Opera

The soldiers pretend to leave in Cosi fan tutte

Went to the Opera last night to enjoy Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. The music was sumptuous and generally well sung, but the whole experience was, I think, less than the sum of its parts, and I felt that the story line and the drama lacked purpose and dynamism. My mate disagreed, so we had a full debate on the matter.

We set, later on, to doing an 8 desert island discs selection of 8 most moving pieces of opera. Some were his, some were mine, and a couple were from us both.

1 Final Trio and Duet from Der Rosenkavalier. (Marie-Therese... to the end)

2. Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

3. Scene from the middle of Peter Grimes where the women sing after the mob has left to lynch Peter Grimes ("From the Gutter")

4. The start of the trials of fire and water with Tamino and the two armed men in the Magic Flute

5. The famous aria "Vissi d'arte, vissi d'Amore" in Tosca

6. The meltingly beautiful trio in Cosi fan Tutte "Soave sia il Vento"

7. Don Giovanni dressed as his servant Leporello tring to seduce Donna Anna by playing the Mandolin "Deh Vieni alla Fenestra"

8. The aria in Samson and Delilah "Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix"

No Verdi, Donizetti or Bellini. No Janacek or Beethoven. No Bizet or Delibes.

1 Strauss, 1 Wagner, 1 Puccini, 1 Saint-Saens, 1 Britten, 3 Mozart.

Idiosyncratic choice, I know. I have selected parts of Operas that aren't the most popular. That is the joy of the whole process, where someone else can say "but what about X? How can you leave X out? - like O mia bambino caro, for example, or La ci darem la mano"

My blog, my choice.