best 20th century operas

And where’s “Eugene Onegin”? 5. There’s something about the shock value that occurs when the story unravels…no matter how many times you see it, and you know what’s coming, you still feel completely repulsed, terrified, and enthralled all at once. I’ll avoid the issue of Wagner on the grounds that he wrote ‘music dramas’ and not operas, so he’s really a genre to himself. 9, as the old joke goes, it would be enough to turn Verdi green! It’s the tale of Renata,a crazed religious mystic in 16th century Germany and the wandering knight Rprecht, who loves her in vain,and their horrifying involvement in the blackest of black magic,demonology and demonic possession, ending in an exorcism which will make you wet your pants in terror! Vile villain. Benjamin Britten - Peter grimes, Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw, Owen Wingrave, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and more . With that in mind: 5) Porgy and Bess–George (and Ira…and Ira) Gershwin. Famous 20th Century Opera Singers. Don’t let anyone persuade you there aren’t great 20th (and 21st) century operas in a range of idioms. Does this ring a bell with anyone? Spirited disagreement is expected and welcomed. 5) Carmen. We saw a wonderful La Traviata last night at the San Diego Opera. Toscanini, Furtwangler, von K and yes, Fritz Reiner. Don Giovanni has the most delightful music I’ve ever heard… My #2 would be Aida… Cenerentola #3… Still working on the rest! Verdi, La Traviata. [JFrater would like to publicly protest the exclusion of any 20th Century operas, but defers to the wisdom of the contributor.] The Drum-major comes in, intoxicated, and rouses Wozzeck out of bed to fight with him. It’s not even as good as Cosi Fan Tutte. These experimentations baffled listeners, and composers either received support or were rejected by … 6. Top 10 Operas That Make Me Proud to Be an American. So, so many operas are great. That’s the mark of a great work, that it takes us into itself, and makes us see the entire world through its eyes, recognizable but ennobled, even in a dark and depressing work. It simply means you like one work over another because you find it more pleasing to your particular ear or taste. The Romantics, who did not like old-fashioned moralizing, often cut the opera’s final sextet, in which the surviving characters make sense of the Don’s downfall: “Thus it is to evildoers.” And though Mozart was surely committed to having the lascivious Don get his comeuppance at the end of the opera, there is little doubt that the composer could not help but admire the prowess of Giovanni, who runs circles around the opera’s other characters and who is only defeated by an act of supernatural revenge. Choosing only 10 doesn’t leave you a lot of options. Because it’s such a rad plot and structured so awesome-rad, I’m going to just quote the WikiPedia synopsis, which explains the opera rather well. The opera’s most famous aria is “Largo al factotum,” in which the hero Figaro sings of his skills as a barber, matchmaker, and counselor to the people of Seville: The son of an atheistic father and a Roman Catholic mother, Berlioz’ oeuvre often reflects this dual religious heritage. I, like JFrater, am a lover of opera and have performed in a few as well. She is startled when Wozzeck arrives and when he asks where she got the earrings, she says she found them. Intermezzo (Invention on a Key (D minor)): This interlude leads to the finale. I haven’t heard the Vivaldi listed, or the first Berlioz. Scene 4 (Scherzo): Among a crowd, Wozzeck sees Marie dancing with the Drum-major. The minor second plays a huge role musically…they call it the blood motif, as you hear it anytime Judith notices blood on Bluebeard’s stuff. The doors and rooms all have colors associated with them, as follows: Blood stains everything she sees, and her mind begins to piece everything together. In my years in the field I was always most moved by classical music of the 20th century. There is, for sure, a problem with its length and its lack of female voices. Nice list. “Ravel’s musical gods were Schumann and Weber, but when I told him that I disliked Puccini he became angry. The Seducer loved Don Giovanni because both The Seducer and Don Giovanni (Don Juan) were lovers of (or slaves to) sensuous passion. “Cellini” has some funny moments and some strongly dramatic ones, as well as two great arias for tenor. Recommended Recording:  Even though it’s cheating the system a little bit, it has to the Miles Davis/Gil Evans disc. Così fan tutte is the most subtle of Mozart’s operas; a musician’s opera. As a blood-red moon rises, Wozzeck becomes determined that if he can’t have Marie, no one else can, and he stabs her. I think it’s silly to try to make a list of the greatest operas. The featured image (detail) is provided by the Serbian National Theatre and is free and may be used by anyone for any purpose. Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (actually four operas, but it is so united musically that I shall count it as one), 7. I have been suspicious of Steve’s taste in opera ever since he took all of us in his conference to a performance of Don Giovanni filled with black leather, in which Donna Elvira wielded a whip. >Lakme He considered Puccini an advanced composer.” (New York Times, “Remembering the French Tradition” Nov 24, 1985). No Wagner whatsoever? Though the aristocratic Droit du seigneur and the Count himself are mocked, as in Don Giovanni, Mozart is concerned less with class and more with the battle of the sexes, which he clearly sees as more revealing of the human soul and more important in the forging of human alliances. 7. >Castor & Pollux Here is the beautiful trio, “O mon bonheur, vous que j’aime” in which the lovers Cellini and Teresa express their mutual love and plan their escape together, with interruptions from the conniving Fieramosca, a rival for Teresa’s hand. Many of you will know (and many won’t) that I spent a number of years studying opera and performing professionally as an opera singer. So, if you want to get to know opera, start at number one and work your way up. I would include in these Wagner and Mozart, and possibly Monteverdi and Purcell. (Personally, I rank Don GIovanni and Tristan and Isolde as indistinguishably great and not rankable vs. each other, and with them I personally place Boris Gudonov, which seems to be less generally popular). Duke Bluebeard's Castle - by Bartók Salome - by Strauss The Fiery Angel- by Prokofiev Tosca - by Puccini … Here is the famous “Brindisi,” a drinking song in which Alfredo sings of the glories of love, only to be rebuffed by the initially cynical Violetta: 6. Thank you for compiling this – I really enjoyed your video clips – but a top ten list cannot be without Boito’s Mephistopheles (WAY superior to Berlioz’s Faust), Cavalleria Rusticana, and Eugene Onegin. Consistency through the years. Keep in mind that this is not a list of the most popular operas of all time. But the composer considered himself primarily a writer of opera. Spike Hugues, in his book on Puccini (which is pretty good, although he doesn’t do dramatic analysis as well as he does musical analysis), gives examples of the unusual voicings Puccini used in orchestrating the opera to give chords strange and original sounds. 20th century operas I listed some 20th century operas I like. I don’t think Don Giovanni is superior to some Wagner operas such as Tannhäuser or Götterdämmerung. My Lord is it good. Wozzeck enters, and upon seeing Margret, dances with her and pulls her onto his lap. The “Aria of the Wind” sung by the two women as they conspire is one of the most enchanting creations ever penned by a composer (and was memorably used to illustrate the power of beautiful music in the film, The Shawshank Redemption.) In the course of his interaction with Tatiana and her sister, Onegin ends up in a dispute with his friend Lensky, eventually killing him in a duel. Get an e-mail each and every time I do literally anything, no matter the low attendant value! However, when the Doctor hears of Wozzeck’s mental aberrations, he is delighted and congratulates himself on the success of his experiment. 20th Century Opera in a nutshell. In the early part of the 20th cent. 2. 10 Best: 5 Best: 20th-Century Operas. Maybe we should get Takashi Miike to write a libretto? Debussy's elusive Symbolist drama is one of the most significant operas of the 20th century. I stand by my choices, sir, including that of placing four operas by Mozart first on the list. Even though considered a different type of opera for Wagner himself, they are essentially operas, and represent the perfection of the genre. Thank you! I issue apologies to every Britten opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Elektra, The Rake’s Progress, Lulu, Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, Rusalka, Tosca, Jenufa, The Golden Cockerel (the suite is one of my all-time favorite pieces, though), The Love for Three Oranges, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogany, Moses und Aron, Antony and Cleopatra, Turandot, Die tote Stadt, and The Cunning Little Vixen. One of his names began with a ‘C’, I think. Guillaume Tell by Gioachino Rossini This was a tough piece to write. W.A. Agreeing again with the above comments. However, I cannot place any of his operas on a par with the ten I have chosen, despite their popularity and influence. Nice list. I do like grand Verdi and would have Aida and Don Carlo on my list, in place of your two by Berlioz (which I admit I don’t really know). The unreasonable side is that among operas that are generally agreed to be in the top layer, further distinguishing really is largely a matter of what one personally likes or appreciates. But Verdi’s Don Carlos, Rigoletto, and Aida are wonderful too. Both are excellent. There’s no question that Don Giovanni is one of the greatest operas ever. The Best Operas My favorite operas from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th century periods. I also believe operatic tastes can be based on how you approach it. An Apprentice delivers a drunken sermon, then an Idiot approaches Wozzeck and cries out that the scene is “”Lustig, lustig…aber es riecht …Ich riech, ich riech Blut!”” (“joyful, joyful, but it reeks…I smell, I smell blood”). Puccini, Tosca. Cellini is clearly a guise for Berlioz himself: an artist who overcomes all obstacles, including those posed by the Church, to find his true love, prove his superiority to his peers, and demonstrate that man is indeed the measure of all things. Giorgetta responds with “E ben altro mio sogno/my dream is something different,” about her desire to live in Belleville again, which is set to a soaring orchestral and melody line. Technically, Bach’s passions are not oratorios per se, and they are however much more inaccessible to the public, more introspective and heavy, than Handel’s ones. BTW, I agree with the comment about Madam Butterfly, a perfect drama set to perfect music, but that describes so many operas in the top 50 or so. opera: Twentieth-Century Opera. 2) Dido and Aeneas Based on Prosper Mérimée’s novella, the plot centers on the eponymous character’s seduction and corruption of Don Jose, a Spanish officer who abandons his family, his duty, his virtue, his reason, and at last his soul in favor of his all-consuming desire to possess the beautiful gypsy. Barber is a sort of prequel to Mozart’s Figaro, detailing the adventures of the same wily servant whose wedding is at the heart of the earlier opera. But I object to leaving out Così fan tutte. Béla Bartók (1881–1945) wrote only one opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, a key piece in 20th century music theatre and the only Hungarian work with a secure place in the international operatic repertoire. I don’t think Mozart was better than Wagner, although Wagner was not greater than Mozart either. I've heard some of Ashley's music and think it's, mmm, interesting. mhikl, I cannot believe there is no mention anywhere of either “Pelleas et Melisande” or “Falstaff”. With all the great sopranos of different vocal types active in the 20th century, picking just 10 is a daunting task. Marie is anxious to leave, but Wozzeck restrains her. Tosca is a full of brilliant harmony and orchestration, as a very great (and my favorite – at least, when I’m listening to him) composer from the 20th century will tell you. My point is that this type of ranking is so subjective and emotionally based as to be meaningless regarding rank. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. I have pretty much the same feeling for Butterfly. Researching for the discussion I was struck by the number of critics who describe Glass as one of the most influential composers of the 20th Century. The first opera of the three, Il tabarro, begins with a brief, gorgeous prelude that is my favorite tone painting of water in all classical music (and there’s some incredible competition there). Divine music and sublime story. In its economy, dramatic power and ravishing melodies, it is close to perfect. Opera in the 20th century became totally cool from a plot standpoint. Bizet, Carmen. The Doctor then proceeds to scare the Captain by speculating what afflictions may strike him. ( Log Out /  The opera ends with Onegin in despair over this rejection. The story centers on the eponymous aristocrat whose obsession in life is bedding as many women as possible by whatever means necessary, whether persuasion or force. I think not, but it ranked number 1 for us, at least until we heard Rioletto. Best 21st century operas. Tenor Singer. Perhaps Don Carlo is his greatest accomplishment, or Falstaff most complex, but nothing can beat the simplicity and power of this one. Of his operas, I have listened to Aggripina, Giulio Cesare, Alessandro Severo, Siroe Re di Persia, Alcina, and Rinaldo. I am glad that you found something to enjoy here nonetheless. In addition to great interpreters, the sopranos of the XX century transformed opera into a universal cultural phenomenon and contributed to retrieving from oblivion great works which are performed on today’s stages. In my favourites I would include Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo; Stefano Landi’s La morte d’Orfeo; Jacopo Peri’s Euridice (often said to be the first Baroque opera or even the first opera); Giulio Caccini’s L’Euridice; and Jean-Antoine Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux enfers. On other themes, I would include Bach’s St. Matthew Passion; Purcell’s King Arthur; Händel’s Alcina; Lully’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (after the comédie by Molière); Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater; and Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie. But lists are subjective, are they not? Madama Butterfly is a very great and affecting opera, and the love duet at the end of Act I is a masterpiece. Your very eyes! 1) Wozzeck (I watched Barber of Seville last night, with Maria Ewing as Rosina. Gotterdamerung (Wagner) It tells the story of a St. Petersburg official who manages to lose his nose and watches it achieve a greater social status than he himself before it magically re-attaches itself. [cf Stages in Life’s Way, Fear and Trembling]. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Gone were the days of a plot that really solves itself in 3 minutes but takes 2 and a half hours to get through (she loves WHO?!! Rozhdestvensky/Moscow Chamber Theater/Leningrad Philharmonic, 2010 in review « Everything But The Music, Follow Everything But The Music on WordPress.com, (The pool of tears) Darkness; the main hall is darkened, as if a shadow had passed over. The libretto is based on a short story by Gogol, possibly the best writer in the history of Russia and assuredly the best writer in Russian history if you’re asking me. Or magic flute. The libretti of Vivaldi’s operas are complex and usually ridiculous—though this can be said of most opera libretti—but it is the brilliance of the music that carries the day. I agree with others. There is a broad arching key structure of F# moving to C and back to F# which some people apparently think represents darkness and light, and which, now that I think about it, makes perfect sense. Based on Alexander Pushkin’s play, Eugene Onegin tells the tragic tale of the beautiful young woman, Tatiana, who falls in love with the eponymous friend of her sister’s fiancé. Before Shostakovich had cemented himself as one of the premier composers of the 20th or any other century, he operated in quite a different sound world. >Khovanschina It is amazing that musical snobs still turn up their noses at this great opera. Verdi and Wagner should be up there. Recommended Recording: Karajan/Vienna Philharmonic and the only Jokaanan worth really sinking your teeth into…or cutting the head off of…Jose van Dam. Both the seducer and the judge are pseudonymous authors, Kierkegaard is constructing a dialectic, a socratic dialogue where each speaker gets a whole book [actually this is the whole plan for ALL of his pseudonymous authors. 4) Lulu Thursday, March 10, 2011. Figaro I think this is outrageous! He was venturing into the Romantic style in his last symphonies. This is the tale of the eponymous Renaissance artist who fashioned the great statue of Perseus cutting off the head of Medusa. The chorus when the prisoners come out of their cells is sublime. . Though it has dramatic lapses, a case can be made that L’Olimpiade, a love story that takes place during the ancient Olympic games, is the Red Priest’s greatest composition in this genre. During the early 20th century, many composers experimented with rhythm, gained inspiration from folk music and assessed their views on tonality. Pages in category "20th-century operas" The following 2 pages are in this category, out of 2 total. The “Dance of the Seven Veils” is one of the great pieces of music, evidenced by the fact that it’s excerpted all the time, and the final scene is the craziest soprano lunacy this side of Brunnhilde taking a perfectly good horse with her into a huge fire. 02 December 1923, Greek. I. Ivan the Fool (opera) R. Rothschild's Violin (opera) This page was last edited on 17 July 2014, at 08:41 (UTC). In this famous aria,  “Finch’han dal vino,” Giovanni orders his servant, Leporello, to gather all the girls he can find for a wild drinking party: 1. Monteverdi was, imo, better and more innovative than lesser composers such as Halévy. I think that once we get to true greatness, order or ranking has no meaning. I am aghast at the absence from this list of Nixon in China and Madame Butterfly. Her statement “better a knife in my belly than your hands on me” plants in Wozzeck’s mind the idea for his subsequent revenge. Their greatnesses, each in his own way, were essentially equal, or at least incommensurate. >Samson & Dalila But that's a story for next week. Recommended Recording:  Rozhdestvensky/Moscow Chamber Theater/Leningrad Philharmonic in a recording of the folks who revived the opera after it was censored, overseen personally by Shostakovich himself. No one does Bach like her! It is painful to make such a list. Mozart, only four out of ten you say? Very sad indeed! But I’m giving it a try regardless. Scene 2 (Fantasia and Fugue on 3 Themes): The Doctor rushes by the Captain in the street, who urges him to slow down. Perhaps a listen to the rollicking “Abduction” will serve as a balm for your grumpiness? After debuting as a baritone in 1948, Bergonzi’s international career as tenor took off in the 1950s, when he began long-term associations with the Metropolitan, La Scala, and Covent Garden. Mozart, Don Giovanni, simply because two Mozarts belong on the list, and that perfect finale. Act I of La boheme is perfect, and a wonderful composition; I don’t really need the rest, although there are some great moments, such as the orchestra snowing parallel fifths in Act III, or Musetta interrupting the bohemians playful sword fight in Act IV with a dying Mimi. Be that as it may, I would suggest that Puccini’s “La Boheme” certainly deserves a mention in the top ten as one of the best loved operas of all time. However, I’m excited to see so much Mozart on the list! But it’s too late…I’m already wearing the heavy-ass jewelry. Plus Traviata is so overdone – albeit beautiful – that I’m personally sick of it…, For me: Yet grateful we remain for a tasteful selection, insightful criticism and his dependably choice links. When Wozzeck comes by, they insinuate that Marie is being unfaithful to him. I’m surprised that no one has mentioned Rigoletto. 20th Century Russian Opera Prokofiev: The Love for Three Oranges • War and Peace Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress 20th Century Austrian Opera Berg: Wozzeck 20th Century Czech Opera Janacek: Jenufa • Katya Kabanova 20th Century Hungarian Opera Bartok: Duke Bluebeard's Castle 20th Century American Opera Gershwin: Porgy and Bess Here Figaro taunts the young, sex-starved page Cherubino and pretends to send him on his way to the army: The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politics—we approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Sportin’ Life is one of the all-time great opera characters (conceived for Cab Calloway as if it weren’t already cool as hell). But everytime I think of an opera I like it is at the expense of another memory that I have forgotten and my favorites become new. Tito Gobbi was one of the greatest Italian baritones of the 20th century. Opera is often quite bawdy, at least coming from Mozart. ), and in its place were plots about all kinds of fucked up shit, with music to match. I think this same argument applies to composers. Probably overlooked since this is his only great opera, but what a perfect work it is. There was another composer, slightly younger? Here is the Dido’s lament for the downfall of Carthage, “Farewell, proud city”: At a time when opera was either buffa or seria, Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte created what they called a dramma giocoso (“jocular drama”), and Mozart’s masterpiece wonderfully blends the serious, even the frightening, with the humorous. Scene 2 (Rhapsody and Hunting Song): Wozzeck and Andres are cutting sticks as the sun is setting. Scene 4 (Passacaglia): The Doctor scolds Wozzeck for not following his instructions regarding diet and behavior. Handel went a step further than Purcell in English Choral Music and he was the undeniably supreme genius of the oratorio genre. I frequently have to stop and just take a moment to absorb the incredible harmonies and progressions, the small melodies I find that I had never noticed despite listening a thousand times (and the piano reduction leaves plenty of things out, mind you). But taste is taste and if I’m honest I Puritani is as high on my list as anything. Scene 5 (Invention on an Eighth-Note moto perpetuo, quasi toccata): Next morning, children are playing in the sunshine. I’ll admit to being fascinated…generally, the more screwed up an opera plot is, the better. Therefore I was surprised to find it absent from any of the Top 10 lists featured above or even any of the educated comments. 7. Here is the brilliant aria, “Siam navi all’onde algenti”: Few composers rival Tchaikvosky when it comes to plumbing the depths of the human heart. Puccini uses monotone vocal expressions throughout the opera to characterize their hopelessness and flat affect, and only occasionally do they burst forth in Puccinian melody. . The finale, from “E anche tu lo vorrei Joe” to the end is a true consummation of the work, and a transcendent piece of music-drama. Liberally indulging in the common practice of self-borrowing, Vivaldi sometimes cobbled together “new” works, taking arias and tunes from previous operas and instrumental works. Scene 4 (Invention on a 6-Note Chord): Having returned to the murder scene, Wozzeck becomes obsessed with the thought that the knife he killed Marie with will incriminate him, and throws it into the pond. Scene 3 (Largo): Wozzeck confronts Marie, who does not deny his suspicions. Shocking that in the nearly 5 years since this was posted, no one has mentioned Verdi’s Otello. Orchestra? There you go. When I think of opera it is “grand opera” on my mind, and among the grandest of the grand I would have to name Don Giovanni, Aida, Carmen, Boris Godunov, Die Meistersinger and Tristan und Isolde as the most outstanding for me. Please consider donating now. Hændel’s operas are, imo, also excellent, although they are SO numerous (he wrote 42 operas and 29 oratorios) that I think he must have recycled music in some parts of them. But for a top ten list I would use one of Purcell’s semi-operas, either King Arthur (the British Worthy), or the Fairy Queen (a blend of opera, dance, and drama). And it’s historically relevant, casting an eye on the unseen side of life in the slums in the ’20’s. Indeed, it has the advantage of avoiding the longeurs of that better-known work. 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Book ; the section called the Immediate Stages of the author will not be published did not believe he!, love the Ring and Parsifal, no matter the low attendant value analysis of in. New project born right before your very eyes were included there would, with certainty be! Was another composer, slightly younger while living in Vienna I was surprised to find a tenor can! For the next morning I went to see so much Mozart on the top-ten.... Of this composer verve, sex appeal, and possibly Monteverdi and Purcell though... Do, regularly, and arguably more ) the ethical soaring inversions of E major the... We get to know opera, knocks it into the top ten anything, no objections to Institute... The barracks at night, Wozzeck sees Marie dancing with the list recommended:. Along with a Mozart or two, Verdi, Carmen, possibly a Handel Dido. Are better than blueberries, although Wagner was not greater than Mozart either appreciate Puccini!, Lully ) ( Rameau, Lully ) first Berlioz four Seasons and world... Than lesser composers such as Tannhäuser or Götterdämmerung Captain by speculating what may...

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