Don't worry. I concentrated mostly on the math tests so I didn't make any mistakes correcting them.

My favorite opera composer is Rossini. I don't like all of his operas; but I also like some of his non-opera works.
My favorite overall classical composer is Beethoven. But I prefer some of his symphonies, sonatas and concertos to his opera.

Basically: Composers wrote stuff I like and stuff I don't care about much. Sometimes I like their operas, sometimes I prefer other works.

Yes.

I also love opera (this has just started in recent years, actually) - enjoying both live opera, as well as opera DVDs.

Actually, opera is quite tough for me because usually I get confused whenever there are more than three characters... that's why it takes several sessions for me to really appreciate a plot (not even to speak of the music, of course!). I remember when I first saw Mozart's Figaro (my favorite) I was quite lost by the many mutual connections between the different characters, and their diverse agendas. Well, once I understood it, I really loved it more and more, and I think it's a wonderful work also by Da Ponte (well, I don't know how much he built on Beaumarchais) to make all the main characters so lively, individual, and non-stereotypical. And then, of course, the music! Every number in itself would be enough to make a composer immortal for history. And yet it all appears so effortless. For me, the emotional peaks are the two arias of the Countess (Porgi Amor and Dove Sono). Also of course the wonderful finale, and I love how in the end it evokes the nervously festive string figurations from the overture again, somehow closing a cycle...back to beginning? Btw, just a minor detail, I always wondered why the overture is notated in 4/4. If ever a movement would be with "alla breve" feeling, it would be this one, I think...

One composer I can't (yet) properly appreciate is Verdi. Maybe during this year of celebrations I will find my sympathy for his music?!

P.S. Anyone ever listened to some operas from the "second-tier" (from today's perspective; they used to be very famous in their times of course) composers of the classical era, for example Paisiello? I think it's quite worth it! I only "discovered" Paisiello because of the Beethoven variations

Treat yourself - try der Rosenkavalier!

Apart from R.Strauss, there's Britten, and what must be just about my favourite opera, The Rake's Progress.
And I know a tragic opera has to be, well, tragic, but Butterfly is on the verge of too much ... I start weeping at the beginning and just keep on going.

Just got back from Verdi's "Don Carlo" at Covent Garden. It's an immensely powerful work, and was superbly sung this evening.

I agree with you 100% - except that (dare I admit it?) I don't really like Puccini.

Not really, although maybe if I listened over and over, it might start to smell like a pile of my dirty socks.

Ah, you need to get into the groove......just wallow (and gasp in horror, and then weep) in that 'shabby little shocker', Tosca.......

I think you've been sneaking peeks at some other thread.

I like opera, but not that kind of opera devotee. My sister loves opera so much. I like the bel canto opera :- Bellini, Donizetti and opera by Verdi. But Wagner... not my cup of tea.
Not only my sister's influence that inspired me to the world of opera, but also the various transcription by Liszt and Thalberg.

Did you know that live operas are usually performed with are called "supertitles", which are like subtitles except they are displayed on a screen next to or above the stage? I did, however, go to a performance of Wagner's 4.5+ hour Tristan und Isolde last summer in Austria where there were none. I could read the synopsis during the intermissions and hope I remembered enough of it during the next act to figure out what was going on onstage.

I'm not particularly attracted to opera - there's singing, you know.

But, considering that, I've actually been to quite a few, mostly modern, and really enjoyed some. Loved Penderecki's Devils of Loudon, Berio's Opera, Stravinsky's Rake, Adams' Doctor Atomic. And, given that company, it surprises me that I really loved a production of Massenet's Werther I once saw. On the other hand, I saw Rossini's William Tell and it seemed to last for months - I thought it would never end.

Some opera on film/video I've liked very much are Adams' Death of Klinghoffer, Szymanowski's King Roger, Verdi's Falstaff, and Bergman's version of The Magic Flute.

A weird thing about opera for me is that I often can't remember the music very well afterwards, not in the way I remember concert music. There are too many distractions, I guess.

As a youngster I didn't care for opera but I think that was because of too much vibrato [ usually by women.] As I have musically grown I realize that the melodies in opera are probably the most beautiful music ever written.

rada

You'll be pleased to know that the wobbly sopranos of old are rather passé these days - even in Wagner......

Opera-goers today like to hear women singing all the right notes, not approximations .

I think it should be mentioned that this is somewhat of a return to the style of Wagner's time even if singers still sing too loudly and not enough like they would Schubert songs (probably because orchestras play too loudly, not being hidden under the floor like in Bayreuth).

"Wagner is a composer who has beautiful moments but awful quarter hours."
--Gioachino Rossini

And, while we're quoting Rossini:

"One can't judge Wagner's opera Lohengrin after a first hearing, and I certainly don't intend to hear it a second time."

I've put off opera until my old age, and now that I'm old, have started attending the Lyric, here in Chicago. Toward the end of Rigoletto, when Gilda decides to sacrifice herself to save the Duke who has deflowered and then abandoned her, I had a brilliant revelation: "THESE PEOPLE ARE ALL CRAZY!" They sure do sing well, though.

I LOVE Tosca!!!

You can watch the whole Royal Opera House production w/ Bryn Terfel, Jonas Kauffman, and Angel Gheorghiu on You tube. (excellent quality recording).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xXJyfe2qxo&list=FLAkr0qEE9cU4qrLZpQfNEMg

I do enjoy opera but it's it's a rare treat to attend a performance due to the expense, so I try to catch the performances on PBS, or, like this version of Tosca, on the internet.

Puccini is my favorite, but I enjoy a number of others composers as well. I find that opera provides a lot of beautiful music, not just singing.

Although, I usually have to be in just the right mood to listen to opera.

Regards,
c.

I wish I could listen to more opera, I have accompanied, and vocalists either pick something "hip and cool" jazz or broadway, or opera. I have a few blu rays of opera, Mozart and Wagner, but here in central Indiana not much opportunity to see variety.