My Favorite Operas

#1 Tristan and Isolde (an enormous amount has been written about it, some of it, I think, really inciteful. It’s been psycho-analized backwards and forwards yielding, I think, good results. Certainly the deepest opera, with many levels, as well as at least one terrible 15 minutes (Rossini: “Wagner has great moments but terrible quarters of an hour.” Quite true I think), Categorically better than his other operas I think. So—why would God give such an evil person (read his “Jews in Music”, recall that Hitler once said something like “to understand National Socialism, one must first understand Wagner”). So, why would he get the great opera?. Don’t ask me, I’m not God.)

#2 La Traviata (originally Violetta—well, the censors seemed to have liked messing with Verdi’s titles.) (first of three operas written in a short period in the middle of Verdi’s career, including the following two, I think his best. Not uncommon, I think—that’s when one still has something to say but has also developed good technique. See, for instance #1. At one point there are three opera houses in London, each playing one of these. Apparently Verdi and his companion saw this one as a play in Paris, “The Lady of the Camillias”, a later movie “Camille” will star Greta Garbo. May have had business there with a production of one of the others, they appeared in opposite order to mine. Anyway, he later says he had already written half of the opera by the end of the play. 3^nd greatest longish duet in opera—Violetta and the baritone in act II, right behind the love duet in the above (long indeed), and the post anvil chorus one in the following. Toscanini used to mess with the metrical distortion of the theme from the prelude where Violetta extorts Alfredo to love her always even though he’s about to find out she’s going back to the courtesanal life. Greatest moment in opera. Toscanini should have left it alone. Verdi knew what he was doing.)

#3 Il Trovatore (originnally Azucena) (Obviously most complex and convoluted plot ever foisted on a paying audience. Probably more great tunes than any other opera, including Rigoletto below. Takes a great Alto (“Gypsy Mother”). A great spinto tenor (Pavarotti was the best), great baritone, really, great cast in general.

#4 Rigoletto (originally Il Maledizione) (tale of a cursed hunchback jester, his beautiful daughter whom he tries to secrete, a kind of nasty chorus and a profligate rake of a duke. Once again Pavarotti makes the best duke. I think every act ends with bad fortune for the hunchback jester, especially the last, and his cry of “Il Maledizione!–The Curse!”. Best quartet ever in last act)

#5 Jesus Christ Superstar (lots of mistakes by librettist Tim Rice. But we encounter here a Jesus who is not at all a wimp, gets angry, as Sandy Padilla, my bible teacher (see “The cruel tutelage of Pai Mei”) would say “calls the bad guys down.” He might even have sex. The song “I don’t know how to love him” is a double miracle (triple, really), and my favorite song. By the way, there is absolutely nothing in the bible to suggest that Mary Magdalene, a follower of Jesus (there were several women followers), was a prostitute. I’m afraid in this instance we must forgive the poetic license)

#6 Don Giovanni (written by Da Ponte, who became first professor of Italian at Columbia U. in New York, and Mozart, with help from Casanova. Chaliapin loved the comic role of Leperello, can hear him on YouTube doing the “Catalogue Aria”–incredibly funny)

#7 The Marriage of Figaro (Great sequenced octet. Very powerful ending in which The Countess forgives and accepts her husband in spite of his recent dalliances and no doubt future ones)

#8 La Boheme, not The Magic Flute, which isn’t really an opera (very touching)

#9 Tosca (very dramatic)

#10 Boris Godunov (Chaliapin can’t be touched—several YouTubes)

#11 Khovanshchina (Check out the chorus of the Streltsy)

#12 Carmen (even though several tunes stolen (the Habanera, a pop dance from Havana, the famous middle part of the Toreador song (a Spanish folk song, which was later re-stolen: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be, never forget—stay out of debt…”(–Harald Hecuban, Gilligan’s Island)) Wagner liked it. Some kind of miracle?)

#13 The Barber of Seville (wasn’t it Donizetti who said, after hearing that Rossini had retired after finishing his 39^th and last opera “Yeah well, he always was lazy”, or was it Bellini—they wrote a lot in those days)

#14 Giulio Cesare (image great castrati here)

#14 The Coronation of Poppea (love especially the bass, Seneca)

#s 15 and 16 The Goddess’ People, and Bath-Sheba and David (well, a guy’s got a right to try, right?)