We report this article from the website www.cinquecosebelle.it.
In this article, the author asserts that opera is a genre that can prove to be somewhat complex and severe. Precisely for this reason, not all operas are suitable for starting to take an interest in opera. Of course, there may be love at first sight even when listening to the most complex opera in the world, but surely there are more suitable operas that could help novices who want to enter this genre on tiptoe to get used to new sounds.
Here are the recommended operas:
1) Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. Why start with Tosca? Because it has everything: powerful music, an exciting story and a tragic ending. Puccini’s masterpiece takes us to 19th century Rome, in a political world characterized by control and suspicion.
2) Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi, an opera with a complex and engaging plot, whose songs are often used for more “commercial” purposes and therefore better known.
3) Cavalleria Rusticana (Pietro Mascagni) and Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo), put together because both operas are short and often represented one after the other. Two poignant dramas, melodies that give a thrill. Furthermore, they are two very short stories and, therefore, particularly enjoyable.
4) Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, whose triumphal march is known by everyone. As for this opera, performances at the arena of Verona are particularly recommended, where the scenographies are the masters and make the Egyptian setting very vivid. The drama was first performed in Cairo on December 24, 1871 and definitively consecrated the glory of Giuseppe Verdi. Aida is an Ethiopian princess, enslaved by the Egyptians. She loves Radamès, an army commander who returns her love and is in turn loved, but in vain, by Pharaoh’s daughter, Princess Amneris.
5) The Magic Flute set to music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder and with the contribution of Karl Ludwig Giesecke. Certainly different from the operas previously described, The Magic Flute has its undoubted charm, despite its recitatives that can be a bit heavy for those who are not familiar with the genre. The famous aria of the Queen of the Night, however, deserves a visit to the theater. Furthermore, it is the only one of the operas cited with a happy ending.
The article ends with 8 other recommended operas:
– Carmen
– La bohème
– The Barber of Seville
– Rigoletto
– The Marriage of Figaro
– Don Giovanni
– La Traviata
– Nabucco
For anyone wishing to enter the world of opera … what are you waiting for?
To read the more in-depth article, we recommend visiting the website directly.