Opera fans - What are your favorite operas?

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Sarabande said:
Oh, Gilbert and Sullivan is just so great! Have you seen Topsy Turvy? Good movie. Last year, I sang for a private party which was a 50th wedding anniversary. The couple loved opera and especially Gilbert and Sullivan and other light opera. I found the most adorable song “When A Merry Maiden Marries”. It was just so cute and then seeing the wife singing along with me. I’m not as familiar with G&S music, but that music just captures the time period perfectly. “Poor Wand’ring One” is also such a nice song along with “Three Little Maids from School”.
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What’s your favourite patter song?
 
ora_pro_nobis said:
The Marriage of Figaro is one of my absolute favourites, I was lucky enough to see Bryn Terfel as Figaro near the start of his career.
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He is wonderful as Figaro!!! I got to see him last year. It was my first time seeing him live and my first time seeing “Le Nozze di Figaro” live. I practically know the opera by heart. One of my favorites is the Glyndebourne early 1970s performance with Kiri Te Kanewa as the Countess, Frederica von Stade as Cherubino, Ileana Cotrubas as Susanna and Knut Scram (spell?) as Figaro. I loved it. They were all so young, too. I have to say, I’ve heard many Cherubinos and von Stade is my favorite.

youtube.com/watch?v=o7y3_SZqNi4&feature=related

youtube.com/watch?v=OB8IWGJl7Nw&feature=related
youtube.com/watch?v=BTWBieDvZb8&feature=related

Such a gorgeous duet
youtube.com/watch?v=gaVIwwNhocg

The very first live opera I ever saw was “Cosi fan tutte”. It was pure heaven - and that trio. Absolutely sublime!!!

youtube.com/watch?v=gMY3Ou9L5xE&feature=related
 
Sarabande said:
Oh, Gilbert and Sullivan is just so great! Have you seen Topsy Turvy? Good movie. Last year, I sang for a private party which was a 50th wedding anniversary. The couple loved opera and especially Gilbert and Sullivan and other light opera. *I found the most adorable song “When A Merry Maiden Marries”. *It was just so cute and then seeing the wife singing along with me. I’m not as familiar with G&S music, but that music just captures the time period perfectly. “Poor Wand’ring One” is also such a nice song along with “Three Little Maids from School”.
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Oh that brings back memories. I was fortunate enough to be in a high school production of The Gondoliers - the operetta that song comes from. All-girls school, so I with my basso profundo voice was a chorus boy - I’m sure therapists would love that 😛 .

And during the short time that I took singing lessons, having delusions of a voice of some kind, I sang ‘When a Merry Maiden Marries’ in a singing competition, and did a respectable job of it - even managed not to wimp out on the high note at the end, although anything approaching a high note was normally quite terrifying.
 
Sarabande said:
Love it all!

Have you ever heard Franco Corelli sing “Nessun Dorma”?

youtube.com/watch?v=8bvj6ML1xvM&feature=related

How can you not like “Der Holle Rache”? I got to perform the Second Lady a couple years back and was in heaven hearing all the gorgeous music for months. It’s a lot of fun doing one of the Three Ladies as well. I really think the tenor aria in that opera is gorgeous - especially when Fritz Wunderlich sings it.

youtube.com/watch?v=px0H0rD2L2E
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No, I haven’t seen these videos. Thanks for the links. 😃
 
Sarabande said:
I see you’re in Houston. You might be able to get cheapies for under $20.
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HGO does do discount shows. That’s how I got to take my kids to see Pagliacci. Some of their regular ticket prices are almost reasonable as well, but those seats are so high up in the rafters it isn’t possible to see the whole stage. I remember seeing Madame Butterfly from the ceiling. I never saw the Bonze except for his feet.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
averheyen said:
What’s your favourite patter song?
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I don’t know much of the G&S repertoire, so I couldn’t say for their works, but I really do enjoy Figaro’s aria from Rossini’s “Il barbiere di Siviglia”.
 
mlchance said:
HGO does do discount shows. That’s how I got to take my kids to see Pagliacci. Some of their regular ticket prices are almost reasonable as well, but those seats are so high up in the rafters it isn’t possible to see the whole stage. I remember seeing Madame Butterfly from the ceiling. I never saw the Bonze except for his feet.

– Mark L. Chance.
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Oh! that’s such a shame. I didn’t realize that the Houston Grand Opera didn’t have good seats up in the nose bleeds.
 
ora_pro_nobis said:
I also have a liking for earlier stuff, like Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, Xerxes by Handel, Acis and Galatea, also Handel.
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I know what you mean about the early operas. Music is gorgeous, but the recits are not fun to sing.

Handel’s “Rinaldo” is beautiful. Marilyn Horne was wonderful in this role. I’m in awe of her agility. And we really should credit her for working towards bringing back Handel operas to the US. I wish I saw her performance of it live. I’m actually trying to find a live 1975 recording of it with the Houston Symphony. It was one of the first productions of this opera done in the US. The cast was Horne, Mandac and Ramey.

youtube.com/watch?v=hbltMsfnivg
youtube.com/watch?v=AImvk6UrnqI&feature=PlayList&p=D26AE6BB047824E4&index=0&playnext=1

She even recorded “Lascia ch’io pianga”. Quite different with her variations, but beautiful.
youtube.com/watch?v=KxOZHQEux5c
 
JPUSC said:
Check out this great performance of Der Hölle Rache. 😃

youtube.com/watch?v=sWh_2Iit3Ek

(the song starts at 0:34)
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Oh my goodness!!! So cute!!!

This is one of my favorite recordings of it with Lucia Popp:
youtube.com/watch?v=_ufeyarJxNQ

Edda Moser also did a fantastic job with it. She got the whole really angry, passionate part down. I’d be pretty scared if my mom was singing like that to me. hahaha! I was fortunate to study with her in Salzburg and she as a person can be quite intimidating, but it was a great learning experience. She only chose 12 people and literally turned the rest away in front of all of us. That was a little scary audition-wise and then working-wise.

youtube.com/watch?v=ZNEOl4bcfkc&feature=related

And I just can’t get over this little boy singing it.
youtube.com/watch?v=F9ijwfRTv0o&feature=related
 
But no one tops Florence Foster Jenkins…

youtube.com/watch?v=MM6qntPpyZ0

:D:p:p

My husband was blown away when he first heard her in the music store… blown away, clenching his stomach in pain from laughter. For anyone who doesn’t know anything about her, she was this wealthy woman in the early 20th c who really thought she could sing. She’d rent out Carnegie Hall for her concerts and would sell the place out. Everyone came to see her because they couldn’t get over the hutzpah and self-confidence she had. Although they also came to laugh her… which is kind of sad when you think about it. Why no one told her she was so horrible is sad. But would she have listened?
 
LOL, if Florence was alive today, she would’ve had an easier time getting her CD released on iTunes…I’ve heard similar on there and actually paid the 99 cents to buy them, hahahaha. To think her CD is still on sale to this day…way to go Florence! 😃

I saw that clip of the little boy before, but I just found these clips of other boys doing it while looking for the parrot video. Haha, they really should stop making boys do this song…it’s nice yet hilarious in a way! They should be out playing football, haha. 😛

youtube.com/watch?v=qgiAWvbLAlg

youtube.com/watch?v=IPBQ6X9Wkh0

It’s similar to a guy singing Nel cor piu non mi sento, except I’ve heard Ramón Vargas do a good rendition.
 
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