BBC 20 “Greatest Operas”

Uncategorized 3 Minutes

BBC Music Magazine reshared its list of 20 greatest operas of all time on Facebook.

  1. Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro
  2. Puccini: La Bohème
  3. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
  4. Berg: Wozzeck
  5. Britten: Peter Grimes
  6. Puccini: Tosca
  7. Monteverdi: L’incoronazione di Poppea
  8. Mozart: Don Giovanni
  9. Verdi: Otello
  10. Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
  11. Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande
  12. Verdi: La Traviata
  13. Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin
  14. Janáček: Jenůfa
  15. Verdi: Don Carlos
  16. Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
  17. Monteverdi: L’Orfeo
  18. Verdi: Falstaff
  19. Handel: Giulio Cesare
  20. Wagner: Die Walküre

This list is a model of frozen, respectable Anglo good taste, the Glyndebourne mentality circa 1960.

It’s a list of operas whose values are often oddly unoperatic.

Opera was the blockbuster before cinema; fantasy and epic before Tolkien and Game of Thrones; and heavy metal long before the electric guitar.

It was THE dramatic form of the 19th century: both pop culture and high art, thrilling and politically charged, adored by rich and poor alike. It was meant to thrill, amaze, and astound, to keep audiences on the edge of their seats, and to make them “weep, shudder, and die” through singing, sensational storylines, and special effects. (See here.)

Opera depicted revolution, religious fanaticism, and class conflict. Peoples fighting for their liberty. Oppressive régimes overthrown. Empires built. Battles, curses, family feuds, revenge, and love betrayed. Heaven and hell. Vampires, gods, demons, sorcerers, witches – and the occasional dragon. Violent passion and even more violent death.

Opera inspired and terrified. It was banned and censored, and sparked uprisings that brought down governments and created nations.

Of the 20 works on the BBC’s list, only Don Carlos and Otello — perhaps Tosca (at least the Te Deum) — would set the stage on fire.

Otherwise, the list leans towards comedy of manners, Modernism, misty Symbolist half-tones, and small-scale naturalism. The epic, the historical, the heroic? Excitement, passion, spectacle, melodrama? AWOL.

Mozart at the top. Three Wagners. Two Monteverdis. Peter Grimes, of all things, at number five, in a show of British parochialism. Verdi only comes in at number nine — and then “respectable” late Verdi. (Where, one might well ask, are Rigoletto and Trovatore, or Aida?) And surely Carmen ought to be on the list?

Most of these — L’Orfeo, Giulio Cesare, Figaro, Traviata, Falstaff, the Wagners, Onegin, Bohème, Pelléas, Jenůfa, Rosenkavalier, Wozzeck, Peter Grimes — wouldn’t feature on my top 20 list. Some of them aren’t even their composers’ best works; several of them I heartily dislike.

Orleanskaya deva instead of Onegin, please. Salome and Elektra are better drama than Rosenkavalier, while Die schweigsame Frau is better comedy. The magnificent first two acts of Turandot easily overshadow Bohème’s tubercular garret sentiment. And for opera seria, the Neapolitan school rather than Handel.

Whoever wrote this list seems unaware of:
a) the Baroque rediscovery — not just Handel, but Vinci, Vivaldi, Porpora etc.
b) the bel canto rediscovery (including the excellent work done in the UK itself by Opera Rara)
c) the rediscovery of French opera championed by Bru Zane
d) opera from outside Italy, France, and Germany (Peter Grimes aside)

If they want composers and works “that changed music forever”, that list ought to include:

Besides Don Carlos and Otello from the BBC list, these would be on mine:

The BBC list gives us opera as culture. I want opera as theatre.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Nicholas Fuller

Published

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.