Operas I Like

Here is a partial listing of operas I like, in order by composer. I intend to add notes about my favorite recordings of each opera later. Some of the works I list here are oratories or semi-operas. One general note: I don't like anything by Puccini or Menotti.

• Bartok

  • Bluebeard's Castle

• Beethoven

  • Fidelio

• Bellini

  • Norma
  • I Puritani

• Berg

  • Lulu
  • Wozzeck

• Berlioz

  • Benvenuto Cellini
  • La Damnation de Faust
  • L'Enfance du Christ
  • Romeo and Juliet
  • Les Troyens

• Bizet

  • Carmen

• Borodin

  • Prince Igor

• Britten

  • A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Peter Grimes

• Cavalli

  • La Calisto
  • Giasone
  • Xerse

• Charpentier

  • Acteon
  • David et Jonathas
  • Medee

• Cherubini

  • Medee

• Cimarosa

  • Il maetro di capella

• Debussy

  • Pelleas et Melisande

• Donizetti

  • Anna Bolena
  • Don Pasquale
  • L'Elisir d'Amore
  • La Favorita
  • Lucia di Lammermoor
  • Lucrezia Borgia

• Dvorak

  • Rusalka

• Gay

  • The Beggar's Opera

• Giordano

  • Andrea Chenier

• Gluck

  • Alceste
  • Iphigenie en Aulide
  • Orfeo et Euridice

• Goldmark

  • The Queen of Sheba

• Gounod

  • Faust
  • Romeo et Juliette

• Halevy

  • La juive

• Handel

  • Acis and Galatea
  • Alcina
  • Alexander's Feast
  • Atalanta
  • Belshazzar
  • Esther
  • Giulio Cesare
  • Israel in Egypt
  • Jeptha
  • Joshua
  • Samson
  • Semele
  • Serse
  • Solomon
  • Theodora

• Haydn

  • Armida

• Janacek

  • Jenufa

• Leoncavallo

  • I Pagliacci

• Mascagni

  • Cavalleria Rusticana

• Massenet

  • Le Cid
  • Manon
  • Werther

• Monteverdi

  • L'Incoronazione di Poppea
  • La Favola d'Orfeo
  • Il Ritorno d'Ulysse in Patria

• Mozart

  • Cosi Fan Tutti
  • Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail
  • Don Giovanni
  • Idomeneo
  • Le Nozze di Figaro
  • Die Zauberflote
    (This is my favorite Mozart opera, the ancient Egyptian setting is what does it for me.)

• Mussourgsky

  • Boris Godunov
    (In either of Mussourgsky's original orchestrations, not the bogus Rimsky-Korsakov or Shostakovitch bowdlerizations.)
  • Khovanshchina

• Ponchielli

  • La Gioconda

• Poulenc

  • Dialogues of the Carmelites

• Prokofiev

  • The Love for Three Oranges

• Purcell

  • Dido and Aeneas
  • The Fairy Queen
  • King Arthur
  • The Tempest (Sometimes this is ascribed to Weldon, Purcell's student.)

• Rimsky-Korsakov

  • Sadko

• Rossini

  • Il Barbieri di Seviglia
  • La Cenerentola
  • Le Comte Ory
  • L'Italiana in Algeri
  • Otello
    (There's little resemblance to Shakespeare, and THREE tenors in the major roles!)
  • Semiramide
  • William Tell

• Saint-Saens

  • Samson et Dalila

• Smetana

  • The Bartered Bride

• Stravinsky

  • Oedipus Rex
    (An extraordinary musical retelling of the classic play by Sophocles, with libretto by Jean Cocteau (in Latin)).
  • The Rake's Progress

• Tchaikovsky

  • Eugen Onegin
  • Iolanthe
  • Pique Dame

• Verdi

  • Aida
    (Once again, that ancient Egyptian setting does it for me.)
  • Attila
  • Don Carlo
  • Falstaff
  • La Forza del Destino
  • Macbeth
  • Nabucco
  • Rigoletto
  • Simon Boccanegra
  • La Traviata
  • Otello
    (My favorite Verdi opera. Masterful music to accompany Boito's outstanding libretto derived from Shakespeare.)

• Vivaldi

  • Orlando Furioso

• Wagner

  • Lohengrin
  • Die Meistersinger
    (My favorite Wagner opera, filled with REAL people and barrels full of fine music.)
  • Tannhauser
  • Tristan und Isolde
  • Die Walkure
    (I don't like the "Ring" cycle very much. I enjoy the first act of Die Walkure, and an occasional scene in the other Ring operas.)

• Weber

  • Der Freischutz
  • Oberon
    (I like the music, the play in which it is embedded is completely stupid.)

• Weill

  • The Threepenny Opera

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Last modified by pib on March 22, 2000.