Best Operas/Classical pieces in your opinions?

[Catholic Sensation]

Taking a break from my normal routine of listening to hardcore west coast rap and listening to some opera/classical stuff I have. Right now I Pagliacci and the good old 1812 Overture rule. Ride of the Valkyries, though written by Hitler's favorite composer, is also great at four when you're writing essays. Talk amongst yourselves :)

[La_Serpiente]

1. Right now

I am listening to the Carribean sounds of Jose Feliciano. His song "Ropa Vieja" is my favourite on his newest CD, Senor Bolero II.

Few Years ago, I saw Salome. I could barely hear the opera singers since the orchestra was so loud. However, that is how it is traditionally played.

[RebelOne]

2. Bolero and William Tell Overture

[leftynyc]

3. I love opera

I'm not like my dad who can put a CD in the car and even conduct while in traffic. I like the whole show - the costumes and staging. My folks and best friend have season tickets to the Met in New York so I get to go 5 o 6 times a year.

For sheer beauty of music I have to go with Madame Butterfly. So very moving. Also a big fan of La Traviata. You really can't go wrong with anything by Verdi or Puccini.

[Plaid Adder]

4. With you on Madama Butterfly

but never liked La Traviata. Also never got the hype surrounding La Boheme.

Then again, my tastes are weird; my favorite opera composer is Benjamin Britten and I think my favorite opera ever is *The Ballad of Baby Doe,* by an obscure American composer named Douglas Moore.

Back on the beaten path, though, I am a big fan of *Marriage of Figaro.*

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[leftynyc]

7. The staging of Traviata keeps me going back

The Met does an amazing job with the costumes. And I always wind up hating the father so much for getting her to leave him that I have trouble applauding him at the end (isn't that silly?!!).

I just saw La Boheme and again, it's the story that is amazing. How knowing that living with him in his cold, drafty loft is going to kill her and so he sends her away....I start weeping in the 3rd act and cry till the end.

On the 19th, I'm seeing La Juive (The Jew) which hasn't been at the Met since 1936. From what I hear it's a very demanding role for the lead and many singers stay away from it. Carusso was the last to make it a signature role. 4 hour opera after working all day....I'll need coffee.

[leftynyc]

9. I also like Marriage of Figaro

Very sweet story, I like Mozart and nobody dies at the end.

[nostamj]

23. i love operas in English!

but Brittan is a big favorite. "Baby Doe" is also a must for fans of American opera. i also like Four Saints in Three Acts (but, I did major work on Gertrude Stein in college)

Nixon in China by John Adams is hypnotic (as is Glass's Einstein on the Beach, though a little Glass can go a long way!)

I would also recommend Bolcom's recent View From the Bridge

[Plaid Adder]

27. Was a little disappointed by *View from the Bridge*

but I think I may have seen it in its "rough draft" incarnation.

The main thing that impressed me about VFTB was Rodolpho's "city lights" song. That was one of those moments where everyone just sat there going, "Damn, that's beautiful." But I really didn't feel like the rest of it worked--thought Bolcom was kind of trying to do a Brittenesque thing with the chorus but it didn't really happen, and I thought the writing for Eddie's wife was not as good as it had to be. But maybe I'm just cranky.

Was also pretty disappointed by *The Great Gatsby,* but there you're fighting the fact that the novel will just always be better.

*Susanna* was another one where overall the opera could have been a lot better but there are two really beautiful arias for Susanna that are worth the price of admission.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[lumpy]

29. This reminds me, this is Amhal and the Night Visitors

season. The composer also did The Medium, what's his name again?

[nostamj]

30. Gian Carlo Menotti

BIO

[lumpy]

32. Ah !

thanx

[Snow]

48. Ooh, yes, Baby Doe has some beautiful music -

my daughter is a developing coloratura, and is doing pieces from that. The usual coloratura roles are weird - robots (Tales of hoffman), homicidal demi-goddeses (Magic Flute), ditzes (Gounoud's Juliet, or Strauss's Adele). So she likes the Baby Doe role. Interesting opera. Have you seen Little Women? We enjoyed that quite a lot - especially the way they construct Jo's reaction to the "Things change, Jo" motif was wonderful.

[lumpy]

28. Verdi and Puccini probably my favorites

Puccini had a most interesting life of his own that should be made into an opera. I do recall seeing a movie of his life, can't remember the name, but followed pretty much his story. He was a very popular man with the ladies and had a most jealous wife. Some believe Madame Butterfly was based on his experience with a housemaid who took her own life because his wife accused her unfairly of having an affair with Puccini. Almost anyone can relate to his heart wrenching music.
Have a tape of La Traviata with Placido Domingo(I adore the man) beautiful! I love the fantasy The Tales of Hoffman by J. Offenbach. The Barcarolle(sp) is one of the first pieces of music I remember as a child. Still sends me. So much beautiful music.

[leftynyc]

51. If you can remember the name of the movie

I'd love to see it. My favorite story is from Verdi. He wrote Nabucco which is about the Babylonian Captivity (when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem and took the Jews to Babylon....please don't think I'm being patronizing, I recently had to explain this to someone who was actually quite educated.

If you haven't see it, there is an aria (can't remember the name) where the stage has all the Jewish captives singing longingly about how much they miss Jerusalem. This was the aria they played at Verdi's funeral processon. It came to symbolize nationalism for any peoples and became quite popular in Italy during WWII. I saw it for the first time last year and was amazed at how many people were crying at the end of the aria.

But I'm with you, nobody did "grand opera" like Puccini and Verdi.

[leftynyc]

52. If you can remember the name of the movie

I'd love to see it. My favorite story is from Verdi. He wrote Nabucco which is about the Babylonian Captivity (when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem and took the Jews to Babylon....please don't think I'm being patronizing, I recently had to explain this to someone who was actually quite educated.

If you haven't see it, there is an aria (can't remember the name) where the stage has all the Jewish captives singing longingly about how much they miss Jerusalem. This was the aria they played at Verdi's funeral processon. It came to symbolize nationalism for any peoples and became quite popular in Italy during WWII. I saw it for the first time last year and was amazed at how many people were crying at the end of the aria.

But I'm with you, nobody did "grand opera" like Puccini and Verdi.

[Gato Moteado]

5. "the merry wives of windsor" by otto nicolai......

always trips me out. what a great piece.

also, mahler, dvorak, tchaikovsky, mozart, etc....

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. Why the need to play the Hitler card when talking of Wagner?

And not just you, but it's all over and constant.

So Hitler liked Wagner? Does that have to mentioned every time Wagner comes up in conversation?

Hitler also liked vegetables.

Do you say, "I'm a vegetarian, as was Hitler, but I'm vegetarian anyway."

Why this fascination with linking Wagner and Hitler? Sweet Mother of God, Wagner died decades before the Nazis came to power, so it's not like he was a Nazi shill. Hitler liked Wagner's music - he misunderstood the story-line and wrongly thought of Germany as the new Siegfried (apparently totally failing to notice that Siegfried dies a terrible, unheroic death at the end), but cripes.

I bet we can find a lot of other music that other despots (like Stalin, Mussolini , Shrub, Reagan, Lenin, yada yada yada) have enjoyed.

Off the soapbox now, and please note, this wasn't directed just toward you, but toward everyone who feels the need to play the Hitler card when discussing Wagner, but never play any other card when discussing any other composer.

[supernova]

12. Hitler basically highjacked

Wagner's ring cycle for his own nefarious purposes. So much so, they're linked in the popular mind of today. But IIRC, there was a a recent performance of Wagner's work in Israel. I guess he's slowly being reclaimed.

I think it's analogous to if a similar US or UK dictator hijacked Tolkien's work.

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. Yes, I understand that.

And it's that linkage that I'm railing against.

I don't get why people feel the need to disparage a composer for what some evil dictator did with his music decades after the composer died.

If people don't like Wagner, that's fine. But its infantile to decide you don't like something because someone you despise also liked it, or misused it.

Although I am a huge fan of Wagner, there are many reasons for disliking his music. But just becuase some evil f--- like Wagner isn't one of those reasons, unless one is willing to give up everything that Hitler liked, like oxygen, food, and cotton.

[TreasonousBastard]

16. Well...

it's not just that Hitler liked Wagner. Hitler liked Wagner for a reason.

One of the Bavarian kings requested Wagner play a Mendelssohn piano piece, and Wagner wore gloves so his hands wouldn't touch "Jew music."

I love Wagner's music, too, and it's just another case of asking to what extent we disassociate the artist from the art. Some people can, some can't. And Wagner the person was not exactly sweetness and light.

Me, I figgers the scumbag is rotting in some hell of his own invention somewhere, and has been dead long enough that I can enjoy the Ring. I can ignore Hitler's appreciation of him as irrelevant, but others have hard time with it.

[bif]

8. I love opera but

It's much better live than on CD. The sets, acting, orchestra and singing all combine to create an incredible musical experience. My favorites are:
1. Der Rosenkavelier by Richard Strauss
2. Turandot
3. Madama butterfly
4. La Boheme
All by Puccini
Then most of the Verdi and Mozart operas.

[Lindsay]

10. The Pearlfishers

by Bizet. Rarely staged, but the music is glorious.

[nostamj]

33. yes! contains perhaps the finest

male duet in opera!

[supernova]

11. Saw Lucia de Lammermoor

a few weeks ago. Very well done. I adore Opera, but alas I am poor at the moment and cannot go as often as I would like.

[SiobhanClancy]

13. Don Giovanni

is sublime,as are Otello and Madama Butterfly.

[lumpy]

31. I had the pleasure many years past

of seeing the great Paul Robeson in Shakespear's Otello. I still have the program. That man could act as well as sing. Saw him in concert in Seattle twice, just before he shipped off to Russia. He made no bones in politicizing during the last concert.

[SiobhanClancy]

41. Paul Robeson was an amazing human being...

Did you know that he had a law degree from Columbia(in the 1920s,after graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Rutgers),joined a NY law firm and then quit because no one wanted to deal with a black attorney? Terrible as that was for him,it would have a great loss to music had he stayed with the law.

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. Einstein on the Beach - one of my faves

Also the Ring Cycle and Tristan und Isolde (beautiful music in that one!)

And I love Puccini - Turandot, especially.

Not so keen on Verdi - too Italian and lighthearted. I want my serious operas much more serious than Verdi could manage. Though the comic ones are okay - and I love Cosi fan Tutti (however it's spelled).

Also a big Barber of Seville fan. That one's fun!

[LynneSin]

17. W.A. Mozart: Clarinet Concerto K.622 (Clarinet/Piano)

The Adagio moves me to tears

[Cheswick2.0]

18. anything by Beethoven

His music just moves me beyond all reason.

As for Opera, I tend to like what I can sing. I know it is egotistical, but Verdi wrote for my voice. I love his Opera. My favorite is Il Trovatore.
As for other Opera that I love, there are brilliant and beautiful arias, duets etc from almost all operas. I love the Tenor/Baritone duet from the Pearl Fishers. I love so many pieces it would be impossible to list them.

[Red State Rebel]

19. Nessun Dorma - I can listen to it for hours!

[lumpy]

34. Beautiful how this song swept into

the mainsteam. Thanks to the three tenors, bless their hearts.

[Aristus]

20. "Ride of the Valkyries" is not my favorite piece, or IMO, the best, but,

if you are choosing a recording, get one where the main theme is played by the bass trumpet. Most orchestras use trombones for the theme. The trombone is too smooth, too clean, and too civilized. The bass trumpet is rough, hard edged, and barbaric-sounding; perfect for a piece about warrior maidens.

[Loonman]

21. Gustav Holst "The Planets"

Opera gives me kidney stones, so I can't listen to it.

[ZenLefty]

22. Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde' (despite the Hitler thing)

Parsifal makes a good melody, too.

(Just giving you a hard time about the Hitler thing, Rabrrrr. O8) )

[liberalhistorian]

24. Of the many, many, MANY

choices available, and that I absolutely love, I'd still have to go with the Pachelbel Canon in D, written over 300 years ago, since it's still the most beautiful piece of music ever written. You still hear it all the time in various forms, the latest is Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Canon", a wonderful version.

[SiobhanClancy]

25. I must get that version...

I agree,it is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. It was played at my(first)wedding.

[lumpy]

37. Oh yes me too

a must get

[BiggJawn]

39. It was played at my second wedding....But i still like it. n/t

[liberalhistorian]

46. LOL!

Just don't play it at your third, if you have one! I have, indeed, heard it at many, many weddings, and if I ever do get married I'm sure I'll have it played at mine.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. When it comes to opera

I like the Russians (Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina by Mussorgsky), as well as Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppaea.

In classical music in general--way too broad a category--my tastes have evolved. I used to be for Baroque and Early Music all the way, but I have gradually learned to like nineteenth century chamber music and many twentieth century composers, but not the atonal or twelve-tone ones or most of the minimalists, although John Adams has definitely improved with age.

In the 20th century, I like Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sergei Prokofiev, Samuel Barber, Francis Poulenc, Herbert Howells (for choral music), William(?) Tippett, John Tavener, and Alfred Schnittke.

[trackfan]

35. Anything by Brahms n/t

[BiggJawn]

36. Saint-Saen's Third.

I put that on when I'm spinning the hamster wheel and I'm not in a "Donna Summers Mood"

[VelmaD]

38. Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano concerto...

1st movement. Passionate and evocative and intense.

Followed closely in 2nd place by Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre"

[Spider Jerusalem]

40. Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana".

Look for the recording with Andre Previn conducting...it's probably the best.

[Esurientes]

42. Boris Godunov

I have cds of Boris Kristoff and Martti Talvela singing the lead. My favorite aria is "Pimen's Song".

[NashVegas]

43. I Will Confess to a Weakness for Strauss

As in Johann. II. "Tales from the Vienna Woods."

[grannylib]

44. Brandenburg Concertos, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Tchaikovksy ballets

[noonwitch]

45. Romance for Violin and Orchestra by D'Vorak

I like everything that D'Vorak composed, but this is especially nice. My cd is a recording of Isaac Stern.

I also like Berlioz's "Symphony Fantastique" and most works by Tchaikowsky, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Stravinsky.

[thom1102]

47. Just a few of my faves:

Hebrides Overture- Mendelsohn
En Deutches Requiem- Brahms
Alleluia- Randall Thompson
The Peaceable Kingdom- same
The Resurrection (2nd Symphony)- Gustav Mahler
Tocatta and Fugue- Aram Khatchaturian
Exultate Deo- Alessandro Scarlatti

Just a few, anyway.

[dwckabal]

49. Anything Mozart

Swan Lake & The Nutcracker
Madame Butterfly
Gilbert & Sullivan

Beethoven & Wagner

[codebled]

50. Dvorak

New world symphony...although i cant explain it, the one conducted by Leonard Berstein sounds different than all the others