Opera Recommendations?

Question

I have very little experience with Opera, but a friend just had me listen to "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot and i LOVED it.
I also enjoy the music from Carmen.

Can anyone recommend other operas that I might enjoy? Or just list your favorite opera!

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you like "Nessun dorma" by Puccini, you might also like other Puccini operas. The most popular are "La Boheme" (probably the most popular opera in production today) and "Tosca"

The next would be the popular Verdi operas, especially "La Traviata" and "Rigoletto". These are so popular, you will recognize melodies in them that you never realized came from operas.

Then I would suggest "I Pagliacci" by Leoncavallo. It has what may be the most famous tenor aria in all opera: "Vesti la giubba" ("laugh clown, laugh").

Try "The Barber of Seville" by Rossini. It has a very famous aria ("largo al factotem") which I'm sure you've heard since it has been used in many commercials and movies. The overture will also sound familiar for the same reason.

My favorite Mozart operas are "Don Giovanni", "Cosi fan tutti", "The Marriage of Figaro" and "The Magic Flute".

Answer 2

A lovely aria made famous in the recent past by Pavarotti but an even better recording is a much earlier one with Byjorling.
Once you start listening and collecting you will find that there are recordings that stand above others of the same opera. The very famous artists of the past is a good way to begin. Caruso, Gigli, especially Martinelli, Callas, Pinza, Gobbi and my favorite soprano, Muzio. Also, there is a recording of choruses from several Verdi operas You would like.

Answer 3

I love Nessun Dorma! And the music from Carmen is fantastic!

Madame Butterfly is really good, as others have said. Another great one is An Italian Girl in Algiers, or L’Italiana in Algeri, by Rossini. The finale from Act One is so cool and pretty funny. I would recommend that one. =)

Answer 4

Mozart-Magic Flute.
Puccini-Madame Butterfly, La Boheme, Gianni Schicchi.
Wagner-The Ring Cycle. Die Meistersinger.
Verdi-Aida.

Musician,composer,teacher.

Answer 5

i could say maximum opera songs that are for sopranos (because of fact Christine has an exceedingly severe voice). i've got watched Phantom of the Opera and that i'm not a hundered % particular which song you advise.. you may desire to objective listening to song to the moon from Dvorak's Rusalka--its considered one of my favorites.

Answer 6

Mozart's The Abduction From The Seraglio, is also a good one.

Beethoven 's "Ode To Joy " which forms part of the last movement of his 9th symphony is very good to listen to.

Answer 7

Oh, dear. There are so many fabulous operas.
Mozart " The Magic Flute "
Rossini " The Barber of Seville" will be nice for the beginning.

Answer 8

I love Puccini's La Boheme and of course Bizet's Carmen.

Answer 9

The Barber of Seville or Carmen. Die Fledermaus (German) and The Pirates of Penzance (in English) are technically operettas which means there is a little dialogue throughout, but opera companies still perform them. (Please excuse the spelling)

Answer 10

Madame Butterfly! This is also an opera by Puccini. It has been one of my all time favorite along with Turantdot and Carmen.

The Plot:

An American Lieutenant marries a 15 year old Japanese Geisha named Butterfly. In turn, she has renounced the faith of her ancestors and so she can never return to her own people. Butterfly is the daughter of a disgraced samurai who committed seppuku, and so the little girl was sold to be trained as a geisha.

The Lieutenant's tour of duty is over, and he has returned to the United States, after promising Butterfly to return "When the robins nest again." Three years have passed, he sent a letter telling Butterfly that he has married an American wife. Butterfly (who cannot read English) is enraptured by the sight of her lover's letter and cannot conceive that it contains anything but an expression of his love. Seeing her joy, her friends cannot bear to hurt her with the truth.

When Goro brings Prince Yamadori, a rich suitor, to meet Butterfly, she refuses to consider his suit, telling them with great offense that she is already married to the Lieutenant. She proudly presents her fair-haired child. "Can my husband forget this?" she challenges. Butterfly explains that the boy's name is "Sorrow," but when his father returns, his name will be "Joy."


The Lieutenant returns with regime to Japan.Her friends foun d out that he has abandoned Butterfly for an American wife named Kate. The lieutenant is stricken with guilt and shame but is too much of a coward to tell Butterfly himself. He has assigned this awful task to his wife, Kate.

When her friends tell her the truth, she refused to believe. Kate begs Butterfly's forgiveness and promises to care for her child if she will surrender him to them. Butterfly receives the truth with apathetic calmness, politely congratulates her replacement, and asks Kate to tell her husband that he must come in half an hour, and then he may have Sorrow, whose name will then be changed to Joy. She herself will "find peace."

When Kate left, she bids a pathetic farewell to her child, blindfolds him, and puts a doll and small American flag in his hands. She takes her father's dagger--the weapon with which he made his suicide--and reads its inscription: "To die with honour, when one can no longer live with honour." She takes the sword and a white scarf behind a screen, and emerges a moment later with the scarf wrapped round her throat. She embraces her child for the last time and sinks to the floor.

Half hour later, the Lieutenant came and discover the dying girl. He cries out Butterfly's name in anguish as the curtain falls.