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FAVORITE OPERA? I find this question impossible to answer because there are so, so many great works. I'll give you a few:
Salome (Richard Strauss, beautiful poetry of the libretto by Oscar Wilde, incredible music, extremely difficult soprano role)
Don Giovanni (Mozart, stunning music, great ensembles, cool story)
Rigoletto (Verdi, gorgeous music, compact, interesting story, incredible last act)
Il Trovatore (contains, IMO, Verdi's best ensembles)
La Traviata (Verdi at his best, the whole opera is in waltz time, gorgeous arias
Any more?

1Observer2 5 Feb 11
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My favorite is what I am seeing or what I am singing at the time. Traviata (I lived with Violetta.) Verdi; Fiordilligi In Cosi fan Tutti - Mozart; Manon - Massenet.; - Liu - Turandot; Sonia - Merry Widow - Lehar - etc. Favorite operas?- TURANDOT & LA BOHEME - Puccini.

I once conducted a youth orchestra and three talented teenage singers in the Trio from Rosenkavalier. That was spectacular.

I heard a story from a friend of one of Richard Strauss' assistants. One evening Strauss suddenly got up from the dinner table without speaking - went into his study and didn't come out for several days. When he emerged one of his operas was written. It could have been "Salome." Strauss was criticized for cooperating with the Nazi's. He was German and there during those awful years. This same person told me how angry and sad he was when Jewish
performers were taken away by the Nazi's. He was prominent and therefore with some influence which he used to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law and his Jewish grandchildren. He could not protect this daughter's grandmother and her other children who were killed in a concentration camp. He was far from a Nazi sympathizer.

I love the trio from the finale of Rosenkavalier and think its one of the best in the repertoire. I don't like waiting 5 hours to hear it in the opera house, though.

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quadrophenia

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Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld.

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I have three CDs entitled .Opera Without Words' which of course is just the great tunes played by a symphony orchestra without the singing. They are performed by the Rome Symphony Orchestra conducted by Domenico Savina. The three are the Giacoima Antonia PUCCINI's Madam Butterfly/La Boheme and Tosca.

I would suggest you get a DVD of La Boehme. You'd be surprised how beautiful it is with the voices. Plus, each of the 4 acts is 25 minutes or less. The whole opera runs around 90 minutes. The last act is heartbreaking.

Hi Obs . I'm already quite familiar with the three operas that I mentioned, Use to have them on the 33 rpms long playing vinyls. The full singing originals that is.Never did like the singing much. But I do love the melodies. The "Opera Without Words' were originally on vinyl as well but had them transferred to CDs. They are complete like the singing versions.

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The Marriage of Figaro and Carmen.

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I've never watched a full opera. I've seen clips, and some of it appeals to me, but for the most part opera is an area I've never developed much interest in.

Luckily, these days you can buy a DVD of a great performance for a fraction of what tickets cost at an opera house. Plus, with no intermissions, you can watch a full opera in 2 hours or less.

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