Instructional Media Center
Monthly feature • Opera
Die Zauberflöte / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - ML50.M939 Z32 2003 DVD
If you’re new to opera, The Magic Flute is a great place to start. Mozart’s famous opera is a love story but also an allegory about self-actualization, with references to Freemasonry. This 2003 Covent Garden production, conducted by Sir Colin Davis, is a dark and intense interpretation. Diana Damrau tackles some fiendishly difficult arias as the Queen of the Night.
Fidelio / Beethoven - M1500.B44 F5 2003 DVD
It took Beethoven ten years to complete his only opera, Fidelio. Fidelio is set in France and based on actual events that occurred during the French Revolution. The opera’s heroine, Leonore, disguises herself as a man in order to free her husband, Florestan, who is being held in jail as a political prisoner.
Aïda / Giuseppe Verdi - M1500.V48 A54 2011 DVD
The star-crossed lovers of Egypt and Ethiopia are brought to the stage in this magnificent reanimation of imperial history commissioned by the Khedive of Egypt himself circa 1871. Aïda, an Ethiopian princess, is captured by Ramadès, the captain of the Egyptian guard. However, despite having her status being reduced to a mere slave, Aïda is smitten with Ramadès, but she is not the only one who holds his affections. The Egyptian princess Amneris torments her, naught but a slave under the Egyptian royal family. Aïda can do little but watch as her father, king of Ethiopia wages war against her lover, culminating in her famous aria solo “O patria mia.” Italian librettist Antonio Ghislanzoni punctuates Verdi’s fluent orchestration with flashy set pieces and grandeur to go along with this historical reimagining of the ancient empire of Egypt.
Giulio Cesare / George Frideric Handel - M1500.H36 G58 2006 DVD
Although Handel is often thought of today as a composer of oratorios and orchestral works, his operas were a significant aspect of his compositional output. Giulio Cesare is one of Handel’s longest and most elaborate operas. The plot is based on historical events that took place between 18 and 17 B.C.; Cesare follows his enemies to Egypt, where he meets Cleopatra.
Carmen / Georges Bizet - M1500.B64 C37 2010 DVD
Based on the French novel by Prosper Mérimée in 1845, this classic in the genre of opera portends a Romani who seduces a Spanish cadet. With musical charm and wit, Carmen toys with Don José Navarro, a repressed soldier who finds Carmen attractive – yet her heart does not belong to him, nor any one person, which frustrates Don José to no end. Famous songs “Habanera” from Act I and “Toreador” from Act II are some of the best known in opera and around the world today. You have probably heard these songs without knowing the source! Although the opera received little acclaim during Bizet’s lifetime, his playful orchestration and Ludovic Halévy’s catchy libretto will stick in your head for hours after viewing this masterpiece.
Peter Grimes / Benjamin Britten - M1500.B8608 P4 1994 DVD
British composer Benjamin Britten was a prolific composer of operas, and Peter Grimes was an immediate popular and critical success following its premiere in 1945. The apprentice of fisherman Peter Grimes dies during a sea voyage; the opera opens with an investigation into his death. Grimes is found not guilty, but the community continues to ostracize and torment him.
Madama Butterfly / Giacomo Puccini - M1500.P977 M33 2011 DVD
This highly controversial retelling of John Luther Long’s short story Madame Butterfly published in 1898 hit the stages in 1904 in La Scala, Italy. It is the story of a young Japanese maiden named Cio-Cio-san who is wed to the American U.S. Navy lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton, who finds himself in the foreign country after its reopening from centuries of isolationism. After a glorious night with his new wife, Pinkerton leaves Japan and Cio-Cio-san, who awaits his return years after she has given birth to his bright-eyed son. Although everyone around her, American and Japanese alike, tries to tell Cio-Cio-san that Pinkerton will not return, she has faith that he will come back for her one day. Cinematic Wagnerian orchestration drawls through Puccini’s opera, in leitmotifs that showcase vibrant stage direction and set pieces. This tragedy will leave you reeling from the ebb and flow of its pure musical and character-driven emotion.
Der Ring des Nibelungen / Richard Wagner - M1500.W14 R55 2001 DVD
Opera movie marathon! Find a comfy seat and have plenty of provisions on hand. Wagner spent twenty-eight years composing his Ring Cycle and preparing it for performance at the 1876 Bayreuth Festival, but you can watch it in a little over twelve hours. The four operas that make up the Ring Cycle are based in Norse mythology; Wagner intended the premiere performance of the cycle to reflect the ancient Greek festival of Dionysus at Athens.
Nixon in China / John Adams - PN1995.9.O7 N59 2000z DVD
A twentieth-century opera from one of America’s most frequently performed living composers. Adams’s first opera, Nixon in China is based on President Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to Chinese Chairman Mao-Tse-Tung.
The Merry Widow / Franz Lehar - M1500 .L45 M47 2000z DVD (in English—starring Joan Sutherland) CD- L52/1 (in German with Bryn Terfel and Barbara Bonney). The first is not exactly an opera. It’s an operetta with some charming music and dance. It’s The Merry Widow by Franz Lehar, first performed in 1905 in Vienna as Die Lustige Witwe. You may not think you are familiar with the music, but you have probably heard the lovely waltz theme that winds through the performance. The story is ridiculous (in line with most odd opera stories), but it’s light and fun, and the music is truly charming.
Il Barbiere di Siviglia / Rossini - M1500.R83 B37 1998b (with Beverly Sills), M1500.R83 B37 1992 (with Marilyn Horne), M1500.R67 B3 1999 DVD
This is certainly Rossini’s best-loved opera, a comedy extraordinaire filled with glorious and fun music. A lot of the music is familiar to most audiences (e.g. “Figaro, Figaro, Figaro.”) Here is the link to the Oxford Music Online article.
See it live! For information about tickets, check out the Portland Opera website here.