Gounod’s Faust is one of the great operas. It is a masterpiece with many gripping scenes that have become famous. The role of Margeritue is one of the most beautiful and demanding roles in opera literature.
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“From a musical point of view, Gianni Schicchi is Puccini’s most ingenuous and wittiest score. But that’s not all: As a theatrical oeuvre “Gianni Schicchi” belongs to the most perfect works in the history of Italian operas. Libretto, composition and Comedy form a perfect unity. Gianni Schicchi is a jewel of opera literature is at the height of Puccini’s compositional creativity.” (Uecker, Puccini’s operas)
This opera by Giuseppe Verdi is considered a congenial work on Shakespeare’s contribution to world literature. For many tenors, the role of Otello is the crowning achievement of their career.
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Don Pasquale belongs to the 3 great Buffo operas of the Belcanto period. Despite severe health problems Donizetti created a work with so many great musical ideas in this late work.
After the music-dramatic operas “Macbeth” and “Simon Boccanegra”, Verdi returned to the Belcantist number opera with “Un ballo in maschera”. With this work Verdi offers the listener five brilliant parts and magnificent scenes. Already the premiere was one of Verdi’s most brilliant successes of his career, and the work began its triumphal march around the world.
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Humperdinck’s fairytale opera is loved all over the world for its folk music. Hardly any other work of opera literature has been translated into so many languages. The work is one of the most performed operas in the world. Read more
Rossinis wrote a rousing opera in just 24 days. Each of the numbers of this opera is a great piece, especially the ensemble scenes are of the greatest mastery.
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Tchaikovsky wrote ten operas. Eugene Onegin is his most famous and most beautiful opera. Emotional music, dazzling instrumentation and inner drama characterize this work. Tchaikovsky also gives us beautiful musical orchestral passages reminiscent of his greatest ballets.
Tannhäuser is probably the most human hero among all the figures created by Wagner, who cannot escape the carnal lust (Venus), although he strives for spirituality (Elisabeth). Wagner himself has described that his “inclination to sensual impetuosity” is in conflict with the “seriousness of artistic feeling”.
Pagliacci was a stroke of genius of youth. Leoncavallo was 33 years old when he composed this masterpiece. He owes his fame to a single work and throughout his life Leoncavallo searched for a second “Pagliacci”. He shared this fate with Pietro Mascagni, who two years earlier wrote the second great work of the verism “Cavalleria rusticana”.
