Greatest Operas

selected by Piero Scaruffi
Back to the Essentials | Selected discography | Greatest compositions

Classical

  1. Richard Wagner: "Tristan und Isolde"
  2. Ludwig Van Beethoven: "Fidelio"
  3. Claude Debussy: "Pelleas et Melisande"
  4. Alban Berg: "Lulu"
  5. Wolfgang Mozart: "Don Giovanni"
  6. Richard Wagner: "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (Das Rheingold/ Die Walkure/ Siegfried/ Gotterdammerung)
  7. Ferruccio Busoni: "Doktor Faust"
  8. Richard Strauss: "Elektra"
  9. Giuseppe Verdi: "Aida"
  10. Philip Glass: "Einstein on the Beach"
  11. Arnold Schoenberg: "Erwartung"
  12. Modest Moussorgsky: "Boris Godunov"
  13. Dmitrij Shostakovic: "The Nose"
  14. Krysztof Penderecki: "The Devils of Loudun"
  15. Giuseppe Verdi: "Otello"
  16. Wolfgang Mozart: "The Marriage of Figaro"
  17. Igor Stravinskij: "The Rake's Progress"
  18. Gyorgy Ligeti: "Le Grand Macabre"
  19. Olivier Messiaen: "Saint-Francois d'Assise"
  20. Kurt Weill: "Die Dreigroschenoper/ The Three-Penny Opera"
  21. Luigi Nono: "Prometeo"
  22. Leos Janacek: "From The House of the Dead"
  23. Harry Partch: "Revelation in the Courthouse Park"
  24. Benjamin Britten: "Peter Grimes"
  25. Paul Hindemith: "Mathis der Maler"
  26. John Corigliano: "Ghosts of Versailles"
  27. Wolfgang Mozart: "The Magic Flute"
  28. Giuseppe Verdi: "La Traviata"
  29. Laurie Anderson: "United States"
  30. Peter Maxwell Davies: "Taverner"
  31. Sylvano Bussotti: "La Passion Selon Sade"
  32. Luigi DallaPiccola: "Prigioniero"
  33. Iannis Xenakis: "Oresteia"
  34. Wolfgang Mozart: "Cosi` Fan Tutte"
  35. Richard Strauss: "Salome"
  36. Richard Wagner: "Lohengrin"
  37. Giacomo Puccini: "Turandot" (1926)
  38. Richard Strauss: "Der Rosenkavalier"
  39. Luigi Nono: "Al Gran Sole Carico d'Amore/ In the Bright Sunshine Heavy with Love"
  40. Arthur Sullivan: "Mikado"
  41. Luciano Berio: "Opera"
  42. Bruno Maderna: "Satyricon"
  43. Ernst Krenek: "Jonny Spielt Auf"
  44. Tod Machover: "Valis"
  45. Jacques Offenbach: "Orphee Aux Enfers"
  46. Tan Dun: "Ghost Opera"
  47. Thomas Ades: "Powder Her Face"
  48. Franz Lehar: "The Merry Widow"
  49. George Gershwin: "Porgy And Bess"
  50. Gioacchino Rossini: "William Tell"
  51. Henry Purcell: "Dido and Aeneas"
  52. Charles Wuorinen: "Whore of Babylon"
  53. Alban Berg: "Wozzeck"
  54. Leos Janacek: "The Cunning Little Vixen"
  55. Richard Wagner: "Der Fliegende Hollaender"
  56. Giuseppe Verdi: "Falstaff"
  57. Richard Wagner: "Tannhaeuser"
  58. Giuseppe Verdi: "Il Trovatore"
  59. Richard Wagner: "Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg"
  60. Richard Wagner: "Parsifal"
  61. Giuseppe Verdi: "Rigoletto"
  62. Giuseppe Verdi: "Don Carlos"
  63. Gioacchino Rossini: "Il Barbiere di Siviglia"
  64. Gioacchino Rossini: "La Gazza Ladra"
  65. Jules Massenet: "Manon"
  66. Nikolaj Rimsky-Korsakov: "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh"
  67. Ruggiero Leoncavallo: "I Pagliacci"
  68. Giacomo Puccini: "Madame Butterfly"
  69. Pietro Mascagni: "Cavalleria Rusticana"
  70. Gianfrancesco Malipiero: "Torneo Notturno"
  71. Sergej Prokofev: "The Love of Three Oranges"
  72. Vincenzo Bellini: "Norma"
  73. Michail Glinka: "Russlan and Ludmilla"
  74. Georges Bizet: "Carmen"
  75. Roberto Gerhard: "Duenna"
  76. Gaetano Doninzetti: "Lucia di Lammermoor"
  77. JeanPhilippe Rameau: "Castor et Pollux"
  78. Claudio Monteverdi: "L'Incoronazione di Poppea"
  79. Hector Berlioz: "Les Troyens"
  80. Andrew Lloyd Webber: "Jesus Christ Superstar"
  81. Modest Mussorgsky: "Khovanshchina"
  82. Giambattista Lulli/ Lully: "Armide"
  83. John Adams: "Nixon In China"
  84. Benjamin Britten: "Turn Of The Screw"
  85. Dmitrij Shostakovic: "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk"
  86. Luigi DallaPiccola: "Ulisse"
  87. Einojuhani Rautavaara: "The House of the Sun"
  88. Hans Henze: "Bassarids"
  89. Giacomo Puccini: "La Boheme"
  90. Domenico Cimarosa: "Il Matrimonio Segreto"
  91. Arnold Schoenberg: "Moses und Aron"
  92. Pyotr Tchaikovsky: "Eugene Onegin"
  93. Leos Janacek: "Diary of One Who Disappeared"
  94. Leos Janacek: "Jenufa"
  95. Leos Janacek: "Katja Kabanova"
  96. Leos Janacek: "The Makropulos Case"
  97. Giacomo Puccini: "Tosca"
  98. Albert Roussel: "Padmavati"
  99. Karol Szymanowski: "King Roger"
  100. Igor Stravinskij: "Oedipus Rex"
  101. Arthur Honegger: "Le Roi David"
  102. Alois Haba: "Matka/ Mother"
  103. Paul Hindemith: "Die Harmonie der Welt"
  104. Charles Gounod: "Faust"
  105. Paul Hindemith: "Cardillac"
  106. Claudio Monteverdi: "Orfeo"
  107. Georg Friedrich Handel: "Julius Caesar"
  108. Michael Tippett: "King Priam" (1961)
  109. Giovanni Pergolesi: "La Serva Padrona"
  110. Christoph Gluck: "Orfeo and Euridice"
  111. Luigi Cherubini: "Medee"
  112. Daniel Auber: "Fra Diavolo"
  113. Christoph Gluck: "Iphigenie en Tauride"
  114. Jacques Offenbach: "Tales of Hoffman"
  115. Harrison Birtwistle: "Mask of Orpheus"
  116. Louis Andriessen: "The Death of a Composer"
  117. Richard Teitelbaum: "Golem"
  118. Robert Ashley: "Perfect Lives"
  119. Astor Piazzolla: "Maria de Buenos Aires"
  120. Camille Saint-Saens: "Samson and Delilah"
  121. Mikhail Matyushin: "Victory over the Sun"

Jazz

  1. Carla Bley: "Escalator Over The Hill" (1971)
  2. Anthony Davis: "X - The Life and Times of Malcolm X" (1986)
  3. Leroy Jenkins: "Fresh Faust" (1994)
  4. Scott Joplin: "Treemonisha"
  5. Anthony Braxton: "Trillium Dialogues M" (1994)
  6. Willem Breuker: "The Message" (1971)
  7. Dave Burrell: "Windward Passages" (1979)
  8. Steve Lacy: "The Cry" (1998)
  9. Heiner Gobbels: "Landschaft mit Entfernten Verwandten/ Landscape with Distant Relatives" (2002)
  10. Franz Koglmann: "Fear Death By Water" (2003)

Rock

  1. Magma: "Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh" (1973)
  2. Frank Zappa: "Absolutely Free"
  3. Gong: "Radio Gnome Invisible"
  4. Pete Townshend: "Tommy"
  5. Tom Waits: "Franks Wild Years" (1987)
  6. Paul Kantner: "Blows Against The Empire" (1970)
  7. Merrell Fankhauser: "Message To The Universe" (1986)
  8. The Goats: "Tricks of the Shade" (1992) hip-hop
  9. Fiery Furnaces: "Rehearsing My Choir " (2005)
  10. Bad Religion: "Suffer" (1988)
  11. Fucked Up: "David Comes to Life" (2011)
  12. Decemberists: "The Hazards of Love" (2009)
  13. Lambchop: "Nixon" (2000)
  14. Lou Reed: "Berlin" (1973)
  15. Pretty Things: "SF Sorrow" (1968)
  16. Mike Watt: "Contemplating The Engine Room" (1997)
  17. Pink Floyd: "The Wall" (1979)
  18. David Bowie: "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust" (1972)
  19. Randy Newman: "Faust"
  20. Queensryche: "Operation Mindcrime" (1988)
  21. Willie Nelson: "Red Headed Stranger" (1975)
  22. Genesis: "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" (1974)
  23. The Who: "Quadrophenia" (1973)
  24. Drive-by Truckers: "Southern Rock Opera"
  25. Paul Prince: "A Prince Among Thieves" (1999) hip-hop
  26. Kinks: "Arthur"
  27. Marilyn Manson: "Antichrist Superstar" (2004)
  28. Dream Theater: "Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes From A Memory" (1999)
  29. Kool Keith: "Matthew" (1996) hip-hop
  30. Savatage: "Streets" (1991)
  31. Green Day: "American Idiot" (2004)
  32. Deltron 3030 (2000) hip-hop
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