Greatest Opera of All Time? Why?

Viene la sera induces an audible orgasm in me, OP. I'd cast my vote for any Puccini opera for the music alone! Here are Pavarotti and Mirella Freni.

Turandot. Can you believe it was written in 1920?

I love Turandot and Strauss’ Elektra

It would have to be by Verdi.

Einstein on the Beach

OP, I would consider a different description than "bias" in responding to your favorite "opera" (I won't quibble about Puccini but some do.) being the one you saw first.

Perhaps "philistinism."

I really like the last 20 minutes of Gotterdammerung- the problem being, you have to sit through five hours and twenty minutes to get to it. I have known people who who show up just for the last act.

"Don Giovanni," because it is the greatest opera. No further explanation should be needed.

Butterfly and Traviata are both pretty close to perfect

Hmmm... I lovemany of them. Carmen from the French composer George Bizet, is one of them

Also I love this from Offenbach's Tales "Nuit d'amour". First time I heard it was in the Italian movie La bella Vita directed by Roberto Benigni

Favourite is too hard. Better to say your top 5 desert island operas whilst you are doing your Tom hanks Castaway time. Wilson would make a great Pinkerton.

The Flower Duet written by Léo Delibes is really something. Scroll to 1:03 min, in the video, and you will remember it directly. This is pure beauty.

Turandot is my favourite.

Unfinished as it is and despite its stupid libretto .

Tommy

Asking for a "favorite" would trigger quite a list. But greatest? La Traviata, then Tristan und Isolde.

The whole Ring Cycle.

Vivaldi, "Il Giustino vedro con mio diletto", and the singer here, not only has Farinelli voice but he is also hot as fuck. He sings like an angel.

Better to watch The Ring than listen to turgid hours of it on disc.

No love at all for Carmen?

Siegfried sinks the Ring for me.

Carmen always seems like a good idea until you realize how long it is.

Souvenir... La Liberta from Friedrich Haendel

I like the bird.

R20 Check at R10

My favorites are the ones where the opera ends when the fat lady sings.

Rigoletto, Götterdämmerung, Tosca.

Listen to Das Rheingold as it's mercifully short and only then listen to a highlights disc for the rest.

For Walkure, all you need is Sigmund & Sieglinde's love stuff, Ride Of The Valkyries, & Magic Fire stuff.

Skip Siegfried.

Götterdämmerung . Last 20 minutes.

I like that Phantom Of The Opera. That there’s a good 'un.

Götterdämmerung All of it.

[Quote] Don Giovanni," because it is the greatest opera. No further explanation should be needed.

For some reason, although its individual parts are gorgeous, as a whole, it just sloughs along. The 90 minute first act seems to go on forever

You don’t want to miss Siegfried’s funeral march.

Oh my!

"Je crois entendre encore" from Les pecheurs de perles" opera by Georges Bizet. This singer moved me to tears. This is one of my favorite pieces all operas included. I only knew Placido Domingo's version and I was laready in love with it until a French friend of mine shared this video on FB

It starts at 0:48 minutes. He is so in it he became the song.

Walküre. All of it. From the frantic opening scene to Fricks bickering to Wotans regret and the fire magic at the end. A great plot and otherworldly music.

And, yes Don Giovanni. And Figaro. Both perfect.

^already

Any the incest scene in Walküre at the end of act two. The music is pure fucking.

The great caging with Wagner is that the absolute best comes at the end. And it’s worth the wait.

Siegfried’s Funeral March by German music college orchestra with many cuties.

Oops. Wrong link.

Man, R18 you ain't kidding... that Polish counter-tenor's beautiful and his voice is superb (and he could cover Bronski Beat tunes like nobody else, including Jimmy Somerville

R40 Yes, yes and yes ;-)

R40 The thing is he didn't know the camera was filming this rehearsal. This was in Aix en Provence, in the middle of summer in France. He was wearing summer outfits, relaxed and focused on the performance he would give that evening. He didn't know he could look so sexy. The rest is history. He have a majestic voice.

What, no love for TOSCA?

Sublime

Crossing my fingers the Strauss Electra nutjobs don't overtake the next 40 pages of which was the better performance of this atonal screecher.

Carmen was the first opera I saw and I think it is very accessible for someone hearing opera for the first time.

And the new generation is already here. Andrea Perez Ursulet is the new sensation. Here he is singing "The cold song" from Purcell.

He was only 17 years old full of anxiety, in a classical music competition on French tv. He won. Of course he won.

I have always loved Verdi and sort of avoided Wagner.

But for the last decade, I’ve finally gone to Wagner performances and wow, he blows my mind.

Lohengrin is a wonderful midway better Italian and German opera

^better=between

I like Phantom of the Opera because it's not as opera-y as most other operas.

Astrid Varnay was a good Elektra.

As an eldergay who loves his divas, I’m surprised that Siegfried is my favorite of the Ring.

R50, um, sorry to break this to you, but…

Elektra is amazing. It’s also the only Strauss I can stand from beginning to end. Everything else should be shaved by an hour.

R50, are you also R28?

R54 even Salome?!

I’m with R8 and will brook no argument. It was the greatest opera ever written on the day it was first performed and has remained unsurpassed, despite a few rather important developments. But IT HAS EVERYTHING, and that’s about all it needs. But I wouldn’t call it the most PERFECT opera ever written.That prize goes to the absolutely performer-proof, incredibly succinct LA BOHEME.

Thus spake Zarathustra.

+1 for Boheme. It just gets better and better…

Der Rosenkavalier is about a child rapist!

R56, particularly Salome!

While I like La Boheme, it never affected me emotionally until I saw it performed by Yale School of Music students. When performed by age-appropriate singers, it was phenomenal.

I still dislike the fact that Boheme goes from a scene of love and joy and suddenly to one where they've broken up. There needs to be some transition scene.

Very conventional choices. Try something different.

Is opera even relevant anymore?

Modern music is so much more accessible.

R63 Opera is just as accessible as modern music.

Why aren't there more opera dance remixes?

And some operas are modern.

My vote is for Die Walkure. I like how Wagner gives equal status to the orchestration as well as the singing in his operas (which Mozart also did, but I find classical opera a bit too neat and tidy). Although I love Puccini, and would pick it over Wagner for a night out because Wagner drags on and on, I find Puccini's operas are great for the singing but not as impressive for the orchestration.

Opera isn't even on the radar of younger generations. I can't see this artform existing on any large scale in 50 years. No way the MET can keep filling up its 4000 seat auditorium nightly

For me, The Bold and the Beautiful. Deep, personal story arcs and Eric plays the piano beautifully

My favorite Oprah is the MTM cast reunion. Oprah even replicated the WJM newsroom and Mary’s apartment. Outstanding!

I came to opera late. I used to get scores from the library and follow them along as I listened. The score that seemed the most sophisticated technical achievement was that for Debussy's Palleas et Melisandre. It is just exquisite.

R71, sadly it's bore in the opera house

R68. Classical music as a whole has an ageing audience, but I find opera audiences younger than the audiences for most forms of classical music perhaps because it has more spectacle than instrumental concerts. On the other hand, it is economically less viable than other forms of classical music because of the high production costs.

Falstaff

Otello

Don Giovanni

Definitely it's Akhnaten.

r75 is that good?! I've been wanting to see it for a while!

For a gut punch of a finale, and something different:

R76, it's great in the opera house--spectacle and hypnotic music. But I can't imagine seeing it again

R13, is just the segment from 1:03 the Flower Duet or the entire performance?

Never mind..^^^

Sorry R68 but Opera will be here in 50 years and another 100 years if we last that long.

Your modern Bieber's and the like will be little footnotes in history. Completely forgotten within a decade.

All music today is disposable tripe. Made up of fragments disguised behind bips, bops and other techno nonsense to hide the fact that there is actually no melody in today's music for the most part.

There are exceptions but most is drivel. And the U.S. is to blame with its hip hop and all that other rapper crap which has become to dominant form for the young.

Young, who are the most fickle of consumers. That;s why it wont stand the test of time.

Top 5: Trovatore, Lohengrin, Elektra, Händel's Alcina, Parsifal. Oh and Götterdämmerung for the end of course but also for Siegfrieds Trauermarsch, and all of the Ring Cycle. I also got a huge soft soft spot for Lucia di Lammermoor and Otello though and Monteverdi in general as well as everything Benjamin Britten I have yet to discover much about. I cannot decide. Right at the moment, I'm hooked on Lohengrin again since I heard a beautiful recording of the Gralserzählung recently (which I'm listening to now over and over).

I love most any Verdi but AIDA and IL TROVATORE are my favs

Cav Rusticana is full of power and passion.

I have seen it in the opera house r72, and I wasn't bored. My experience was not helped by the production which reminded me of a fast fashion shop window. I understand that at that time french music was trying to pull away from Wagner and German music. I thought the libretto by Maeterlinck managed that brilliantly but Debussy struggled. It was no surprise to me that it took him 10 years to write this and he didn't produce another. I find what engages me when watching opera are the decisions the creators make in each scene and, if these surprise and add depth to a scene, this is when I am aware of genius. There are plenty such moments in Palleas et Melisandre, so I wasn't bored.

[quote] He sings like an angel.

Angels don't require the use of an unnaturally-amplified electric microphone.

I have new appreciation for Il Trovatore after seeing the recent LA Opera production

I love all these. Plus, Porgy and Bess.

I don't know if Les Troyens is the greatest opera of all time, but I love this performance of "Vallon Sonore" by Topi Lehtipuu.

Tosca!

Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, and La Boheme.

Mozart’s Da Ponte trilogy, Figaro/Giovanni/Cosi, is, in theory, as good as opera can get. However, those operas require great singing and conducting; they can be fatiguing without them. Warhorses like Il Trovatore, Tosca and La Boheme almost always connect.

I like Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito as well.

R91, I agree with your first two suggestions, but I would reverse them: I’d rate Le Nozze di Figaro as the greatest before Don Giovanni. Le Nozzi is simply magnificent and the music is so gorgeous that you could listen to it over and over again. Dame Te Kanawa’s “Dove Sono” is pure perfection.

I just finished watching La Bourne in full via YouTube. Pavarotti and Freni. It was great!

I'm listening to Freni & Pavrotti's Madam Butterfly and it's like Karajan took ten valium before picking up the baton.

The whole things is as slow as molasses. I think the whole thing is going to grind to a complete halt any bar from now.

I like Anna Moffo & Cesare Valletti's Butterfly with Leinsdorf.

It's brisk!

I love Puccini’s Manon Lescaut.

There are many wonderful operas, and wonderful opera composers - from Puccini to Strauss to Handel to Mussorgsky to Bizet to Berg to Donizetti....the list goes on.

But the three opera composers in a class of their own are Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner. The greatest operas of all time are undoubtedly theirs, and there's not even a debate about this amongst serious musicians. And, yes, I'm being a pompous snob, but I'm an opera queen so deal with it.

My votes for the greatest operas from that trio of composers would be: Cosi fan Tutte, Falstaff, and Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.

The overture to The Marriage of Figaro is easily and at all events the greatest opera overture of all time.

With you on Cosy Fan Tutte, R99,” Hardly a “numbers opera” but some of the best music ever written. And a pretty funny plot. Never got into Falstaff.

^Cosi fan Tutte, dammit

Mozart operas are spoiled by all the dull recitative that pads them out.

Everything comes to a screeching halt to hear some boring conversational bit with some stupid harpsichord prattling in the background.

Interesting how the same opera can come across completely differently when performed by different casts and conductors.

When the MET's new production of Les Troyens opened with the sublime Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (who sadly died of cancer soon after) in 2003, it was one of the greatest operatic nights of my life. Everyone was just spectacular. Five hours (yes, with intermissions, it's that long) literally flew by

A few years later, I went to the revival with a different cast and its just slogged on ...and on and on and on....

I like Mozart but the passion and sweep of Verdi and Wagner operas are more engaging.

Les Troyens sounds almost modern to me, cooler than Verdi or Wagner.

In no particular order - Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, Carmen.

Most stirring overture goes to Carmen though.

Post-WWII: Dialogues of the Carmelites, Peter Grimes

Underrated American opera: The Ballad of Baby Doe

Personal favorites from standard rep: Turandot, Lucia, Traviata, Tales of Hoffmann

La Boheme.

It's perfect from the first note to the last.

It is EXTREMELY difficult to choose, if not impossible.

Still, if I had to select some of them, I would suggest Armida by Rossini (epic story, some of Rossini's best composition work and a spectacular main role that can be performed by both mezzos and sopranos, which makes it quite unique); Norma by Bellini, which is simply spectacular; Les Huguenots by Mayerbeer, which has some of the most beautiful and yet, fiendishly difficult vocal lines ever... Still, I think that there are so many wonderful operas across all artistic periods, that choosing just a few is impossible.

Just watch this wonderful work by Salieri below, and be marvelled at the sheer beauty of what he could create.

Bellini and Mozart bore the heck out of me.

There, I said it.

Phantom of the Opera is not an opera. It's a musical that features some opera.

Personally, you can't beat Turandot. Nessun Dorma has to be the pinnacle of opera writing and singing.

For me, it's Che Gelida Manina and Donna non Vidi Mai. Pavarotti, the greatest by far.

Ryan's Hope.

My grandmother took us grandkids to see Die Zauberflöte. When I heard the Queen of the Night sing, I was, as they say, transfixed.

[quote] transfixed

Yes that is the right word.

The voice rings with an insistency of a spear (or dagger)! She is pure anger.

Interesting factoid: Though not related, both Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni (shown at R113), were born in the same Italian village in 1935. As babies, they shared the same wet nurse. Mystical, magical, miracle milk in those titties?!!

My mother and grandmother were both great opera fans, but I'll be honest and admit that my interest in opera and classical music was first piqued by Bugs Bunny cartoons.

There are still marvelous new composers out there, writing in the classical vein.

[quote]My mother and grandmother were both great opera fans, but I'll be honest and admit that my interest in opera and classical music was first piqued by Bugs Bunny cartoons.

I remember a scene with Diane in Cheers where the opera discussion devolved into Bugs Bunny opera episodes.

Tom and Jerry in CARMEN is quite good, too.

Which opera has the greatest libretto of all time? Taking aside the music and staging and context and all that. Just the one with the best poetic lyrics.

Asking as a poetry-minded sort who is new to the opera..

[quote] best poetic lyrics.

You're not supposed to hear the lyrics. The music comes first.

r16 somehow I ended up with the CD of greatest soprano arias and when I was first in LA from New York I was listening to it in my car to help distract from how much I hated driving. The aria Liebestod came on sung by Birgit Nilsson, it blew me away and as someone who doesn't know opera except for the most popular arias I listened to it over and over. I was especially blown away when I had the chance to get home to my computer and look up what she was singing about (this was before cell phones). Amazing piece of music.

R123 cool. That’s not what I asked, though.

Pelléas et Mélisande

Lulu

The Cunning Little Vixen

[quote] Pelléas et Mélisande… Lulu… The Cunning Little Vixen

Are they examples of operas with good 'poetic lyrics', Cf R122?

Nixon in China

^ Great rhythms in that one.

Leontyne Price has a beautiful Christmas track. Give it a listen.