Favorite Opera?

Question

For Opera buffs, if you could only attend one opera performance what would you go see? Would it be about a particular opera or composer or is there a particular performer that you would want to hear? I would appreciate especially to hear what you favorite opera in general is and what you like about it. Thank you.

Thank you all so much. I was so happy to log back on and find so many had been kind enough to share their favorites with me. I just moved to outside Vienna, I am a complete Opera neophyte but I walk by the Opera house each day and it calls to me to see a performance. Time and budget dictate I will have to choose maybe two performances for the season. It was good to hear from people with experience enjoying Opera which ones they love and made an impact on them. I don't know how I'll choose a best answer. I thank you all again.

Answer 1

I'll go Magic Flute with Mozart, or maybe
Cenrentola by Rossini, or maybe
I'll go Der betrogene Kadi by Gluck
or I'll go along with Verdi, but stick to Falstaff or Otello
I'll go along with Puccini, but limit it to Turandot
I'll go along with Wagner, but go straight to Tristan and Isolde.
I think I'd really stick with Richard Strauss:
Elektra and Salome both have enough special effects to keep the hair on the back of your neck up for a week,
Der Rosenkavalier and Ariadne have so much humanity to them
Die Frau Ohne Schatten and Schweigsame Frau border on the mythical and mystical,
Capriccio tackles the words vs music theme that has haunted us since the beginnings of opera anyways.
Oh heck, I can't choose just one! I love 'em all.
Having been in the business for 25 years, there's no way to say how or why one piece can be "the best".
I know the stats tell us that Magic Flute, Traviata and La Boheme will play to packed houses every time, but there are so many other good works.
Every night, the audience is a new person, perhaps some repeaters, but mostly people who have never seen the piece before. Getting under their skin, and sharing these special works of art with them keeps the show new and alive for every performance.

Answer 2

If I may, I would choose not one, but a set of four which function as one, and are a generic whole. Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen": "The Ring of the Nibelung".

The four operas are: Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Die Gotterdammerung. The total performance time is 15-16 hrs., depending on the conductor(s)tempo(i). The performances are spread over 4 days,and/or nights.

It premiered at the "Festspielhaus" in Bayreuth, Germany in 1876. The Festspielhaus is a very special building, unique in all the world, designed and constructed by the composer himself, with most of the funds provided by the last King of Bavaria, Mad Ludwing II.

Its acoustics are purported to be the best in the world. The orchesra pit is sunken under the stage, and can not be seen by the audience. All of the seats are the same: no box seats, and no arm rests for any of them.

The performance of it that I would love to have seen, was the very first in 1876. The reasons? Its unique staging requirements.

In the very first scene, three Rhine-maidens are singing at the bottom of the Rhine, and move about, swiming, during the scene. Wagner instructed that they be hung in slings, so as to give the illusion to be moving within this waterey evenviornment as fish. In all the perfromances I've ever seen, they are always walking about.

In the last scene, the Gods are supposed to walk over a "Rainbow" bridge into their new home, Valhalla. In all the performances that I've ever scene, they just slowly walk up to a certain point, and then just stand there.

In the second opera, some of the warrior maidens, the Valkyries, are supposed to be riding their winged horses on to the stage: this never happens. During the operas last scene, there is supposed to be a ring of "magic fire" move around the sleeping heroine. Usually what you get, are wind-blown flapping pieces of colored paper: ridiculous.

A bear is suppose to enter and exit in the first act of the third opera, Siegfried: a guy in a bears costume performs this action: unbelievable.

In the fourth, in the final scene, the river Rhine is to supposed to overflow its banks, the castle set ablaze, and the heroine rides her winged horse into the blazing pyre whereupon her lover, the dead hero Siegfriend lies. There is never a horse, and every other aspect of the scene as depicted above and is supposed to be render, is usually totally laughable.

Even at Bayreuth from all of the videos I've ever seen of the performances there, have been the same: unbelieveably ridiculous.

I'm aware that I'm probably being overly critical; but with todays extraordinary techniological developments, why is it so difficult to present this great work, as Wagner intended; simply using the devices for its staging that were employed by him at its premiere?

Wotan

Answer 3

Once again, way too many to mention, but here's a selection of my favourites, from the last 50-ish years: Leontyne Price Frederica von Stade Susan Graham Kiri te Kanawa Pilar Lorengar Elisabeth Soderstrom Janet Baker Marilyn Horne Roberta Alexander Galina Gorchakova Barbara Bonney Norma Burrowes Birgit Nilsson Janice Watson Karita Mattila Cecilia Bartoli Inger Dam-Jensen Therese Wincent Kirsi Tihonen Carol Vaness Anna Netrebko Renee Fleming Ghena Dimitrova etc. etc.!

Answer 4

Like Wotan, I'm also a Wagner fan and I agree completely with all he has written about 'Der Ring des Nibelungen', this cycle is one of my favorite also, but nevertheless I'd rate it second. My bow to Mozart, Beethoven, Bizet and Verdi, but my #1 is definitely Mussorgsky's 'Boris Godunov'.
This Opera is in my opinion the most majestic and grandiose of all. Listening the bells in the Scene of Coronation and the mighty chorus 'Slava' (Glory) I can fully feel the spirit of old orthodox Russia. Or, listening the Boris' Vision of the killed Prince ('There, in the corner'), I believe in what they say that when the great Shalyapin has performed it, some of the audience has gone into trance. Or take the Scene of Boris' Death ('My Son, I'm dying... Wait! I'm still a Tzar!..') with funeral bells that affects so profoundly.
Another reason is maybe that I can understand Russian almost 100% - the libretto's text is also strongly impressive.

Answer 5

Carmen, most definately. Ever since i was a child learning the flute, I wanted to play the melody. So, i figured it out one day walking down the hall. I went hom to see if i was right and I was. I absolutely love La Habanera. : )

and the Hey Arnold episode was amazing for me because I was a little girl obsessed with Carmen!

Answer 6

Joan Sutherland, Tosca

Answer 7

It would not be German. The music may be beautiful but the language is unsingable and un -listenable. Italian is so much better in both ways.

favorite? All of Verdi. All of Puccini, Cavalaria, of course, Lucia and a few others. Verdi, himself liked his Rigoletto best. I may agree.

Answer 8

Cosi Fan Tuti - voted best opera ever by the Age of Reason

Answer 9

Mozart - The Magic Flute

Answer 10

Bellini's Carmen with Maria Callus (before she got old chicken voice)

Gonoud's Romeo et Juliette with Anna Netrebko (I just saw it at the Met and it is absolutely AMAZING)

or, I could just listen to Natalie Dessay sing anything