and K.A. Hartmann? There are some real hidden gems out there which might appeal to you...you might find it worth an afternoon at the music library, at least.

Thanks, Euda, but opera isn't really my thing and even though I wanted to contribute to the thread it's actually many months since I heard any on my list apart from the Bartok. Mind you, I bought the Karajan Ring last summer and it's still awaiting audition.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Mind you, I bought the Karajan Ring last summer and it's still awaiting audition.

Well worth putting time aside for this. Karajan was at his peak at this time.