Eric’s World

The Wonderful World Of The Opera, Part 3

Monday, September 22, 2008

The first operas are attributed to Monteverde and his first opera was written in 1607. That means that operas have been written and performed for over four hundred years. By Mozart’s time opera had become “mainstream” for those who could afford to attend public entertainment.

With hundreds or thousands of operas having been written in the last four centuries, how does one know which ones to attend?

A good strategy is to initially attend operas that are well known popular. There are a great many of them out there that are performed regularly so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find one of them. One might also simply buy a season’s subscription. Most established houses produce at least a couple operas from the standard repertoire, along with a work or two that are less often performed. Many of the larger companies typically do a world premier every year.

So what is this standard repertoire? It depends on who you talk to. Wikipedia has a very long list of “important” operas at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_important_operas. For practical purposes I feel that the Wikipedia list is a bit excessive.

I’ve created my own list of operas that are easy on the ear and “accessible.” It’s a bit shorter than the Wikipedia list. The opera connoisseur may notice the absence of notables such as Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. While I acknowledge their greatness, it took me a number of years to develop an ear for the works of these (and many other) composers. Consequently I feel that the works that they wrote may be considered a bit advanced for a list of entry level opera .

So here, in no particular order, is my list of must see operas.

Giacomo Puccini

Tosca, Madam Butterfly, La Boheme, Turandot, Il Tabarro, Giannie Schicchi

Guseppi Verdi

Rigoletto, La Traviata, Othello, Aida

Jacques Offenbaque

Tales of Hoffman

Georges Bizet

Carmen, The Pearl Fishers

Ruggero Leoncavallo

Pagliacci

Gioacchino Rossini