All I am trying to do here is communicate my own personal perspective on the world of opera, and hopefully light a spark of interest in some readers who may not yet have become familiar with opera, either because they haven't had the time or they haven't felt inclined to.

Having spent many a happy hour listening to opera (mainly on my hifi) during the past few decades, I can certainly state that I don't regard opera as being that different from any other sub-genre of classical music. I see the symphony, concerto, oratorio, requiem mass, sonata, chamber piece, lieder, *and* opera as being thoroughly related to one another. Now, at this late stage in my life I do not perceive opera as being *that* different from any other form of classical music.

Of course, every opera is different and some are more suitable for home listening than others. Many operas contain *some* spoken dialogue, but even here such dialogue can usually be edited out by your cd player, and as Richard Strauss once famously said, '.......the audience doesn't understand two thirds of the libretto anyway.......' By that he meant the words are sung in such a way as to make them virtually incomprehensible to most audience members, even those who understand the language in which the opera is performed.

Seeing an opera performed, either at the opera house or on DVD, is a wonderful experience, but the true enjoyment of opera is to be found in the music, thus home listening allows for the optimum enjoyment of the music. A copy of the libretto is handy, but in many cases it's better not to know what the protagonists are singing about because much of the dialogue and libretto is very ordinary (almost always inferior to the music) and can distract from the music (hearing the soprano singing about vegetables during the final movement of Mahler's fourth does tend to shatter the illusion).

But like I said earlier, every opera is different and some do benefit from at least a little knowledge of the libretto and plot.

So where does the opera novice begin?

Below I list all of my favourite operas........for practical reasons I've grouped them by composer, but I've started off with the most accessible opera composers through to the more challenging works. Of course, this is by no means a definitive list of all of the great operas, but it provides a good starting point. My descriptions (where I give one) of each opera are intentionally brief. A fuller description of each work can easily be found elsewhere on the internet.

RICHARD STRAUSS

Salome - Highly charged, passionate and sumptuous, Salome is one of the greatest examples of unbridled late-Romantic excess. Magnificent solo singing combines with extraordinary orchestral development - this is *orchestral* music equal to anything Richard Strauss ever wrote.

Elektra - Wild, passionate and explosively dissonant, Elektra is one gigantic orgasm of Romantic expressiveness.

Der Rozenkavalier - Here Strauss returns to the Viennese style of his namesake Johann. This is music of the most pungent, bittersweet and nostalgic beauty. The singing is gorgeous and the orchestra is oozing with life-affirming warmth and charm.

Ariadne auf Naxos - A smaller-scale orchestra provides a remarkably detailed and intimate backdrop to some of Strauss's most captivating writing for the female voice.

Die Frau ohne Schatten - Strauss's greatest work is a mammoth three-hour extravaganza, featuring monumental orchestral forces, dramatic singing of incredible beauty and power which provides an overall feeling of 'this is as good as music gets'. Anyone with a love of classical music should count this greatest of great operas in their collection.

VERDI - This composer's operas represent the pinnacle of the art along with Wagner's and Puccini's. Not only is there passion, but there is a great deal of skilful development of thematic material.

Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra, Un Ballo in Maschera, The Force of Destiny, Don Carlos, Aida, Otello, Falstaff

PUCCINI - Puccini's operas are passionate red-blooded affairs crammed full of delicious melody.

Manon Lescaut, Turandot, La Boheme, Tosca, Madame Butterfly

BELLINI

Norma - One of the greatest of bel canto operas, featuring beautiful arias and an insinuating orchestral backdrop.

WAGNER

Tristan and Isolde - Hypnotically and emotionally-charged love music.

Ring Cycle - 14 hours or so of some of the greatest music ever written.

Parsifal - The composer's valedictory masterpiece.

The Flying Dutchman - Powerful and dramatic with an air of unrelieved anguish - amazingly powerful.

Tannhauser - Erotic and spiritual, this opera contains all of Wagner's best attributes.

Lohengrin - Remarkably powerful choral work and orchestral passages distinguish this masterwork.

Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg - A Wagner comedy? Yes, but so much more too......simply sublime.

RUTLAND BOUGHTON

The Immortal Hour - This remarkable, ethereal and elegiac creation is Wagnerian in tone, and overwhelming in impact. Vividly atmospheric, bleak, passionate and inspired, this is music that mesmerizes.

DONIZETTI

Lucia di Lammermoor - Richly melodic and containing some wonderful arias, including the famour 'Mad Scene' featuring the glass harmonica.

GEORGES BIZET

Carmen - This opera is more than just the 'Toreador Song'. Between the justly famous tunes are arias and orchestral passages of rare beauty.

BEETHOVEN

Fidelio - One of the most moving of all musical dramas.........check out the classic Klemperer recording on EMI.

BERLIOZ

Les Troyens - A monumental work - four hours in length - featuring Berlioz's greatest music. You will not believe the amount and variety of thematic material on display. Check out his Damnation of Faust, a fantastic music drama originally intended as an opera.

DVORAK

Rusalka - Surprisingly, this is Dvorak's only great opera. A beautifully rich orchestration creates a wonderfully romantic mood.

BRAUNFELS

Die Vogel - A remarkable late romantic work with the singers immitating birdsong - beautiful.

BRITTEN

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Gorgeously orchestrated and beautifully sung, this opera has Britten at his most sumptuous, ethereal and Mahlerian.

Peter Grimes - The tale of the lonely and despised fisherman is vividly captured in music. This is music of great power rather than beauty, but it is still a remarkably compelling experience.

BUSONI

Doktor Faust - The greatest musical interpretation of the Faust legend featuring one of the greatest late-romantic outpourings. Remarkable progressive thematics and orchestration (though melodic) help create a uniquely powerful and beautiful work.

MOZART - Delightful and witty, the peak of Mozart's creativity.

Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, The Magic Flute

GOLDSCHMIDT - Der gewaltige Hahnrei

KORNOLD - Die tote Stadt, Das Wunder der Heliane (one of the greatest of all late-romantic creations)

GOUNOD

Faust - Choc-a-bloc with memorable tunes.

LEONCAVALLO - I Pagliacci - a one-act verismo opera - hugely melodramatic and entertaining.

MASCAGNI - Cavalleria Rusticana - another one-act verismo usually coupled with I Pagliacci.

GIORDANO - Andrea Chenier - Very much in the same richly melodic mould as Puccini.

DELIBES - Lakme - A gorgeously orchestrated masterpiece featuring the famous 'Flower Duet' and 'Bell Song'

HUMPERDINCK - Hansel and Gretel - This opera based on the Grimm story is an enormously evocative masterpiece combining immense Wagnerian orchestral grandeur with folk music

GERSHWIN - Porgy and Bess - Crammed full of delicious and often jazzy tunes, especially 'Summertime', the composer's aim was to combine the drama and romance of Carmen and the beauty of Meistersinger - and boy, did he succeed.

SHOSTAKOVICH - Lady Macbeth of Mtensk - Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth is pulsatingly violent music which was banned by the Soviet authorities. This is breathtakingly dramatic stuff, as wild and intoxicating as anything ever written

HENZE - The Bassarids - Modern and discordant, Henze's greatest opera needs dedicated attention from the listener - but your efforts will be rewarded.

DEBUSSY - Pelleas and Mellisande - A truly wonderful and erotic expressionistic masterpiece. No big tunes, but no end of insinuating orchestral and vocal beauty.

SCHOECK - Penthesilea - Unusual orchestration make this passionate opera a unique experience.

LEHAR - The Merry Widow - Goregously light operetta interspersed with weightier passages and plenty of nightclub music - a true delight from beginning to end

TCHAIKOVSKY - The Queen of Spades, Eugene Onegen - Tchaikovsky's operas represent the composer's greatest achievement. Both these dramatic operas display Tchaikovsky's unparalleled gift for melody

OFFENBACH - The Tales of Hoffman - A steady stream of memorable arias capped by the famous 'Barcarole'

MASSENET - Werther (Massenet's darkest and most profound opera), Manon (much lighter, and effortlessly ingratiating)

MONTEVERDI - L'Orfeo - A fantastic opera 17th century opera that was to profoundly influence the development of the art

PROKOFIEV - The Love for Three Oranges - Outrageous tunes and orchestration - this is one of the most bizarre and grotesque operas ever written - an immensely entertaining experience

MUSSORGSKY - Boris Godunov - This incredibly powerful opera exists in three versions. Rimsky orchestrated the work to make it more palatable for the audiences of the time, but these days that version has been superseded by the reversion to Mussorgsky's original orchestration (as Rimsky himself hoped for), and there are two versions of that 1869 and 1872. Both of these Mussorgsky versions are on the recent Gergiev/PHILIPS 5-cd box set and I can highly recommend it.

PFITZNER - Palestrina - A profound life-changing musical experience - incredible Wagnerian orchestration and a sustained mystical mood make this one of the greatest of all musical compositions

JANACEK - This composer's operas are unparalleled in their raw emotional power and ability to galvanise the listener.

Fate (also sung in English, get the fantastic CHANDOS recording), Jenufa (earthy, folk-like, and very passionate), The Cunning Little Vixen (a simply beautiful fairy tale opera), Kata Kabanova (immensely powerful and erotic), From the House of the Dead (set in a bleak prison camp with a virtually all-male cast, this is music of the utmost energy and strength), The Excursions of Mr Broucek (a Janacek comedy, and it's extremely good), The Makropulos Case (another remarkably brooding and romantic work, despite the courtroom setting)

WEILL - The Threepenny Opera - A remarkably lyrical opera set in London, with a refreshing re-invention of melodic ideas and featuring such famous songs as Mack the Knife - quite unlike anything else

JOHANN STRAUSS - Die Fledermaus - This is just what one would expect from the composer of the world's best loved waltz's. But it's far more than just a parade of gorgeous tunes

STRAVINSKY - The Rake's Progress - The composer's only full length opera contains some of Stravinsky's most tender music. But there's also plenty of his trademark directness on display too

WEBER - Der Freischutz - A truly magical opera with unbridalled musical depictions of good and evil

ROSSINI - The Barber of Seville, La Cenerentola - Blistering pace, orchestral and vocal fireworks and a care-free feeling make Rossini's operas some of the most purely entertaining music ever written

SCHREKER - Die Gezeichneten, Der ferne Klang - Mysterious, shimmering, ethereal and luxuriant, this is late-romantic excess to rank alongside anything by Strauss or Mahler

SAINT-SAENS - Samson and Delilah - Vibrant and sensual, this is the composer's greatest achievement

SZYMANOWSKI - King Roger - Remarkably orchestrated and containing many breathtaking set-pieces

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV - The Invisible City of Kitezh - Like a three-hour Scheherezade with voices, it's *that* good

ZEMLINSKY - Der Traumgorge, Der Zwerg, A Florentine Tragedy - intensely romantic, this is how Mahler's operas might have sounded

TIPPETT - The Midsummer Marriage - Richly orchestrated, sumptuous and romantic, quite unlike the composer's later work

ALBAN BERG

Wozzeck - Tough and uncompromising, this is music of the most incredible complexity, power, and, ultimately, beauty. Approach with caution, because this is difficult music, but put in the effort and your efforts will be richly rewarded.

Lulu - Equally violent and complex, another 20th century masterwork.

BARTOK - Bluebeard's Castle - When you're in the right mood, this unrelentingly dark opera is a reamarkable experience

And here's a few of my favourite contemporary operas (best approach these after you've become acquainted with Puccini etc)

RUDERS - The Handmaid's Tale - Powerful and bleak, the opera's vision of the future is perfectly encapsulated in music by the composer. At times the music rivals Elektra and Lulu for sheer intensity, but there is plenty of room for the orchestra and soloists to breathe. (I can also recommend Ruders' monumental orchestral work, Solar Trilogy).

ADAMS - The Death of Klinghoffer - this opera is far more radical than the composer's comedic Nixon in China, and whilst not constituting a 'pleasant evening at the theatre' (it's set on an ocean liner hijacked by Palestinian terrorists) is emotionally riveting in its raw energy. The characterizations are superb, from the philosophical captain to Klinghoffer himself.

GLASS - Akhnaten - The mysterious and exotic mood of this opera is enhanced by the composer's decision to omit violins from the score. Minus the high-register strings, the resulting sound is dark and warm and characterized by some stunning brass passages. The orchestration also deepens the contrast with the solo voices. Along with Glass's familiarly restless and staccato instrumental music there are plenty of majestic and graceful arias.

BIRTWISTLE - The Mask of Orpheus - This vast and unwieldy operatic representation of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice is unique in concept. The story is repeated over and over again, but each time from a different perspective......the music is an uncompromising sequence of orchestral pile-ups (including electronics) broken only by fragments of intermittent lyricism from the soloists. (Earth Dances is another Birtwistle (non-opera) piece which demonstrates the composers talents)

ADES - Powder Her Face - This opera is a brilliant satire focusing on the descent of the British tabloid press to cynical, voyeuristic and cheap titillation at the time of the divorce trial of the Duchess of Argyll in the 1950s (the British press still resides in the gutter by the way). The music, scored for a chamber orchestra, is complemented by a witty (and often crude) libretto from the talented Philip Hensher.

That's about it for now. If you want any more detail about any of these operas please let me know.

Here are some additional 20th century operas I am fond of for various reasons:

THE GHOSTS OF VERSAILLES -- John Corigliano.

THE TENDER LAND -- Aaron Copland.

FOUR SAINTS IN THREE ACTS -- Virgil Thompson.

I don't have the time to write incisive and detailed reasons why at this time. I'm getting ready to go to sleep. Had a long day grading essay placement exams.