and why do you like it?
2006-12-07 18:42:43 · 17 answers · asked by drshorty 7 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Performing Arts
Madame Butterfly - only opera that's ever moved me to tears.
2006-12-07 18:46:17 · answer #1 · answered by carokokos 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
1) La Traviatta 2) Rigoletto 3) Carmen 4) Don Carlo 5) Faust 6) Madame Butterfly 7) Barber of Seville 8) La boheme.
I guess I'm pretty predictable. There are a lot of operas I haven't seen but want to like the Pearl Fishers.
I like them because they have wonderful music and the most beautiful voices in the world singing it (hopefully), because the theatrical staging is amazing (Franco Zeferilli), and the stories are dramatic and appeal to the most basic human emotions. Sometimes there is also wonderful comedy (Barber or Faust). Usually there's a mystery to unravel. Opera has everything and the more you listen to it and go to see good opera, the more you will love it.
I'd like to add something. We came in late last night after Don Carlo.
One of the mani reasons why I love opera, is the music which is beautiful, haunting and compelling, but another is because opera is really an antidote for today's American anti-culture. The themes are timeless, and mostly even the evil characters who have gone astray manage to redeem themselves in some way. There is usually at least one truly heroic character, and this is important because we have lost track of everything that can be truly herioc, especially the small deeds in life. Traviata is wonderful because the heroine sacrifices everything for her love, and in the end is forgiving of those closest to her who betray her. In that way it's similar to Boheme. Nothing is false, and there are mostly no saccharine happy endings, though by definition opera must be a bit artificial compared to life because it is abriged - as all drama is.
2006-12-08 02:53:47 · answer #2 · answered by Zelda Hunter 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Die Zauberflote (the Magic Flute) by Mozart. Not only is the music utterly sublime, but the philsophical themes are interesting. I still think the Queen of the Night was smeared! Also a big fan of Beethoven's Leonora. Most of the Verdi and Puccini operas too.
2006-12-08 11:52:02 · answer #3 · answered by silverside 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Whatever opera I'm going to sing next!
I love the great tragedies: Rigoletto, La Traviata, Carmen, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, Tosca
My favorite comic operas are: Falstaff, L'elisir d'amore, Barber of Seville, Marriage of Figaro, Gianni Schicci
There are so many great ones, it's hard to choose!
2006-12-08 08:34:02 · answer #4 · answered by snide76258 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
My current favorite is Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte. It's so hilarious! Can you imagine a couple of guys actually doing that today? Women might have been fickle back then, but today we'd see through them in a second. No big mustache and turban could fool me!! LOL!
2006-12-08 11:37:54 · answer #5 · answered by musicaangelica 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Barber of Seville. The music is so lively and fun, with great characters. But I also love The Marriage of Figaro and (really an operetta) HMS Pinafore - also very lively and fun to hear -almost the definition of lively!
2006-12-08 03:02:16 · answer #6 · answered by Vette999 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Don Giovani
2006-12-08 02:49:16 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Rodelinda by Handel was great, but anything would be good w/ Renee Flemming and David Daniels at the Met. Lots of drama and romance in that one.
2006-12-08 13:35:18 · answer #8 · answered by jeffpsd 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
phantom of the opera was fabulous. the movies great too. :D i liked it because it wasn't a happy go lucky nor was it eternally depressing. the plot was well developed. in a nut shell, it was mind grabbing.
2006-12-08 16:20:03 · answer #9 · answered by Missy 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Candide, done as theatre in the round! Gotta LOVE Voltaire...and, well, ANYONE who writes a character named "The One Butt Lady", gets my cynically Christian but Dry Humored vote, any day...
2006-12-08 03:51:10 · answer #10 · answered by gwenkimcreates 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋