Most popular operas

[Hofrat]

Gerd said that he read somewhere that Bizet's "Carmen" was the most performed opera. Well, that is not completely true. I have in front of me a listing of the 60 most popular operas based on productions at Covet Garden in London and the Metropolitan in New York and number of recording issues. Here is part of that listing:

1. La Boheme
2. Tosca
3. I Pagliacci
4. Cavalleria Rusticana
5. Madam Butterfly
6. La Traviata
7. Aida
8. Carmen
9. Rigoletto
10. The Barber of Seviille
11. The Marriage of Figaro
12. Cosi Fan Tutte
13. Don Giovanni
14. Il Trovatore
15. Lucia di Lammermoor
16. Un Ballo in Maschera
17. Fidelio

I will stop here. Carmen is the most popular of French operas and the first non-Italian to break the Verdi-Puccini stragglehold at the top of the list. Note that Fidelio is the most popular German opera.

[Sorrano]

That is interesting. I would have guessed that the Magic Flute would be more popular than Fidelio.

[Chris]

That is interesting. I would have guessed that the Magic Flute would be more popular than Fidelio.

I was thinking the same thing as I read the list. An odd but welcome surprise! (Not that I don't love both, but Fidelio seems very under appreciated.)

[Hofrat]

"Magic Flute" was 24 on the list. Please remember that the list was based on number of recording issues of each opera balanced by the number of productions at the Met and Covet Garden. If this survey was taken in continental Europe using the same parameters, the results would be very different.

for those interested, I will continue the listing:
18. Orfeo ed Euriddice
19. Dido and Aeneas
20. Faust
21. Boris Godunov
22. Otello
23. The Flying Dutchman
24. The Magic Flute
25. Der Rosenkavalier
26. Tannhauser
27. Bartered Bride
28. Hansel and Gretel
29. La Forza del Destino
30. Norma

Had enough??

[Peter]

Sad not to see Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin or any Handel in there!

[gprengel]

In Germany recently TV spectators could choose their favourite operas and these then were performed in TV. This was the list which came out with La Traviata being the most popular:

10.) Aida 5,9 %

9.) Rosenkavalier 6,4 %

8.) Tosca 7,1 %

7.) Carmen 8,3 %

6.) Don Giovanni 8,8 %


5.) Lohengrin 9,4 %

4.) La Bohème 12,5 %

3.) Fidelio 13,2 %

2. Zauberflöte 13,9 %

1.) La Traviata 14,5%


The operas with the most attendence in the last 10 years in Germany can be seen here:

http://www.die-schoensten-opern-alle...k_30_opern.pdf

[Hofrat]

Peter, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin is 49 on the listing that I have.

Gerd, your list is also interesting. Fiddlio in the third slot, most impressive. As I said before, surveys taken from different areas will bring different results.

[Preston]

Sad not to see Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin or any Handel in there!

Or Mussorgsky's great opera Boris Godunov.

[Hofrat]

Preston;

"Boris Godunov" is 21 in the list that was provided to me.

[Preston]

Sorry Hofrat, looked right over it. Thanks.

[gprengel]

Interesting would be what YOUR personal favourites are...
I try to give mine:
1. Don Carlos
2. Cosi fan tutte
3. Don Giovanni
4. Fidelio
5. La Boheme
6. Figaro
7. Magic Flute
8. La Traviata
9. Fierrabras
10. La Clemenza di Titus

[Preston]

Speaking of, Cosi Fan Tutte, it is hard for me to imagine a worse libretto? It is ridiculous nonsense, IMO.

[gprengel]

Speaking of, Cosi Fan Tutte, it is hard for me to imagine a worse libretto? It is ridiculous nonsense, IMO.

yes, you are right - but the MUSIC!! It is Mozart most mature and transcendant outflow of beauty!

[Preston]

yes, you are right - but the MUSIC!! It is Mozart most mature and transcendant outflow of beauty!

I am glad someone agrees about the libretto!

I am sure the music is quite beautiful. Though, when I think of the sublime purity Mozart felt and wrote out in some of his other later works- I could not imagine the music to Cosi Fan Tutte coming close? Though, I have only heard parts of C.F.T. Gerd, is there any scene that you would recommend, when concerning the music? To my mind, works like the last 4 symphonies, the string quintets, string quartets, Ave Verum Corupus, and of course- The Requiem, etc., are filled with Mozart's feelings of sacredness and beauty- beauty, of a different nature.

Now that I think of it, it is an unimaginable terrible shame, to my mind, that Mozart was not more influenced by the thoughts and ways of the Enlightenment, at an earlier age. Imagine it, Mozart and Goethe, or Schiller, etc., working on an opera!

[Bonn1827]

I am sure that the libretto of Cosi is silly, as you suggest, as it also is for many operas including the baroque period. But the trio from Cosi entitled "Soave sia il vento" is, IMO, Mozart's most sublime piece of music ever written. I have a recording with Berliner Philharmoniker/Barenboim which is disappointing as Cecilia Bartoli's voice over-rides the other two disturbing the perfection of the balance which, I believe, Mozart was trying to achieve. I have to say that, despite misgivings about libretti, Mozart was at his best when writing for the theatre.