Anybody here like opera? And if so, what is your favorite opera? Mine is Don Carlo by Verdi.

I like Scott Joplin's Treemonisha.

Favorite opera? Hard to decide. To go to? Mozart's "Magic Flute", lots of fun and even the kids liked it. For the music, it's hard to beat "Carmen", very catchy tunes. As far as the stories go, I really like the ones with the pathetic endings that make you cry, like La Traviata or Madame Butterfly.

Opera is the greatest musical form. The Mozart operas are tops. Figaro,Giovanni, Magic Flute, Abduction from Seraglio. There are many others I enoy though. Carman, Boheme, Traviata, Turandot Butterfly, Salome. I literally just watched Der Rosenkavalier on DVD. It's not my favorite opera by any means but it has the most spectacular trio for 3 sopranos as a finale. Spine tingling. Beethovens only opera Fidelio is a spectacular piece of music but it didn't impress me much as an opera, An opera requires story and visual stimulation as well as just music. In my opinion Marriage of Figaro is the greatest opera ever written. Perhaps the greatest piece of music. I spend alot of my time at the piano playing arangements of opera. There is a wonderful Hal Leonard publication "Piano Goes to The Opera"

Regards

Steve

Has anyone seen and/or heard Adès' "Powder Her Face"? Interesting music and an, uh, unusual libretto.

Love it! La Traviata (by Joe Green ). Also on top of the list are Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni (Mozart), La Boehme (Puccini), Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti ?).

Nope, hate it with every fiber of my being.

I don't know, I'm not a big fan of the storyline of La Boheme. But the music is good (especially Rudolfo's aria "Che Gelida Manina," Mimi's aria "Si, Mi Chiamano Mimi," Musetta's arietta "Quando men vo," and Rudolfo and Mimi's duet "O suave fanciulla".) I'd say I would like La Boheme a lot better if I just listened to the music without the foggiest clue as to what was going on.

I've never listened to Traviata, but I'm relatively familiar with the storyline and I think this might be the case with Traviata also. Maybe these romance-type stories aren't really my type.

Yes, Lucia di Lammermoor is by Donizetti.

Dear Marquis, if you get the chance, try Traviata. It is all in waltz time. Fantastically beautiful music. The big draw for me in opera is the music and the voices, not the plots; many of the plots are kind of archaic.

I guess I'm kinda' like Bernard -- Not too big on most of the plots, but some of the music is GREAT!!

I have a CD of Puccini Arias that I can (& HAVE) listened to all day.

STEVE: (Or anyone else!) where do you find opera's on DVD? I spent the week after Christmas in several stores in Dallas & Houston and found only a couple of Operas on DVD. Even searching Amazon pretty much just found CD's.

Really? You couldn't find many DVD operas on Amazon? I found a lot. Try searching under DVD or All Products. I could have sworn that Amazon has quite a lot of opera DVDs.

Marquis:
Thanks, I got 224 matches in Amazon just searching on the word Opera in the DVD sub-category.

hmm.. maybe I just needed to start under the DVD subheading, maybe I mispelled 'opera'!!

Thanks!

For Operas on DVD try dvdplanet.com They have tons of material for $21-32. Less than the cost of a balcony seat or an opera CD. The only downside is poor site layout. Last time I was there you had to go to "music" and sift through 50 or so pages of all types of music to find the operas intersperced with the rock, country and rap. Hopefully they'll improve that soon.

Steve

Thanks Steve! - I'll try it out!!

I like opera. I try to watch her shows as often as I can!
Jamie

Turandot...ah yes, theres an opera!

My favorit - RUSALKA by Dargomyzhsky. But nobody knows that opera here...

Sorry, forgot... RUSALKA and BORIS GODUNOV.

I love[/b] Boris Godunov!!

Nina

The Magic Flute.

I love the silliness of its plot. Underpinnings of wicked humor and mischievousness abound for some to revel in. It even features the Masons plus a touch of seriousness about the nature of loyalty.

And what heavenly wonderful music!

Joy

I like the music from Carmen. Other than that, I hate opera.

And, Samejame: Yes, I like to watch Opera too sometimes! :p

Yes, love opera, especially Germanic. I often buy CD's from the BMG Classics club and recently bought 2 of the Philips "50 Great Recordings", one being the Hans Knappertsbusch 1962 live Bayreuth recording of Parsifal (what a great singer Hans Hotter was!), and the other being Karl Bohm's 1967 Bayreuth recording of Die Walkure. Have spent many hours on the weekends listening to both on my computer as I peruse Piano World postings!

I really enjoy good singing and opera is (hopefully) chock full of it!

My taste for opera changes with my mood. I agree Mozart wrote some of the greatest - but about this time of night, with a glass of merlot, "verismo" is the thing. Viva La Verdi!

Wagner - der Fliegende Holländer

I vote for Godunov too, but then I'm a bass! (Great basss part in Magic Flute, too -- but I just got to sing in the chorus). :rolleyes:

I vote for Godunov too, but then I'm a bass! (Great basss part in Magic Flute, too -- but I just got to sing in the chorus). :rolleyes:

I don't have a favorite one, since listening to it in a cd or tv is half way to be sleeping lol I only see it during the summer when the conservatory brings it to the city

+1

Oh, I think I should love it...but I seldom watch it.