Jeff Tian's Favorite Operas/Composers

Favorite Opera Composers: The Eclectic Quartet

Here is my eclectic "quartet" of opera composers, who may or may not be mainly considered as opera composers or "major" opera composers. But there is one thing in common, they all produced quality (very subjective here) operas of low quantity (well, it's as objective as one can get). In fact, two seems to be the magic number, Carmen and Pearl Fisher for Bizet, Lulu and Wozzeck for Berg, Boris Godunov and Khavaschina for Mussorgsky, and Lady Macbeth and Nose for Shostakovich. Whatever prevented them from writing more, whether its premature death or redirected output venue, two from each enriched opera scene greatly and to me personally and enormously.

Bizet: Carmen alone can put him there among any list of my favorite opera composers -- I used to have the three immortals (Bizet/Mussorgsky/Wagner). In fact, Carmen is responsible for seducing me to opera, although I encountered Rigoletto, Marriage of Figaro, and La Boheme, either via video, audio recording, or live performance, before Carmen, with no recognizable impact. The recording that I come back to is the first I had, with Troyanos/Domingo/Te Kanawa/Van Dam/Solti. The movie with Mignes-Johnson/Domingo is great, not just as an opera-movie, as a movie too! Did somebody mention "perfect opera"? Even the smugglers sound so great! Not to mention the main quartet, the fiery trio of Carmen, Don Jose, and Escamillo (maybe more cool than fiery), and the heart-warming tenderness between Micaela and our hero. And the music extract from the opera, the so-call Carmen suite, sounds truly symphonic. And to be honest, I was first exposed to this suite, liked it, before heard the whole opera, which showed me what truly great opera could be for (instrumental) music lovers. Maybe it has something to do with being more "musical", and yet more "dramatic", than other operas due to the consistent high quality of music and affect throughout the opera and its characters, not just highs with aria and lows with recitatives (like fillers to me, in many cases) like in many traditional Italian operas and the like. For most operas, you really need the visual element to make it work. But for Carmen, only audio will be lovely too, although as a different experience. Consequently, Carmen is the only opera that I "listened" too the most without suffering too much from lack of visual element and over exposure. And, it's the only opera that I can tell the lyrics and the drama, anywhere, anyplace, without really knowing the language (well, I did study French for a short period, but...). Really enjoyed a recent 3D production from Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Mussorgsky: Although he didn't compose much, I love almost everything he wrote, especially his powerful operas, Boris Godunov and Khavaschina. Well, as for Boris, I love both the original version as well as the sanitized Rimsky-Korsakov version, but would love to hear Shostakovich version which is not much performed these days. As for Khavaschina, I have the Shostakovich orchestration (with Stravinsky ending -- somewhat a mismatch, as we say in Chinese, a dog tail attached to mink), which I love probably above all other operas, even Boris. I also like other operas by his contemporary (Borodin's Prince Igor, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, etc.) and not-so-contemporary (Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth and Prokofiev's operas) Russians. I can sense a truly spiritual connection from Mussorgsky to my favorite composer Shostakovich.
Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mnesk District is indeed great! And, the Nose is so full of life! See my dedicated pages for my favorite composer of all time, all genre.
Berg: There is a Shostakovich connection for me here too, -- that Shostakovich praised Berg above other 20th century composers. Well, I was puzzled by that for quite some time. To be honest, I hated Lulu when I first heard it on CD while following through it with the libretto in hand. Now to think back, I probably hated the libretto in the first place rather than the music per se. When I watched Warzzek on LD with Behrens/?/WienStaatoper, I was deeply moved. Then, I came back to Lulu again, and really "discovered" it anew. Brutality is hard to tolerate, even in the artist's depiction. But such great art transforms us to experience not exclusive, but inclusive, universalized suffering from brutality.

Favorite Opera Composers: The Mainstream/Major Quartet

As you can guess from the above list, many (most?) opera lovers would probably disagree with me for not mentioning any great Italian operas (whether by Italians or others writing Italian operas), and for that matter, German operas. To make things worse, I didn't have any "major" (in productivity, at least) opera composers in my eclectic quartet. I'm by no means so narrow-minded to expect all the opera houses performing a handful operas only. I do enjoy many mainstream operas by major opera composers, and count them among my personal favorites. So, here is my list, or my mainstream/major quartet, "Italian/German" operas/composers that I truly enjoy:

Wagner: He's definitely my favorite opera composer, and one of my all time favorite composers for that matter. I like all of his operas and love the majority of them. I have loved Tannhauser and the Ring from the very beginning when I first encountered Wagner, and continue to love them. I didn't like Dutchman and Meistersinger as much at the beginning, but after gratifying exposures via live performance (Dutchman at Dresden counts as one of the most impressive live performances I ever experienced) or recording (Meistersinger with Wolfgang Brendel et al/DeutscheOperBerlin on DVD), I began to love both. I didn't have a chance to see Tristan und Isolde until recently on DVD and loved it. Lohengrin and Parsifal, a curious pair both related the holy grail, remains something I'd attached the word "like" instead of "love" for some inexplainable reason. As for the whole ring on video, I used to prefer Levine/Met over Boulez/Bayreuth, but now the other way round. I really enjoy the audio only Solti Ring cycle a lot too. However, compared to Bizet/Carmen, Wagner is probably too long to follow on audio-only basis. He needs our undivided attention, our full devotion, to be properly appreciated.
Mozart: Mozart the opera composer is dearer to my heart than Mozart the instrumental composer. I enjoy Mozart's "Italian" operas better than his German Singspiels. In the former category, I particularly love Figaro (serious yet witty, in particular, the performance on LD with Boehm/Prey/Freni/Kanawa/Fisher-Diskau) and Cosi Fan Tutte (the best comic opera ever! I love the La Scala performance on LD with Muti/Dessy/etc.), Don Giovanni (perfect blend of fun and seriousness!), and Idomeneo (the Pavarotti role that I really enjoyed, -- you probably know from my other pages, I'm really a Domingo fan) too. Mozart has such abundance of heavenly gifts, he even endowed minor characters with such sublime tunes. Or, should we say, there is no minor, nor inferior, roles in Mozart operas. Unfortunately, none of the live Mozart operas I attended moved me as much.
Verdi: I enjoy almost all the operas by Verdi, including all the famous ones, such as Aida and La Traviata. As time goes by, I start to enjoy more and more the lower center of gravity of Verdi's operas, and appreciate the baritone roles much more than the tenor roles, and the operas more dedicated to lower tonal roles such as Attila, Macbeth, Vesperi Siccilianni, and the like. Worthy of special mentioning is his Rigoletto, which is my first complete opera (on video) back in 1983/1984 academic year at Xi'an Music Conservatory, my first attendance of an Met performance in 1996 (I was not that impressed, probably because of much less than ideal aucoustics at the Met, which my not-so-expensive ticket didn't help), but my true enjoyment of it comes from Dallas Opera production I attended on April 2, 2011, with Paolo Gavanelli in the title role and Laura Claycomb, an alum from my current school, as Gilda. I have to say Gavanelli is by far the most impressive baritone I have ever heard live, filling the gorgeous Winspear Opera House with such power and beauty, and Claycomb's pianisimmo is simply magical, although I do have some reservations about the rest of the cast as well as the orchestral playing but I do understand for an opera company like Dallas such constraints are only natural. This production reveals to me much of what Rigoletto can offer, and now I have to rank this as my favorite Verdi.
Handel: After attending a Handel Festival performance of Flavio in London in April 2001, I just couldn't believe that I had overlooked the beauty, the flow, and the nuances of Handel operas for so long, although I always loved Kathleen Battle and Cecilia Bartoli singing Handel. I count Handel as an "Italian" opera composer here, naturally. From then on, I did try to attend the not-so-often performed Handel operas, most recently at Fort Worth Opera Festival, 2011, enjoying Julius Caesar (Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17), with 3 counter tenors, a true rarity in modern performances.

Other (semi-)Favorite Opera Composers

Puccini: For Puccini operas, I love some, including Turandot, Manon Lescaut, and Tosca (saw it live with Domingo/Washington Opera), but am quite indifferent to some famous ones, like La Boheme and Madame Butterfly.
Strauss: Similar to Puccini, I love some of Strauss' opera but somewhat indifferent to others. However, all the famous one seem to fall into my favorite list as well, unlike for Puccini. I really enjoyed Elektra, Salame, and Der Rosenkavalier, but found some of his other operas too "bourgeoisie" for my taste.
Rossini: Barber of Seville is truly enjoyable. William Tell is more like Verdi than Rossini (so, that's a positive thing to say, I guess, because of my love of most Verdi operas). Other operas are fun to listen to too (to, to, too, say it fast, like in Rossini!), but in a light-hearted and sometime formulaic way. I recently watched La Donna e Largo and loved it as I loved my Verdi operas too. I guess I'm still in the process of learning more about Rossini, and really felt more and more of a loss that he didn't compose anything substantial for the last several decades of his life. What a difference it would be! Well, history is full of such ironies and unsolved mysteries, that's what makes it so eternally interesting.

Other Favorite Operas by Other Composers

Debussy's Pelleas and Melisande, so different from mainstream, so fresh, and original, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Dvorak's Rusalka, especially after I saw the marvelous performance of Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Renee Fleming in 2003.
Monteverdi's Orfeo et Eurydice, particularly as conducted by John Eliot Gardner.
Offenbach's Hoffman, with Domingo, of course.
Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, especially after attending one of my most impressive live performances by the Bolshoi Opera at Wolf Trap in 1991.
Weber's Freischuts, one of my very early favorites.
...

Performances: Live vs. Video/Audio Recordings

The Importance of Visual Elements and Theatrical Experience: Although I listen to opera recordings much less often than other recordings, a significant share of my most memorable live performances is opera! Well, no wonder many people claim opera to be the "complete" or "ultimate" art form! You probably need to see it at least once before you can fully enjoy the audio recording. And, enjoy it thereafter...
Video Recordings: Probably because of the above, video recordings, tapes/LDs/DVDs/etc., fulfill this need, and should be an important part of any opera-lover's collection, especially for those rarely performed ones. In fact, the situation is much worse for operas than for concert pieces. Almost every opera house is staging their ABC's (Aida, Boheme, Carmen...) while ignoring other worthwhile alternatives!
Opera Films: By that I mean filmed operas, not film adaptation of operas or films about operas which may be interesting but not really operas. In Soviet times, they produced quite a few lip-sync opera films, with actors on screen and singers providing soundtracks. None of them were fully convincing to me, and the opera is often edited to fit a pre-determined, somewhat arbitary, length limit. And I'm not a big fan of Zeffirelli opera films either, although I enjoyed them as a viable alternative to video-recorded performances. Well, there are some really good ones, Carmen film by Francisco Rosi with Domingo/Mignes-Johnson is truly great, and Eugene Onegin film on Decca is enjoyable too.
New technology: Met HD, 3D, and other newbies. See my dedicated page.

Prepared by Jeff Tian (tian@engr.smu.edu).
Created in 1997? Last update: April 4, 2011.
Back to my home page or music page.