I got this idea while reading the musicals thread.
I’m an opera fan though not a rabid one. I subscribe to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and see up to seven a year live.
My favorite opera is The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach. Offenbach was primarily a operetta composer, and this was his only grand opera. It offers a sort of sampler of opera styles. Comic opera with the tale of Olympia, the singing wind-up doll Hoffmann falls in love with. Dark mysticism with the tale of Giulietta, a courtesan witch Hoffmann falls in love with. And the tragic drama in the tale of Antonia, which is a dying girl Hoffmann (you guessed it) falls in love with.
While this opera is beginning to end beautiful music, it is the last tale that is unusually transfixing, especially if you know the story behind it. Offenbach was dying while he composed it, and the story is about a girl with a beautiful voice who will die if she sings. Of course, she is an artist, and must sing to feel alive, so she sings and dies for it. Offenbach probably hastened his own death working on this, the opera by which he hoped he would finally be taken as a serious composer instead of a merry musical jokester. I think he succeeded spectacularly.
I only wish the Lyric would show it more often. I’ve only seen it performed live once in all the years I’ve been subscribing.
It wasn’t the oldest opera (that would be Peri’s Euridice), but it was arguably the fist great opera. Monteverdi set his hurdles pretty high. The libretto starts with a song about the power of music, and the power of Orfeo’s music, that can change the will of the gods. So now Monteverdi has to write music beautiful and powerful enough for us to believe it might move the gods themselves. And you know what? He pulls it off.
In my opinion, a lot of operas suffer from rather weak stories. Mozart’s operas are musically of the highest calibre ever achieved but I don’t think they quite achieve their full potential because the dramatic writing isn’t quite on the same level as the music.
The story of L’Orfeo is a classic among classics, but this particular telling is especially meaningful because it’s a ultimately a piece of music about music.
There’s nothing really flashy about L’Orfeo, and its melodies aren’t always the catchiest every written, but they’re not meant to be. Early opera was about creating music by emphasizing the natural rhythms and melodies of the Italian language. L’Orfeo is great precisely because it’s free of all the unbridled drama and excess of romantic opera and yet manages to express a very broad range of emotions.
I’ve got it down to two, and which of them comes out on top would just depend on which day you asked me.
Wozzeck - Alban Berg, for its incredible depiction of the title character’s mental state. The music has brilliantly mirrored the obsessive confusion of Wozzeck’s interactions with his fellow beings. Madness has existed in opera for centuries, but this was the first time when the audience was completely immersed in the point of view of the madman. To me, this is a masterpiece that makes me proud to be a human.
Pelléas et Mélisande - Claude Debussy, for completely capturing this utterly bizarre world in music. I have to say that the best staging of it I have ever seen is the one inside my head when I listen to it - I’ve yet to see a production that shows the subplot of Nature overtaking the human world piece by piece. There’s not a second of the music that doesn’t enhance the atmosphere, from the bewildering forests where everyone gets lost to the permanent gloom of the castle, or the stifling horror of the caves.
I’m glad you asked for ‘favourite’ rather than best, because neither of these in any way typifies the form, and I wouldn’t recommend either one as someone’s first opera, not by a long road. But they are both pieces that I go out of my way to try to catch live, and listen to frequently.
Madama Butterfly. Puccini’s operas have the most beautiful songs in them, and Butterfly has the best overall selection. It’s also a poignant opera. Not exactly out of date, either.
The Met is currently in the process of finishing a run of the Ring, being heard on its Saturday broadcasts. Today was Siegfried; next Saturday is Gottedamerung. Wagner’s orchestrations are always the best.
The LA Opera is just started their ring cycle. They’re doing Rhinegold and Walkure this year, and Siegfried and Gottedammerung next year. Their Rhinegold was good, but Walkure (which I saw two nights ago) was AMAZING. Despite the abstract staging it was a tremendously human performance and the interaction between Wotan and Brunnehilde was heart-rending.
It’s also my favorite Puccini, possibly my favorite opera.
It depends on my mood, though–if I have the time and stamina, I love Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Tristan und Isolde, which contain some of the most beautiful music ever written, IMO. Shame Wagner himself was such an ass.
For the music I love Madam Butterfly but I can get the effect of that off a CD. To see it performed I think I’ll go with The Magic Flute, though I have yet to see any Wagner on stage so that might change someday.
It’s strange but the thing I miss most about living in a metropolitan area is being able to go to the opera. I’m not a huge buff and it’s not like I’m bothered that much about it not being convenient to go to other live performances it’s just that I felt that opera gained something by being experienced in the theater rather than just listening to a CD.
I’ve always thought that there was nothing wrong with Wagner that a good editor couldn’t cure, but then I’m a Rossini fan. Snappy and quick-moving, that’s how I like 'em.
Although I wouldn’t call it my favorite, one opera I wish they would play more often is Treemonisha by Scott Joplin, another composer at the end of his life trying to write a grand opera.
Treemonisha got a brief revival during the seventies when The Entertainer became a big hit because of the movie The Sting. I think it’s due for another round.
