DESERT ISLAND OPERA BUCKET LIST

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

thgtcgx3ldIn a BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 2018 cover: “The 20 Greatest Operas” (fanfare). Immediately I had to look. To my surprise, the list included rarities like Janáček’s Jenůfa and less rare works like Wozzeck, but no French opera, few Puccini’s, a couple of Verdi’s, hardly any Bel Canto warhorses and amazingly (this being a British publication) no Britten!

Singers put together this list and, meaning no disrespect, singers know what they like – greatest or not – because they like to sing it. But nonetheless I was glad the list was not assembled by (horror!) critics.

Then I thought, why not ask the Facebook readers of Music for All Seasons, our followers on http://www.RafaelMusicNotes.com and any Opera fans out there to put together their individual lists of not twenty but ten operas without which they could not live – a sort of desert island opera bucket list.

So here’s my list. No comments needed. This is MY list. Let’s see yours. Post your comments on Facebook and/or email me at musicseasons@zoomtown.com I will select one list I like the best and offer a pair of complimentary tickets to our next concert at Peterloon to the “winner”.

Rafael’s List (in random order):
La traviata – Verdi
La boheme – Puccini
Fidelio – Beethoven
La cenerentola – Rossini
The Flying Dutchman – Wagner
Peter Grimes – Britten
The Consul – Menotti
Manon – Massenet
Don Giovanni – Mozart
Eugene Onegin – Tchaikovsky

Rafael de Acha           http://www.RafaelMusicNotes.com           All about the Arts

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”