I've long had a problem with this Music. It's not at all that I dislike it - there are some rattling good tunes and beautiful melodies here, the orchestration is never less than skillful, and is often very impressive, and the ensembles build up very effectively - but I'm always perplexed when people (some of them writers on Music whose opinions on other matters I respect) describe it as "great" and evaluate it as on the same level as (for example) Wagner.
So, in an attempt to discover what I was missing, I devoted much of this year to getting to know the works better, playing a different opera twice a week each month (so, twelve operas - Nabucco, MacBeth, Don Carlo, Rigoletto, Trovatore, Traviata, Simon Boccanegra, Ballo, Forza, Aida, Otello, Falstaff - each played eight times). I'd always adored Falstaff, and it was a real delight to confirm just how perfect this work is - rhythm, texture, pulse, harmony, orchestration, melody; all superbly handled. And the first act of Traviata I'd often used with sixth-formers to illustrate how Music can simultaneously express two conflicting states of mind - how the progress of the Music more than the libretto conveys the persons of the drama. Very glad to hear that hasn't changed.
But for the rest ... I just don't get it. It's very good Music, most of it - but often two-dimensional and presenting cardboard cut-out characters in risible situations, and far too many rum-ti-tum "Gilbert & Verdivanisms". I can understand Otello and Aida (or "Nabucco 2") being considered alongside Tannhauser or Lohengrin, but I can't hear how they "rival" Tristan, Parsifal the "Ring" cycle, or Meistersinger (or, for that matter, Carmen, Boris or Les Troyens. I love Il Trovatore di Penzance as a hilarious, Pythonesque romp - but take it seriously?!
I have tried very hard - and enjoyed getting to know the works much better than I did (and Zinka Milanov singing Leonora's aria in act of Trovatore alone would have made the year's effort worth it). But I still don't see why this body of work is held in such high esteem (not even Dallapiccola could help me - his commentaries tend to deal with generalities; contrast his piercing concentration on the Musical textures of Mozart - that was the sort of insightful commentary I was hoping for). I do not hear why Verdi is considered by so many commentators to be a greater composer of operas than, say, Massenet.
For all the enjoyment I've got from the year, I can't deny that I'm rather glad that it's over, and I'm looking forward much more to my opera project for next year - post-Wagnerian German operas by Schrecker, Schmidt, and Korngold.
I'm not intending to upset anyone's pre-New Year digestions by making these comments; I'm just hoping that there will be Forumistas who can point out what I've stupidly missed.
So, in an attempt to discover what I was missing, I devoted much of this year to getting to know the works better, playing a different opera twice a week each month (so, twelve operas - Nabucco, MacBeth, Don Carlo, Rigoletto, Trovatore, Traviata, Simon Boccanegra, Ballo, Forza, Aida, Otello, Falstaff - each played eight times). I'd always adored Falstaff, and it was a real delight to confirm just how perfect this work is - rhythm, texture, pulse, harmony, orchestration, melody; all superbly handled. And the first act of Traviata I'd often used with sixth-formers to illustrate how Music can simultaneously express two conflicting states of mind - how the progress of the Music more than the libretto conveys the persons of the drama. Very glad to hear that hasn't changed.
But for the rest ... I just don't get it. It's very good Music, most of it - but often two-dimensional and presenting cardboard cut-out characters in risible situations, and far too many rum-ti-tum "Gilbert & Verdivanisms". I can understand Otello and Aida (or "Nabucco 2") being considered alongside Tannhauser or Lohengrin, but I can't hear how they "rival" Tristan, Parsifal the "Ring" cycle, or Meistersinger (or, for that matter, Carmen, Boris or Les Troyens. I love Il Trovatore di Penzance as a hilarious, Pythonesque romp - but take it seriously?!
I have tried very hard - and enjoyed getting to know the works much better than I did (and Zinka Milanov singing Leonora's aria in act of Trovatore alone would have made the year's effort worth it). But I still don't see why this body of work is held in such high esteem (not even Dallapiccola could help me - his commentaries tend to deal with generalities; contrast his piercing concentration on the Musical textures of Mozart - that was the sort of insightful commentary I was hoping for). I do not hear why Verdi is considered by so many commentators to be a greater composer of operas than, say, Massenet.
For all the enjoyment I've got from the year, I can't deny that I'm rather glad that it's over, and I'm looking forward much more to my opera project for next year - post-Wagnerian German operas by Schrecker, Schmidt, and Korngold.
I'm not intending to upset anyone's pre-New Year digestions by making these comments; I'm just hoping that there will be Forumistas who can point out what I've stupidly missed.
). Never mind, there's plenty of other stuff! 
) and Stiffelio/Aroldo (excepting Luisa Miller, which I have, one of Verdi's many explorations of the father-daughter relationship). So I don't know the galley-slave years very well at all. Vivid recollections of many great performances - one of the last revivals of the great Visconti Don Carlo, a Trovatore at ENO in the 1970s (shocking coup de theatre at the end), a WNO Boccanegra and a Ballo in its proper Swedish setting as intended...Otello with Vickers and Joan Carlyle....wouldn't be without him, although not in my 3 desert island operas (which are Meistersinger, Figaro and Rosenkavalier 
) .
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