Your "alternative" opera season

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Opera houses are increasingly under threat these days and tend more and more towards the safe option, which means the same old repertoire gets recycled over and over. (The three offerings from NZ Opera this year are all in the top 10 most performed operas),

What would be your ideal "off the beaten track" season? Choose up to twenty operas. The only criterion is that they should not appear in this "Top 100 most performed operas of the previous year".

Here's mine:

Vivaldi: Motezuma
Handel: Tamerlano
Monteverdi: Il Ritorno D’Ulisse in Patria
Cherubini : Medea
Mozart: Il re Pastore
Weber: Oberon
Chabrier: Le Roi malgré lui
Thomas: Mignon
Saint Saens: Henry VIII
Charpentier: Louise
Massenet: Le Cid
Catalani: La Wally
Puccini: La Fanciulla del West
Tchaikovsky: Mazeppa
Prokofiev: War and Peace
Rimsky Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya
Rubinstein: the Demon
Britten: Albert Herring
Glass: Akhnaten
Benjamin: Written on Skin

[Hoffmann]

Here is my alternate season, but would like to make an observation about the 'Top 100 most performed operas of the previous year' - many of these operas receive many performances in different countries, but are not so frequently performed here in the U.S. (well, at least outside of New York). I've seen some of those I've included on my list in the last year, but had to travel to do so.

Korngold: Die Tote Stadt
Rossini: Semiramide
Taneyev: Oresteia
Rossini: Guillaume Tell
Massenet: Cendrillon
Bellini: Beatrice di Tenda
Mozart: Mitridate re di Ponto
Bellini: Il Pirata
Wagner: Rienzi
Puccini: La Fanciulla del West
Rossini: La Donna del Lago
Strauss: Capriccio
Verdi: Attila
Delibes: Lakme
Cimarosa: Il Matrimonio Segreto
Verdi: Giovanna d'Arco
Hindemith: Mathis der Maler
Korngold: Violanta
Verdi: Il Corsaro
Catalani: La Wally
Handel: Rinaldo
Strauss: Daphne
Puccini: Il Trittico (I realize Trittico's operas are on the list individually, but not performed as a unit)
Donizetti: Linda di Chamonix
Meyerbeer: L'Africaine

Some of the operas that aren't performed all that often in the U.S. include Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. I'm not sure Der Freischütz has been performed in the U.S. at all in decades.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

OMG. How did I leave out Die tote Stadt? And it sounds as though Violanta is worth a listen to as well.

After I've been to my season I'm going with you to Oresteia, Guillaume Tell, Cendrillon, Mitridate, Rienzi, Attila, Lakme, Mathis, Violanta, Rinaldo and L'Africaine.

[Hoffmann]

OMG. How did I leave out Die tote Stadt? And it sounds as though Violanta is worth a listen to as well.

After I've been to my season I'm going with you to Oresteia, Guillaume Tell, Cendrillon, Mitridate, Rienzi, Attila, Lakme, Mathis, Violanta, Rinaldo and L'Africaine.

Deal!

[Ann Lander (sospiro)]

There are loads on that Top 100 I've not even heard of, never mind seen! Here's mine, for now, I'm sure I'll think of some more.

Szymanowski: Król Roger
Rimsky-Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya
Boito: Mefistofele
Giordano: Andrea Chénier
Verdi: Luisa Miller
Verdi: Un giorno di regno
Massenet: Thaïs
Moniuszko: Straszny dwór
Donizetti: La favourite
Britten: Curlew River
Prokofiev: The Gambler
Puccini: Edgar
Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

In that list of 100 most performed there are 3 I don't know so I'd start by those: 73, 79, and 97; I do suspect they are in the top 100 mostly because they get regionally performed for tourists.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

In that list of 100 most performed there are 3 I don't know so I'd start by those: 73, 79, and 97; I do suspect they are in the top 100 mostly because they get regionally performed for tourists.

I'm assuming you mean 97 - anyway they are operettas so I would tend to given them a miss ( although coincidentally I just got Das Land des Lächelns out of the library).

[Hoffmann]

You might recall this, probably the most famous number from Lehar's Das Land des Lächelns, here sung by Mario Lanza (unfortunately, in English), whose version is the one I most identify with the song (just the right schmaltz..):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yyyJy965qo

[Soave_Fanciulla]

You might recall this, probably the most famous number from Lehar's Das Land des Lächelns, here sung by Mario Lanza (unfortunately, in English), whose version is the one I most identify with the song (just the right schmaltz..):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yyyJy965qo

What I hadn't realised is that it is set in Thailand and looks like the Mikado meets the King and I.

[Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva)]

You might recall this, probably the most famous number from Lehar's Das Land des Lächelns, here sung by Mario Lanza (unfortunately, in English), whose version is the one I most identify with the song (just the right schmaltz..):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yyyJy965qo

Yes, I do know it, but I haven't heard the complete operetta.
They get to the list because in Vienna they are performed for tourists quite a lot.

[MAuer]

I don't suppose the original 1805 version of Fidelio counts . . .

Otherwise, I have many of the same choices other members have listed:
Puccini: La Fanciulla del West
Verdi: Luisa Miller
Rossini: La Donna del Lago
Korngold: Die tote Stadt
Paër: Leonora
Puts: Silent Night
Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur
Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII
Verdi: Attila
Weinberger: Schwanda the Bagpiper
Handel: Serse (of course, I’d infuriate many folks by casting a tenor in the title role)
Weber: Oberon
Donizetti: La Favorite
Marschner: Der Vampyr
Korngold: Violanta
Puccini: Le Villi
Verdi: Alzira
Goldmark: Die Königin von Saba
Floyd: Susannah
Schubert: Fierrabras

[Clayton]

I don't suppose the original 1805 version of Fidelio counts . . .

I think that sort of passion/mania/.... should be a perfectly acceptable proposition

My list would of course start with

Rimsky Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya

but I could be a bit nervous seeing a production of this; I have quite an image developed for paradise now...

and then to complete a list of twenty

Cavalli: La Calisto
Handel: Rodelinda
Handel: Alcina
Handel: Tolomeo
Gluck: Paride ed Elena
Rossini: Matilde di Shabran
Bellini: Il Pirata
Bellini: Beatrice di Tenda (Okay, maybe this is my number one)
Donizetti: Belisario
Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia (No, this is my number one)
Donizetti: Anna Bolena (Actually, this is my number one)
Donizetti: Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal (challenging for stage production but would be big impact if half as good as my mental production)
Donizetti: Maria di Rohan (trying to restrict number of Donizetti to fit in others)
Verdi: Giovanna D'Arco
Rimsky Korsakov: Snegurochka
Humperdink: Königskinder
Strauss: Arabella (not just to prove I still suffer from I-like-most-the-last-thing-I-heard-itis)
Britten: Billy Budd (I like big old ships)
Benjamin: Written on skin (I would probably first have to try to accept that people other than Hannigan/Mehta/Purves can sing these roles)

...

Naturally, if I had posted an answer a week ago when this thread was started, my selection would have been very different...

[Nekrotzar]

My local opera company (Victorian Opera) is pretty alternative anyway....

But I would love to see these performed:
The Nose
El Retablo de Maese Pedro/What Next? (Double bill, they actually did this in 2011 and it was the best opera performance I've EVER seen!)
Something by Vivaldi
Les Boréades
The Death of Klinghoffer
Akhnaten
The Tempest (Adès)
Bliss (by Brett Dean)
Le Grand Macabre
Facing Goya
Written on Skin
La Finta Semplice
The Devils of Loudon

[Soave_Fanciulla]

My local opera company (Victorian Opera) is pretty alternative anyway....

While I was in Sydney last week the Australian Opera 2015 season was published, and I was shocked how boring and predictable it was - like NZ Opera's season except just a bit more of it. (I was also shocked at the appalling acoustics of Sydney Opera House, but that's another matter).

[Nekrotzar]

While I was in Sydney last week the Australian Opera 2015 season was published, and I was shocked how boring and predictable it was - like NZ Opera's season except just a bit more of it. (I was also shocked at the appalling acoustics of Sydney Opera House, but that's another matter).

Hahahaha, well OA is just out there to make money anyway. They seem to function primarily as a business, with money making being a greater importance than really exploring the operatic repertoire and what can be done. My dad used to work in the restaurant and also behind the bar before the performance started and, because of the age demographic (grey hairs abound, possibly prone to falling asleep according to his thoughts) he would make sure every coffee he made was particularly strong.

VO is more of an eclectic mix in terms of their programming and the audience they attract. They often perform in smaller theatres and concert halls (you'd be pleased to hear that the Melbourne Recital Centre has one of the best, if not the best acoustics in the country) due to budget constraints, but they focus on presenting local opera (local singers, designers and even each year they premiere a new opera by a local composer) and they give great importance to artistry, exploration of repertoire and acting. The kind of repertoire they perform often includes 20th/21st century chamber operas (and also slightly bigger operas when they use a bigger theatre), early and classical operas on period instruments, and also things that almost breach the whole idea of what opera is (such as Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires, musicals by Sondheim etc.) but it's very rarely anything which is really standard stuff. Once they put on a very typical performance of L'elisir D'amour and from positive reaction of the audience that initially begged them to be more like Opera Australia right from the conception of the company, the artistic director (Richard Gill at the time) knew never to do anything like that ever again!