Some Sextets
Operas I never tire of hearing
La Boheme (still lovely after all these years)
Dialogues of the Carmelites (my favorite; the finale alone is worth going)
Die Walkure (another one with an awesome ending)
Peter Grimes (I don’t care what Someone says, it is brilliant)
Salome (such nasty fun)
Der Rosenkavalier (such fabulousness)
Operas I Want to Hear Again
Queen of Spades
Lady MacBeth of Minsk
Jenufa
The Macropolous Case
Der Meistersinger
The Pearl Fishers
Operas I Really Want to Hear (but have not yet)
Der Freishutz
Die Frau Ohne Schatten
Billy Budd
The Handmaid’s Tale
Nixon in China
Don Carlos
Operas I can do without, I’ve had my fill thank you.
Barber of Seville (too many notes)
Hansel and Gretel (enough of the food fights in modern kitchen settings)
Marriage of Figaro (this one needs a rest)
Pelleas et Melisande (I swear nothing happens in this opera)
Carmen (too many bad productions. In the Arizona Opera production Don Jose shot her in the back as she walked away).
Any opera company doing Sweeney Todd (doesn’t seem to work).
La Boheme (still lovely after all these years)
Dialogues of the Carmelites (my favorite; the finale alone is worth going)
Die Walkure (another one with an awesome ending)
Peter Grimes (I don’t care what Someone says, it is brilliant)
Salome (such nasty fun)
Der Rosenkavalier (such fabulousness)
Operas I Want to Hear Again
Queen of Spades
Lady MacBeth of Minsk
Jenufa
The Macropolous Case
Der Meistersinger
The Pearl Fishers
Operas I Really Want to Hear (but have not yet)
Der Freishutz
Die Frau Ohne Schatten
Billy Budd
The Handmaid’s Tale
Nixon in China
Don Carlos
Operas I can do without, I’ve had my fill thank you.
Barber of Seville (too many notes)
Hansel and Gretel (enough of the food fights in modern kitchen settings)
Marriage of Figaro (this one needs a rest)
Pelleas et Melisande (I swear nothing happens in this opera)
Carmen (too many bad productions. In the Arizona Opera production Don Jose shot her in the back as she walked away).
Any opera company doing Sweeney Todd (doesn’t seem to work).
posted by Ur-spo at 1:03 PM
15 Comments:
Marriage of Figaro make me cringe!
...but i really like Faust
Not being an opera buff myself, I really do appreciate your insight.
What about Jerry Springer, The Opera?
Some day I'd like to see La Boheme.
Believe it or not I've never been to an opera.
Oh My, I Love almost all the ones you can do without(except for H&G).
To me the problem with opera in general is sloppy production, that and uncomfortable seats.
I love any opera by Britten.
And lurking inside me is a snaky, slithery Carmen(Miranda).
My last pronouncement of the evening: The longer I live, the more I love 19th century Italian opera.
It's funny that I love live theatre but am not a huge fan of opera. Of course I have never seen it done well so that might be the reason. I did see attend Billy Budd the Vienna Opera House. It was beautiful to watch, but I didn't care the music. The opera house itself was beautiful though.
I find your lists very interesting (as always) - especially since you've had enough of the ones we hear so often.
I thought of you in particular over the weekend, I caught an episode of "in Search of Shakespeare" on our local PBS station.
Among my favorites are:
La Traviata
Madame Butterfly
Die Zauberflöte
The Ring Cycle
Turandot
I don't care much for the modern pieces, and I can't stand the ones that are sung in English!
Operas I want to hear: none
Operas I do not want to hear: all of them
can you tell I am not a big fan of the opera?
I know that Carmen is overdone, and often over-wrought, but I still think that musically, it is my favorite.
But I'm more of a "musical theatre guy" than an "opera guy"
I would LOVE to see the Handmaid's Tale though -- Love Margaret Atwood!
I've often thought there should be a moratorium on certain operas for a couple of years so that we can all go back and hear them fresh. The trouble with CARMEN is that it's so often badly done, a parade of cliches.
DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES is one of the truly great works of the 20th century. And yes, the final scene is theatrical and musical dynamite. About four years ago while digging the basement for a bank building in Paris, the French uncovered the mass grave in which the Carmelite nuns had been buried.
I wish you'd been here in Boston for NIXON IN CHINA a couple of seasons ago--an astonishingly beautiful production. Do you ever visit the east coast? I could get us some tickets and we could go together.
Speaking of sextets...I have two words to say. La Cenerentola!
What? No baroque opera? Mike, if you don't know it, try Händel's Alcina or Giulio Cesare in Egitto, or Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso or Bajazet. They're clearly in my never tire of hearing categories.
As for Puccini, I'd choose La Fanciulla del West (Despite the rather absurd libretto) over Bohème any day. I love Die Walküre, but for awesome endings, you can't really beat the ending of Tristan.
I agree with you more on the "can do without" list. Except for the Marriage of Figaro; it's my least favorite of the major Mozart operas (Così fan tutte is on my never tire of hearing list), but the music is just too good for it to be banned, even temporarily. There is, however, plenty of Mozart that can be "eliminated:" Luccio Silla and the Magic Flute, for example.
I love Alcina! My recording with Fleming and Dessay is marvelous! We hear Cosi a few times this year, lucky us!
Whiskey por tutti!!
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