Top 5 Dramatic Operas | Puccini, Mozart, Verdi, Bizet

🎼The Top 5 dramatic operas you need to see if you live for the drama! Let me know what your first opera was or which opera you'd like to see first!
Do you think I missed an important one?
Make sure to stay tuned for the Top 5 Comic Operas coming soon! 🎥

Operas that didn't make it into the TOP 5, but that I still HIGHLY recommend:

🎼 Giacomo Puccini - Tosca
🎼 Charles Gounod - Faust
🎼 Ruggero Leoncavallo - Pagliacci
🎼 Giuseppe Verdi - La Forza del Destino
🎼 Gaetano Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor

THEY'RE ALL SO GOOD!
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[operaanna]

Thanks for watching everyone! As you can probably guess, narrowing it down to five operas was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT, and there were tons more that I could have included, so many that I've listed them in the description. Hope you guys enjoyed the video - stayed tuned for Top 5 Opere buffe! :D

[robinhahnsopran]

Can we talk about your HILARIOUS editing in this vid???? I know how much time and work goes into all that editing and I LIVE ✨

[francoborgia]

Rigoletto was my first opera too 🙂 I agree with you, there are a lot of operas I like, but your choice is a good one for beginners

[dariobosi]

I'd have considered also Tosca, Un ballo in maschera and Lucia di Lammermoor Either Aida or Nabucco Basically there are too much options to pick just five! However I can't agree more on Rigoletto as 1st! I saw it at Arena di Verona a spectacular opera in a gorgeous location with Leo Nucci playing Rigoletto! You mentioned the aria La Donna è mobile but I love all those sung by Rigoletto too! A great video Anna I can't wait that of the opera buffa!!!

[rodgerraubach]

Of the operas on this list, my second live opera was La Boheme, and the third was Carmen. I have yet to attend a live performance of any of the other 3. My bucket list contains all of the other three you mentioned. My first ever live opera was Madama Butterfly. My only concert performance and not an on-stage opera dramatique, was Fliegende Hollander by Wagner (one of my High School classmates sang the role of Steersman). But another opera you could have included on this list was Lucia de Lammermoor orl Il Trovatore (both of which I have seen as live performances).

[KrwawyFeliks]

I dont think I can name a scene in opera that is as "perfect" as Rigoletto breakdown in act 2. Honestly the whole of act 2 from his appearance is the best part of the whole opera.

[mydlo]

Great video Anna, greetings from Bartek!

[SarahFearnley]

My first opera was Turandot. I immediately fell in love with Puccini. I read up on the plot before I went, but I had no idea what they were singing. I still wept when Liù died.

[AvatarYoda]

The Don Giovanni you used is from the Met's 2011 production (it was shown twice during the free opera streams of 2020-2021). Mariusz Kwiecien plays Don Giovanni, Stefan Kocan is the Commendatore, and Luca Pisaroni sings Leporello.

[edwardlittle]

My first opera was Lohengrin. I was 12 years old and I hated every second of it. My tie was choking me, my shoes didn't fit, and I had to endure 5 hours of the worst screeching nonsense any 12 year old ever was forced to. My God, no 12 year old boy wants to be in a suit and tie listening to a 5 hour opera. Even my parents later said they didn't like it. But with time comes growth, and now I adore opera (if it's good). I've tried (without success) to show my own kids how beautiful it can be.

I think this is a pretty good list. I haven't seen many live operas (I live in rural Alabama); I've seen La Boheme, La Traviata (my favorite), and Tosca. I think Tosca and Pagliacci deserve at least honorable mention on this list. I would place them both above Don Giovanni. I'll check out your comic list next because I'm sure Marriage of Figaro is there.

[meljackson]

My first was The Golden Cockerel. Carman is my favorite.

[ludovico]

Here's one that is on my personal list: Faust by Gounod. It has a pact with the Devil, murder, baby killing, stalking, voyeurism, an orgy and a few other taboos and quite a bit of musical hits, including l'Air des Bijoux.

[ludovico]

Carmen was my very first operatic love. I saw Rigoletto back in 1997 at the Opera de Montréal. It was a very lacklustre sadly and my girlfriend at the time didn't like opera one bit and I had to drag her there. But on the way back, she was humming La donna e mobile.

[ludovico]

Something else struck me about the Castafiore: asca character, she works better in the comics than the cartoons. Because her singing is loathed by some (Tintin, Haddock and others), but celebrated by many others (obviously, she's a world famous prima donna). It's easier to convey if you don't hear her. Also ironic that Herge hated opera, as he owes the Castafiore one of his best Tintin stories and she's essential to the plot of at least three other Tintin stories.

[smemr]

Pagliacci is also a very dramatic opera with recognizable melodies and, of course, a few deaths.

[rsalc]

John Green? 🤔 It should be Joseph Green, since Giuseppe = Joseph. 😀

[ludovico]

When I was young, I used to prefer opera seria. Now I think I prefer comedies, although I will always argue that comedy is a more fluid genre that can mix proper drama, even tragedy, with comedy. Don Giovanni, my personal favourite, is an example. It has genuinely funny moments, yet it's not only tragic, it ends like a horror movie!

[thomasborgsmidt]

As to singers in la traviata it is Juan Diego Flóres singing Rudolfo and Violetta is Diana Damrau.
But Brindici I can top that:
With Carreras, Baltsa, Ricciarelli + Raimondi.

As to favourites in no particular order:

Beethoven: Fidelio. Abscheulicher! Wo eilst Du hin??? In deinem wilden Grimme.
Anja Kampe:
It has a special significance personally, as my aunt was in the resistance during the war. Her later husband was tortured in the Gestapo HQ and driven out to be executed - that is untill he remembered a previous engagement and left the car. But my aunt could give any feminist tendencies a run for their money: She called in an airstrike of the Royal Air Force that liberated the prisoners.
She took no shit from anyone, and as a defence lawyer had the specialty of getting her client convicted - if she thought he was guilty and a scumbag. Took some finesse to do it without getting sued for malpractice.
But I recall having seen a television transmission - at an early age - where jeg only remember Leonore going into the dungeon. I was very young.

Carl Nielsen: Maskerade: I gamle dage.

Story is that the son has fallen in love with a girl at a party. The farthers of the young couple are aghast as they have made other arrangements. So here is the lament of the old git.
The problem is solved to the astonishment of the farthers: The youngsters have absolutely decided for each other without asking permission, so the embarassment of the farthers was all for nothing.

Cosi fan tutte with Cecilia Bartoli as Fiordiligli - takes some ovaries to step on the stage knowing full well that the absurdly big jumps are made by Mozart to make La Pontes mistress look redicilous.

Wagner Lohengrin:

This is the response of a man that will not put up with the little womans disloyalty.

Verdi: Nabucco.
Va pensiero with Riccardo Muti speaks out

[milycome]

While all these choices are really good - even excellent. There are three additional operas that I love ❤️❤️❤️ and probably need to be here. Problem : how to put three additional operas in the top 5. Simply not possible without making it the Top 8. Oh well, maybe leave things as they are. Oh, by the way, the 3 additional operas I would choose for the Top 5, really making it the Top 8 are : Madame Butterfly, Tosca, and Tristan and Isolde (maybe the greatest dramatic opera ever). Just one persons opinion for what it's worth !

[loperet]

Rigoletto is my preferred. No Wagner here?