Operas for everyone
"The Magic Flute" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
A German opera based on the principle that good wins over evil. Serious and cheerful elements are combined here - a mix of Grand Opera and Commedia dell'arte. In the "Magic Flute" there are many melodies to sing along, the music is very effective, but uncomplicated and sometimes even has folk song character. The most beautiful arias: "The Hell's Revenge" by the Queen of the Night, "A Girl or a Female" by the "Birdman" Papageno and "This Portrait is Beautifully Beautiful" by Prince Tamino
CD recommendation: Complete recording with the Mozart conductor Karl Böhm and the popular tenor Fritz Wunderlich (Deutsche Grammophon 419 242-2)
"Giulio Cesare in Egitto" by Georg Friedrich Händel
One of the most famous Baroque operas: It tells the well-known story of Caesar & Cleopatra. However, the suicide of Cleopatra is omitted. As desired and customary with operas of that time, there is a happy ending. "Giulio Cesare in Egitto" has very catchy and sometimes bravura arias. Here the whole register of human passions is played out. A typical opera with so-called "pants", that is, women can be heard in male roles.
The most beautiful aria: She belongs to Cleopatra when she tries to seduce Caesar: "V'adoro, pupille" ("It's dark the night")
CD recommendation: Complete recording with Anne Sofie von Otter and Magdalena Kozená (Deutsche Grammophon 474 210-2)
"Lucia di Lammermoor" by Gaetano Donizetti
A romantic show opera based on Sir Walter Scott with the most famous madness of music history. "Lucia di Lammermoor" is a typical example of Italian bel canto opera, where vocals always take precedence over the plausibility and reality of the plot. Wonderful arias and duets, enamel, passion and the best Italian vocal culture - opera in its "pure culture". The story is simple, pitiful, touching and, of course, tragic. The most beautiful aria: The delusion scene of Lucia "Il dolce suono ... / Ardon gli incensi" after she stabbed the unloved and forced husband on the wedding night.
CD recommendation: New recording with Edita Gruberova (Nightingale Classics 860 679-1)
"Tannhäuser" by Richard Wagner
The opera takes on the well-known theme of the singer war on the Wartburg and tells the exciting, very German-romantic story of a man between eroticism and religion - a very current and easily comprehensible topic. Emotional basic patterns are packed in very catchy and impressive music with lots of opulent choirs (almost everyone knows the pilgrim's choir, for example). An advantage for beginners: "Tannhäuser" is not as long as most other Wagner works. The most beautiful pieces: the overture, the "song to the evening star" of Wolfram von Eschenbach and the choir of the entry of the guests on the Wartburg "joyfully we welcome the noble hall".
CD recommendation: Complete recording with Plácido Domingo in the title role and the late conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli (Deutsche Grammophon 427 625-2)
"Tosca" by Giacomo Puccini
"Tosca" offers typical opera material: love, passion, jealousy, death - all emotions that can be excellently translated into music and which are more or less "original instincts". The Italian musical language with its - in the best sense of the word - "Melodienseligkeit" is therefore just in "Tosca" a single bath in beautiful and catchy music.
The most beautiful arias: One is the very melancholic "É lucevan le stelle" by Mario Cavaradossi. He sings it in the prison cell as he awaits his execution and thinks back to his time together with his lover, the celebrated singer Floria Tosca, who became a murderer for him. On the other hand, the famous prayer of Tosca, "Vissì d'arte", that she sings in the desperate situation of sexual blackmail by the rival of her lover.
CD recommendation: New recording with Andrea Bocelli as Mario Cavaradossi and Fiorenza Cedolins as Tosca (Decca 473 710-2)
You can find details of these operas, for example, in the online opera guide or at Impresario.
