2006-09-13 20:42:14 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music
People will all have their own opinion, their own favourite. For me, one claim to that place is The Magic Flute as it is so accessible and the first that someone 'explained' to me so I appreciated it even more. It has drama, great 'tunes', great live enetertainment and room for costume and set innovation, a good, moral story, MOZART... But I love Carmen, great music, so lively, such a time-worn romantic story and adapted in so many ways up to very modern film versions. I saw Aida in the vast open air theatre of Verona with an enormous cast including live animals and that blew me away fo the sheer grandeur. The list goes on - it's got a lot to do with understanding what the piece is 'about' and sometimes just giving it enouogh time to get under your skin. Wagner and the Ring Cycle etc... tricky, not immediately appealing, needs a lot of dedication for the non opera buff. Football, adverts and film music have introduced many of us to bits of opera, even though we may not realise it at the time, so even the person who professes to know no Opera is often surprised to find that they do, and will have an opinion once they realse what's going on. I haven't even mentioned Beethoven, who as a great composer has great opera... Verdi, now there's someone to listen to! I was never exposed to Opera or classical music as a youngster and it was only when I got together with my present partner that I started to hear it - even so, it has taken a long time to appeal, or for me to admit that I do like it!
2006-09-13 21:25:53 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
La Boheme.
La bohème[1] is an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de Bohème by Henri Murger. The world première of La bohème was performed in Turin on February 1, 1896 at the Teatro Regio (now the Teatro Regio Torino) and conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini. In 1946, fifty years after the opera's premiere, Toscanini conducted a performance of it on U.S. radio, and this performance was eventually released on records and on compact disc. It is the only recording of a Puccini opera led by its original conductor.
La bohème is Puccini's most famous and popular opera as well as one of the most performed operas in the standard operatic repertoire.
Leoncavallo composed an opera of the same name and based on the same story, but with his own libretto. His La bohème, which was premiered in 1897, focuses more on the Musetta and Marcello relationship, rather than that of Mimì and Rodolfo as in Puccini's. Leoncavallo's La bohème is almost never played anymore, while Puccini's is, according to Opera America, the second most performed opera in North America, second only to Madama Butterfly, also a masterpiece by Puccini.
In 2003, the opera was given a Tony Award-winning Broadway production by Baz Luhrmann, with modernized supertitle translations. To play the eight performances per week, three casts of Mimìs and Rudolfos, and two Musettas and Marcellos, were used in rotation. This production was originally done by Opera Australia in 1993 with a budget of only AU$60,000.
2006-09-13 20:44:08 · answer #2 · answered by Amy J 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Faust! Gounod' s masterpiece about a young girl called Marguerite who finds herself in a quandry as Faust wants to buy her soul. It touches the battle between good and evil and when the choir of angels give their verdict on Marguerite at the end, it's a case of "Tried .... Saved". I'ts such a wonderful and rich story. Music fabulous and i do believe that Gounod must have gone totally mad over this because you can clearly feel the evil of Faust. To me it does it anytime and every time!
I first saw it when i was about 10 years old. My gran took me to the opera and after that ... I grew up singing it to myself, then much later, bought it! I play it maybe twice a year and cannot abide anyone near me then! I just want to lose myself in it and it comforts me when it comes to past wrong choices!
So it has to be The greatest to me!
2006-09-13 21:03:30 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lakme by Leo Delibes
2006-09-13 20:49:26 · answer #4 · answered by songbird 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Madame Butterfly and my best is Aida
2006-09-13 20:47:07 · answer #5 · answered by MORTİCİA 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The marriage of Figaro I think!!!
2006-09-13 20:51:34 · answer #6 · answered by IloveMarmite 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Carmen, because it's the only one I know.
2006-09-13 20:58:47 · answer #7 · answered by nora22000 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Carmen makes me cry!
2006-09-13 21:15:20 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Madame Butterfly....Love and tragedy, what more do you want?!
2006-09-13 20:47:12 · answer #9 · answered by Dee 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ditto, dee.
ditto, sinemtutk.
2006-09-13 21:11:15 · answer #10 · answered by red beret 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋