10 Operas You Didn't Know You Already Like

If the word "opera" brings an image of a fat lady singing and sends you running away, you're missing out. Many operas are so famous that they've entered into pop culture. In fact, you probably already know more about operas than you think. Here are the 10 Operas You Didn't Know You Already Like*:

Note: Belay that hate mail - I know that technically these are arias, but let's not quibble, mmkay?

Léo Delibes' Lakmé: The Flower Duet

This is one is my personal favorite: Dame Joan Sutherland and Jane Berbié sing the Flower Duet [YouTube Link], lyrics

Read the rest of the article:

Lakmé is an opera composed by French composer Léo Delibes in 1881, based on the autobiographical novel Le Mariage de Loti by Pierre Loti (about Loti's romantic liaison with an exotic Tahitian girl, how's that for a premise of the novel?). The opera is famous for its complex and beautiful melodies.

Synopsis: The opera is about an Indian girl named Lakmé, daughter of a fanatical Brahmin priest. One day, a British officer named Gérald accidentally trespasses on the grounds of the temple where he encounters and falls in love with her. At first, she is afraid but later she grows to love Gérald.

Where have you heard it before? British Airways ads!

Giacomo Puccini's Turandot: Nessun Dorma

The "Three Tenors" (Placido Domingo, José Carreras, and Luciano Pavarotti) sing Nessun Dorma [YouTube Link], lyrics

Giacomo Puccini is one of the heavyweights in opera: his masterpieces includes La Bohème, Tosca, and Madame Butterfly - some of the most popular operas in history - and many others. It's difficult to limit this list to just two selections from Puccini operas ...

Synopsis: Turandot is an opera about a beautiful but cold-hearted Chinese Princess of the same name. The law of the land says that anyone who wants to marry Turandot has to answer three riddles - but if he failed, then he would be killed. The hero, Prince Calàf, after meeting his long lost father Timur and a slave girl named Liù, takes the challenge ...

Puccini didn't finish Turandot; he died while working on the middle of Act III. Several composers had created several endings, but purists don't accept any of them.

How do you pronounce it? Turandot comes from the Persian word Turandokht meaning "daughter of Turan" and therefore should've been pronounced "turanDOT," but Puccini has italian-ized it and pronounced it "turanDOUGH."

Where have you heard it before? Well, if you're an avid of the TV show "Britain's Got Talent," cell phone salesman Paul Potts won in 2007 with this song: Link [YouTube]

Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly: Un Bel dì Vedremo

Mika Mori sings Un Bel Di: [YouTube Link], Lyrics (fun starts at 0:22)

Synopsis: Madame Butterfly is a story about a Cio-Cio-San, or "Butterfly" as she is known to her friends, a young Japanese geisha in turn of the 20th century, Nagasaki. Butterfly renounces her faith and marries an American sailor named Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton, who left Japan soon afterwards but promises to return to her.

Where have you heard it before? Love is a Many-Splendored Thing , Fatal Attraction.

Georges Bizet's Carmen: Habanera

Maria Callas sing Habanera from her 1962 performance: YouTube Link

The opera Carmen is a 1875 adaptation by Georges Bizet of a novella of the same name by Prosper Mérimée. For a year after its premiere, it was considered a failure and was even condemned as "immoral" - now, Carmen is one of the most-performed operas in North America.

Synopsis: The story revolves around a beautiful gypsy woman named Carmen and her lover Don José. The opera opens with a scene in a tobacco factory: when the beautiful Carmen appears, all the men ask her when she will love them - and she replied that "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle que nul ne peut apprivoiser" (love is a rebellious bird that nothing can tame) in the famous aria Habanera. A fight ensues in the factory, and when a brigadier in the Spanish army named Don José and his superior Zuniga arrive, they discover Carmen has been fighting. They arrest her, but Carmen seduces José and escapes.

How do you pronounce his name? Bee-zay.

Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo

Here's something different: there's no singing in this piece! Violinist André Rieu plays the Intermezzo: [YouTube Link]

Synopsis: Mascani's Cavalleria Rusticana (or Rustic Chivalry) is a story of lust, revenge and betrayal. The story begins when Turridu, a returning soldier finds that his true love Lola had married another man named Alfio while he was away. Turridu seduces a young woman named Santuzza, but then also starts having an affair with Lola, who realizes that she still loves him.

Santuzza, spurned by Turridu, tells Alfio about the affair. Enraged, Alfio challenges Turridu to a duel to the death and kills him.

Where have you heard it before: Godfather Part III (1990) and Raging Bull (1980)

Richard Wagner's Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries

Ride of the Valkyries by the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland, conducted by Edo De Waart: [YouTube Link]

Richard Wagner composed Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) as part of four epic operas called Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung, or more commonly Wagner's Ring Cycle) written over the course of about 26 years, from 1848 to 1874. And by epic, we mean EPIC: the four operas have a total playing time of about 15 hours, split over four nights (and yes, Wagner "opera marathon" has been performed before).

Synopsis: The Nibelung dwarf Alberich forged a magic ring with the power to rule the world from gold stolen from the Rhinemaidens of the river Rhine. Not surprisingly, everyone wants it, including Wotan (or Odin, the chief of the Norse gods).

Did Wagner inspire Tolkien? If you're wondering if Wagner's Ring Cycle and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings are related, that's because both people were inspired by the same Old Norse mythologies. Tolkien said "Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases." (Carpenter, H. and Tolkien, C. 1981 The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien)

How do you pronounce his name? That's VAGH-ner, not WAG-ner.

Where have you heard it before? Apocalypse Now.

Jacques Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann: Barcarolle

Sisters Irina and Cristina Iordachescu, with pianist Gonul Apdula: [YouTube Link], lyrics

Les contes d'Hoffmann or The Tales of Hoffmann is an opera composed by Jacques Offenbach in 1881, about a fictionalized account of the life of a real author named ETA Hoffmann.

Synopsis: The opera starts in a deserted tavern, where the poet Hoffmann is waiting for his lover, the actress Stella. Hoffmann's Muse, who wants the poet for herself, is disguised as a man named Nicklausse, and keeps Hoffmann company while he recounts the tale of his past three lovers.

Where you've heard it before: Life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni, amongst many other.

Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore: Anvil Chorus

Here's something unexpected: the creative staging of the Anvil Chorus by the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles: [YouTube Link]

Like Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi wrote so many great operas like Rigoletto, Aida and La traviata, that it's hard to pick just one.

Synopsis: Il Trovatore (The Troubadour) is so full of plot twists, it'll make your head spin. The story begins with Count di Luna, whose infant brother was supposedly sickened by a gypsy. The gypsy was burned at the stake, but before she died, she asked her daughter to take revenge by killing the infant.

Gioachino Rossini's Barber of Seville: Largo Al Factotum

John Rawnsley sings Largo Al Factotum: [YouTube Link], lyrics

Il barbiere di Siviglia or The Barber of Seville is Rossini's most famous opera. It was written in 1816, and it took Rossini only two weeks to write!

Synopsis: The story opens with Count Almaviva, who wants the beautiful Rosina to fall in love with him and not his money, by serenading in disguise as a poor student named Lindoro. Afterwards, the Count meets his former servant, a barber named Figaro, who is singing "Largo Al Factotum" or "Make Way for the Factotum" (factotum means servant) while walking, and asks him to help.

George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess: Summertime

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong sings "Summertime" [YouTube Link], lyrics

George Gershwin did not limit himself to just classical or opera - he wrote many popular songs and jazz standards, including Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, and one of the most famous operas of the 1930s, Porgy and Bess.

Synopsis: The opera Porgy and Bess takes place in Catfish Row, a fictitious black tenement in South Carolina. The opera opens with Clara singing the "Summertime" lullaby to her baby, as the men play craps. One by one they crap out, leaving only Robbins and Crown in the game - when Robbins wins, Crown starts a fight and ends up killing him. Crown then runs, telling his woman Bess that she has to fend for herself. Porgy, a cripple and a beggar, is the only one that comforts and shelters her.

If you like that: Another piece that is particularly awesome (personally, I like it better than Summertime) is "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'." Here's one by Willard White as Porgy: Link

Bonus

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana: O Fortuna

 
(YouTube link)

Well, Carmina Burana isn't exactly an opera - it's a cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 based on 24 of the poems found in in the Burana Codex manuscript, a collection of medieval love and vagabond songs, including gambling songs and parodies. But I'm sure you guys will like it anyhow.

Orff's Carmina Burana, like the songs in the Codex, covers a wide topic from the fickleness of fortune and wealth, the ephemeral nature of life, the joy of the return of Spring, and the pleasures and perils of drinking, gluttony, gambling, and lust. (Source)

Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi: O Mio Babbino Caro

Maria Callas sings "O mio babbino caro" [YouTube Link], lyrics

I really, really like O Mio Babbino Caro, but we have two operas by Puccini already, so I decided to substitute it with Habanera from Bizet's Carmen. Still, what's a bonus section for if not for something fun like this?

Synopsis: Gianni Schicchi is a shrewd Tuscan peasant in the 13th century, whose daughter Lauretta is in love with a young man named Rinuccio. Rinnucio's relatives, however, are against the marriage because Schicchi is poor. "O mio babbino caro" or "Oh my dear papa" is sung by Lauretta about how she wants to go to the Porta Rossa to buy a ring, but if she can't have his love, then she will go to the Ponte Vecchio bridge to commit suicide.

Modern Operas

If you think that operas are only written a long time ago, you'd be wrong. New operas are being composed all the time - take for instance this 1987 work by John Adams, titled Nixon in China, about President Nixon's visit to the country in 1972. In the second Act, Pat Nixon tours rural China and meets the wife of Chairman Mao:

Alice Goodman sings "I Am the Wife of Mao Tse-Tung": [YouTube Link]

The style of opera is constantly evolving - for example, Philip Glass wrote a piece called Einstein on the Beach in 1976 that broke all the rules of opera: it was five hours long (with no intermission, so people were free to walk in and out throughout the performance) and included a visual imagery that borders on crazy.

[YouTube Link] (No, not the same visual as the opera. To see how it was,
there's a clip from the documentary called Philip Glass: Looking Glass)

I'll be the first to acknowledge that this list is incomplete - we haven't talked about some of the most famous ariass in the world, including La Bohème and Tosca ... not to mention works by Handel and Mozart. If you have a favorite piece that is not mentioned, please tell us in the comment section!