#Top 40

[princesssarisa]

The Top 40 Most Popular Operas, Part 1 (#1 through #10)

A quick guide for newcomers to the genre, with links to online video recordings of complete performances with English subtitles.

Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)

The most frequently performed opera worldwide: Mozart's fascinating, philosophical fairy tale opera, which appeals to both children and adults.

San Francisco Opera, 2010 (Piotr Beczala, Dina Kuznetsoca, Christopher Maltman, Erika Miklosa, Georg Zeppenfeld; conducted by Donald Runnicles)

Verdi's La Traviata

Tragic romance with social commentary, based on Alexandre Dumas fils' novel The Lady of the Camellias, which was also the basis for the classic 1936 Greta Garbo film Camille.

Los Angeles Opera, 2006 (Renée Fleming, Rolando Villazon, Renato Bruson; conducted by James Conlon)

Bizet's Carmen

The fiery tragedy of a seductive, free-spirited Spanish Romani woman and her loves, with some of opera's most iconic music.

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 2006 (Anna Caterina Antonacci, Jonas Kaufmann, Ildebrando d'Arcancelo, Norah Ansellem; conducted by Antonio Pappano)

Puccini's La Bohéme

Relatable slice-of-life romance that blends comedy and tragedy. The inspiration for the popular musical RENT.

Studio film, 1965 (Mirella Freni, Gianni Raimondi, Rolando Panerai, Adriana Martino; conducted by Herbert von Karajan)

Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)

The best loved of Mozart's Italian operas, a great comedy of class conflict and sexual intrigue.

Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1994 (Gerald Finley, Alison Hagley, Renée Fleming, Andreas Schmidt, Marie-Ange Todorovich; conducted by Bernard Haitink)

Puccini's Tosca

Political intrigue, lust, and bloodshed amid the splendor of Rome – some call it a "shabby little shocker," others call it thrilling.

Vienna State Opera, 2019 (Sondra Radvanovsky, Piotr Beczala, Thomas Hampson; conducted by Marco Armiliato)

Mozart's Don Giovanni

Arguably the greatest retelling of the legend of Don Juan, with comedy, drama, and Mozart's glorious music.

Salzburg Festival, 1954 (Cesare Siepi, Otto Edelmann, Elisabeth Grümmer, Anton Dermota, Lisa della Casa, Erna Berger, Walter Berry Deszö Ernster; conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler)

Puccini's Madama Butterfly

Puccini's iconic "Japanese tragedy." Controversial from a racial standpoint, but a tearjerker nonetheless, and the inspiration for the musical Miss Saigon.

Feature film, 1995 (Ying Huang, Richard Troxell, Ning Liang, Richard Cowan; conducted by James Conlon)

Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)

The lighter and more madcap prequel to The Marriage of Figaro, known as the quintessential comic opera.

Vienna State Opera, 2019 (Rafael Fingerlos, Juan Diego Flórez, Margarita Gritskova, Paolo Rumetz, Sorin Coliban; conducted by Evelino Pidò)

Verdi's Rigoletto

A richly melodic tragedy of a hunchbacked jester, his daughter, a lecherous duke, and a self-fulfilling curse.

Studio film, 1982 (Ingvar Wixell, Luciano Pavarotti, Edita Gruberova; conducted by Riccardo Chailly)

[fashionlandscapeblog]

That older generations always criticized younger ones' taste in music is no novelty (old man yells at cloud). It's a fact of time and aging (when we become older, we're less flexible + tolerant to new ideas). Furthermore, traditionally, older generations criticized newer ones because of being 'too rebellious', 'too loud', too 'progressive in ideas' and 'too out there'. However, when a Gen Xer criticizes Gen Z's music it is quite often because of the opposite: it lacks the rebelliousness, loudness, and experimentation our generation's music had. Rock, the ultimate loud, iconoclastic, and rebellious genre of music is basically extinct. The Gen Z top 40 is traditionally poppy and agreeable with the status quo. So doesn't it seem the opposite? Am I really old, or is this generation too conformist in terms of music? Bob Dylan called this generation's music 'too smooth and painless' and people being now 'pill poppers, cube heads and day trippers'. If that's an old man yelling at the sky, is the average Taylor Swift listener an iconoclast and a punk? Am I the only one who doubts the latter?

P.S. There has never been in history more diversity and creativity in music than there is now in the Internet/Information era, yet music has never sounded more the same and you gotta spend hours to find something listenworthy outside the top 100 on Youtube/TikTok, while we, Gen Xers had experimental/alternative music in the Top 40 (admittedly, amongst a LOT of crap). Gen Z is politically superior to the coward Gen X, a big part of it is the contemporary 'hippie' generation, just not in terms of music, and that's what this rant is all about.

[sspacegodd]

Ronnie listens to everything.

[hecho-a-mano]

i love you musicians i love you singers i love guitarists i love you bassists i love you drummers I love you trumpeters i love you tromboners i love you celloists i love you music producers i love you music arrangers i love you music composers i love you songwriters I love you digital audio workstations i love you humans for expressing ourselves through sound

[emilyscastlevania]

10 MILLION LISTENERS

[fatally-alive]

Run Run Run single: to the top 40 chart.

✨ Let's keep looking at the stars ✨

"The Official UK Singles Chart reflects the UK’s biggest songs of the week, based on audio and video streams, downloads, CDs and vinyl, compiled by the Official Charts Company."

A new challenge to look forward to 🤩

And if you haven't heard, the libs also got another couple number ones :

-Official Vinyl Albums Chart

-Official Record Store Chart

[twoeggzoverhard]

[claude1966]

(Claude Forgues (dj/producteur))

[recursive360]

[nctrnm]

#NowPlaying: "forever" by JK433

[princesssarisa]

The Top 40 Most Popular Operas, Part 2 (#11 through #20)

A quick guide for newcomers to the genre, with links to online video recordings of complete performances, with English subtitles whenever possible.

Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus

The most famous Viennese operetta, a rollickling comedy set amid Vienna's high society.

Studio film, 1971 (Eberhard Wächter, Gundula Janowitz, Renate Holm, Waldemar Kmennt, Wolfgang Windgassen; conducted by Karl Böhm)

Mozart's Cosí Fan Tutte

A comedy of romantic partner-swapping, its cynical libretto juxtaposed with Mozarts sublime music.

Zürich Opera, 2009 (Malin Hartelius, Anna Bonitatibus, Javier Camarena, Ruben Drole, Martina Janková, Oliver Widmer; conducted by Franz Welser-Möst)

Verdi's Aida

The quintessential "grand opera": a tragedy of love vs. duty and country amid the pomp and pageantry of ancient Egypt, which inspired the Elton John/Tim Rice musical of the same name.

St. Margarethen Opera Festival, 2004 (Eszter Sümegi, Kostadin Andreev, Cornelia Helfricht, Igor Morosow; conducted by Josef Pancik)

Humperdinck's Hänsel & Gretel

The quintessential "children's opera," based on the classic fairy tale.

Studio film, 1981 (Brigitte Fassbaender, Edita Gruberova, Sena Jurinac, Hermann Prey, Helga Dernesch; conducted by Georg Solti)

Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore (The Elixir of Love)

A sweet romantic comedy in the Italian bel canto style.

Vienna State Opera, 2005 (Rolando Villazon, Anna Netrebko, Leo Nucci, Ildebrando d'Arcangelo; conducted by Alfred Eschwé)

Puccini's Turandot

A dark fairy tale of love and deadly riddles in ancient China: controversial in its Orientalism, but with thrilling music, including the ever-famous tenor aria "Nessun dorma."

Opera Hong Kong, 2018 (Oksana Dyka, Alfred Kim, Valeria Sepe, George Andguladze; conducted by Paolo Olmi)

Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow)

Another iconic example of Viennese comic operetta.

Metropolitan Opera, 2014 (Renée Fleming, Nathan Gunn, Kelli O'Hara, Alek Shrader, Thomas Allen; conducted by Andrew Davis) (sung in English)

Act I, Act II, Act III

Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin

The most famous of all Russian operas, based on Alexander Pushkin's great verse novel of unrequited love.

Kirov Opera, 1984 (Sergei Leiferkus, Tatiana Novikova, Yuri Marusin, Larissa Diadkova; conducted by Yuri Temirkanov)

Verdi's Nabucco

The grand Biblical opera, based on the story of Nebuchadnezzar, that first launched Verdi to fame.

St. Margarethen Opera Festival, 2007 (Igor Morosow, Gabriella Morigi, Bruno Ribiero, Elisabeth Kulman, Simon Yang; conducted by Ernst Märzendorfer) (click CC for subtitles)

Rossini's La Cenerentola (Cinderella)

The world's most famous fairy tale reimagined as a "realistic" comedy of manners with sparkling bel canto music.

Studio film, 1981 (Frederica von Stade, Francisco Araiza, Paolo Montarsolo, Claudio Desderi, Paul Plishka; conducted by Claudio Abbado)

[oliviridian]

playing + having fun

[lifeinacartoon]

Back in the 90s in the UK, one of our teenage rituals was recording the top 40 charts every Sunday afternoon from Radio 1 onto a cassette tape. We'd put in so much effort to avoid having the DJ talk over the songs, but inevitably, he'd start just before the song ended. We'd all be silently cursing (so our parents wouldn't hear), wishing we could yell at the DJ, "Stop fucking talking!" all to get a clear version of the song but ultimately failing. LOL I wonder, is there a similar experience in the USA? Was there something many of you did as kids that people from coast to coast could relate to and say, "Hey, I did that too!"

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Someone once posted that your taste in music ends around the time you're in high school/college, and I thought that was bullshit until I looked at every Billboard Top 100 list since 1990. I started recognizing titles in the mid-90s (right before I was born) and stopped recognizing them in the mid-2010s (right smack dab in the middle of my college years)

Shit.

So-called free thinker, over here 👍

[ithisatanytime]

(island)