I've been introducing myself to opera over the last several months. Here's what I've seen so far. The only one I really didn't like was "Tristan and Isolde."
Great. I loathe
T&I too.
As for suggestion, I think you may like to have more Baroque operas, such as Handel's
Giulio Cesare and
Serse. Serse has the ultra-famous "
Ombra mai fu" (better known as "Handel's Largo") almost at the beginning and as a whole is wicked fun. But emotionally
Giulio Cesare runs deeper, and you need no more evidence than the duet at the end of Act I:
If you don't mind a little fooling around, Ravel's
L'enfant et les sortilèges and
L'heure espagnole are both treats, especially the former. Both are very short, with colorful orchestration that will hold your attention:
On short operas, William Walton's
The Bear is great fun and is still too poorly known:
As for tragedies, Massenet's
Werther is one beautiful song after another (although the story, of course, is as lame as the Goethe novel it based on).
Thais has the ultra-famous instrumental interlude "Meditation" but as a whole, both the music and the story is very strong. Same goes for
Manon. Although Puccini would later set the same story (as
Manon Lescaut), I prefer Massenet: the man had a knack of writing very singable and very listenable tunes.
any recommendations of entry-level Russian opera.
I'd consider any Russian opera mid- to advanced level stuff, with the exception of Tchaikovsky's
Pique Dame and
Eugene Onegin.
Pique Dame is more melodramatic, and
Eugene Onegin, on the surface a simple story of doubly-unrequited love, requires a lot of background knowledge on the middle-class culture of 19th century Russia (just as you need to know about the culture of 19th century Viennese middle-to-upper class to appreciate Strauss's
Arabella and
Capriccio) Try them by all means, but don't be surprised if you find them baffling.
The most European-sounding Russian opera might be Rimsky-Korsakov's
The Tsar's Bride. It sounds almost like Verdi.
If anyone has a source on The Death of Klinghoffer, I'd love to see it.
Terrible music and bizarre characterization. Adams and his librettist Alice Goodman tried to "balance both sides" and convince us how both Jews and Palestinians had legit grievances, but ended up pleasing neither. I have the CDs and I've only listened to them once. The opening choruses were turn-off enough. Don't waste your time.
Are you some sort of homosexual?
Worse.
