# What opera/operas lift your spirits?



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Lift your spirits, inspire you 
or just plain make you feel good 
:tiphat:


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)




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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

This in CD and DVD:


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## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

Every opera lifts my spirits. It can be tragic or comical. It can make me laugh or cry. Both things make me feel better eventually. The most tragic operas help me appreciate how good my life is.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Die Meistersinger  Does that for me every time. Even the prelude alone is such a bright, sparkling, uplifting piece of music.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Itullian said:


> Lift your spirits, inspire you
> or just plain make you feel good
> :tiphat:


no whole opera specifically, but a few pieces which liven me up a bit


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Huh idk exactly...three that get the blood pumping:

- Mozart's the Magic Flute: fantastic melodies and energy, really puts a smile to my face
- Strauss' Salome: Dramatic and swelling, up to a great climax
- Verdi's Macbeth: I love letting the music in this one just flow over me


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Having just spent the last couple of hours listening to Karajan's superb recording, I'd have to say *Fidelio*, the triumph of good over evil, with the most blazingly affirmative ending you could ever imagine.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

I agree with Fidelio.
Adding Meistersinger and William Tell and Parsifal.


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## Faustian (Feb 8, 2015)

After finishing some operas I am left feeling emotionally exhausted, like an emotional catharsis has taken place. In a sense that can be incredibly uplifting, like I am walking on air and turned wonderfully inwards. Operas in this category for me are works like Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde. Then on the other side of the spectrum there are operas that leave me filled with at least as much emotion, but I am turned outwards. I want to embrace the world. Works like Falstaff and The Magic Flute and Die Meistersinger.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

_Mefistofele_, the Olivero/Corelli/Bastianini/Simionato _Adriana Lecouvreur_, the Grand Inquisitor Scene from _Don Carlo_ and Tebaldi's Poker scene from _La Fanciulla del West_.


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## doctorcdf (Jul 16, 2015)

Tannhauser, specifically the Pilgrim's Chorus - "Alleluia! Alleluia!" - springs to mind.


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## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

After the glorious scene and music where the Contessa forgive her husband... the end of Le Nozze di Figaro is very uplifting to me. Inspired by the movie Amadeus: I agree with Salieri.


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

Interesting question. Do you mean that the plot leaves me happy, even if it's not obviously a happy ending, like Don Giovanni, or that the music moves me and leaves me feeling uplifted, like Gotterdammerung? or, as I suspect, both?


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## Camillorf (Jul 18, 2014)

Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, The magic flute, La Clemenza di Tito... in other words Mozart. No other composer can put me in such a good mood.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Il Turco in Italia (and other bright, tuneful Italian Bel Canto operas).

And then spiritually uplifted (but in a completely different way) Der Ring des Nibelungen. Der Ring confirms your deepest cynical convictions for fourteen incredibly dark hours and then persuades you in twenty minutes that despite the errors of life and humanity it is always well worth hoping and striving for something better.

N.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Camillorf said:


> ... in other words Mozart. No other composer can put me in such a good mood.


Try this one: The Secret Marriage. I just watched it a couple weeks ago. 
It is delightful and I read that it is in a Mozart style:


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## ma7730 (Jun 8, 2015)

Falstaff. It just makes me so happy, especially with the heart-warming fugue at the end.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Try the Ponnelle film of Cenerentola. Guaranteed to lift all but the most obtuse sourpuss


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

DavidA said:


> Try the Ponnelle film of Cenerentola. Guaranteed to lift all but the most obtuse sourpuss


Yes Absolutely that one is amazingly wonderful in all aspects. It was my second opera DVD after Fidelio and I love it:


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## Clayton (Nov 10, 2013)

I defy anyone who denies that when they watch Patricia Petibon in Christie's Les Indes Galantes they immediately reach for their tutu and dance to gay abandon in their garden...






Oh dear, am I communicating in public or am I just thinking this to myself... gotta check the med chart to see if I've taken my dose...


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## Camillorf (Jul 18, 2014)

Florestan said:


> Try this one: The Secret Marriage. I just watched it a couple weeks ago.
> It is delightful and I read that it is in a Mozart style:


It looks fun. Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely add it to my to-get list.


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

Clayton said:


> I defy anyone who denies that when they watch Patricia Petibon in Christie's Les Indes Galantes they immediately reach for their tutu and dance to gay abandon in their garden...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Wonderful! As soon as I'd disrobed from my tutu, and wiped the mud off my shoes, I emailed the link to all my friend. Thanks for sharing this.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Haas' 'Bluthaus' makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Close run thing between Capriccio and Meistersinger.


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## Faustian (Feb 8, 2015)

Barbebleu said:


> Close run thing between Capriccio and Meistersinger.


I have a soft spot for Capriccio as well. It's such an opera connoisseur's opera, but that's ok with me.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

The aria that most lifts my spirit is: "Kuda, kuda" from _Eugene Onegin_.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

I'll second _Mefistofele_. And, for all its strangeness, _Tales of Hoffman_, for similar reasons.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

It depends on exactly what is meant by lifts one's spirits. I could say anything by Wagner and any of the major operas by Mozart since the music is extraordinary. But I'll be more specific with Parsifal, Marriage of Figaro, and The Magic Flute.


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## sonolucia (Jul 25, 2015)

The classic, La Boheme. Every time I listen to Boheme, I instantly go back to the moment that I first fell in love with this beautiful piece, and the moment that I first fell in love with opera lirica. When I feel down, that popular scene from <Non sono in vena> to <O soave fanciulla> is a must. My personal favourite is the most classic DVD of Raimondi and Freni. So adorable. And sometimes Bjorling and De Los Angeles, and many others.

But the last scene is too sad for me, so it is not 'lifting'. So when I need that 'lift', I don't listen to the last scene, since it makes me cry like a baby.

And these days, Lucia di Lammermour. It's because of the personal reason, since I loved the Lucia at Scala and it was one of the greatest moments in my life. When it comes to Lucia, I really didn't like the opera except for the last arias of Edgardo. However, when I saw it real, I became to love the entire opera from the beginning. When I listen to <Verranno a te sull'aure> or <Chi mi frena in tal momento>, that excitement which was almost like a love at a first sight, bloom again in my mind and I get that energy to live through.

I think this seems pretty much to be the valid reason why I love opera.. To get the energy to live by!


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## Queen of the Nerds (Dec 22, 2014)

This might sound weird but when I'm feeling blue, I listen to the _Barcarolle_ from _Les Contes d'Hoffmann_.
It just makes me feel better. Maybe because of the sweet, soft melody.


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## Amara (Jan 12, 2012)

The endings of La Cenerentola and Rodelinda are incredibly uplifting to me, not only due to their themes of happiness after suffering, but especially because of their themes of forgiveness, compassion, atonement, and redemption. It is so uplifting to me that Angelina forgives her family; that Bertarido shows mercy to Grimoaldo; that Grimoaldo seeks forgiveness, relinquishes his ill-won power, and lets his hatred toward Eduige turn back to love. It is so wonderfully idealistic to see the bad guy turn good at the end. Forgiveness is a very powerful theme in opera for me.

And of course, in La Cenerentola, it helps that "Nacqui all'affanno ... Non piu mesta" is incredibly uplifting music itself. Such a good note to end on.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Got to go with the Meistersinger. Suddenly Wagner realizes that he's not alone, fighting the world, on the verge of renouncing it totally. He discovers _culture and history_, a shared experience, myth in action today. It's like he rediscovers _language_ (tonality!) after having been so sceptical about it. Language isn't truth - but language plays in the game of slowly revealing truth _in time._ Same with marriage/love, rules/art, church/God...

The Meistersinger means that you don't have to burn the world away. The world can be your _ally._ That's mighty spirit-lifting in my book.


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

This question made me realize that none of my favorite operas can lift my spirit. Certainly not anything by the prime Mozart - despite how comic they are, they still contain many cruel jokes about the dark side of humanity, not anything by Verdi (urgh, obviously) , Wagner (even for the Meistersinger), Puccini and Janacek (probably the bleakest).

_Fidelio_ and _Die Entführung Aus dem Serail_ are absolutely optimistic, but I don't like either of them.

If I really want to lift my spirit, I would go to _anything_ by Bach, the piano concerti of Mozart, the late sonatas and string quartets of Beethoven, and the late _klavierstucke_ of Brahms. Not opera.


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

I use comedies like Il Barbiere or Cenerentola to lift my spirit. I can't use operas where somebody dies...so no Traviata, La Boheme, Rigoletto...
Though there is an aria in Rigoletto I like and I sing along and so it goes.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

silentio said:


> This question made me realize that none of my favorite operas can lift my spirit. Certainly not anything by the prime Mozart - despite how comic they are, they still contain many cruel jokes about the dark side of humanity, not anything by Verdi (urgh, obviously) , Wagner (even for the Meistersinger), Puccini and Janacek (probably the bleakest).
> 
> _Fidelio_ and _Die Entführung Aus dem Serail_ are absolutely optimistic, but I don't like either of them.
> 
> If I really want to lift my spirit, I would go to _anything_ by Bach, the piano concerti of Mozart, the late sonatas and string quartets of Beethoven, and the late _klavierstucke_ of Brahms. Not opera.


Are you saying that a thing has to have an overtly positive, optimistic message and a happy ending to lift your spirits? And how does absolute (non-programmatic, non-operatic) music figure into that?


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Listening to enerentola last night. If you can't have your heart lifted by it you must be made of stone!


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## sorcered (Aug 2, 2015)

I have to admit I haven't found yet any opera that has the same "instant grin" quality of musicals like The Sound Of Music, My Fair Lady or Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. Actually, that's a gripe I have with the genre - seems to me like 90% of all operas are dramas with depressing endings. I watched a grand total of 3 comedies (Falstaff, Don Giovanni, The Barber of Seville) - these were fun, but nothing I would watch to cure a broken heart  (OK, maybe The Barber...)


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

"In success you deserve it and in defeat, you need it".

For me, this opera is _Norma_.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

sorcered said:


> I have to admit I haven't found yet any opera that has the same "instant grin" quality of musicals like The Sound Of Music, My Fair Lady or Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. Actually, that's a gripe I have with the genre - seems to me like 90% of all operas are dramas with depressing endings. I watched a grand total of 3 comedies (Falstaff, Don Giovanni, The Barber of Seville) - these were fun, but nothing I would watch to cure a broken heart  (OK, maybe The Barber...)


Try the following:
Rossini - Il Turco in Italia; La Cenerentola or L'Italiana in Algeri
Donizetti - L'Elisir d'amore; Don Pasquale or La Fille du regiment
Puccini - Gianni Schicchi
Nino Rota - Il capello di paglia di Firenze

N.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

sorcered said:


> I have to admit I haven't found yet any opera that has the same "instant grin" quality of musicals like The Sound Of Music, My Fair Lady or Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. Actually, that's a gripe I have with the genre - seems to me like 90% of all operas are dramas with depressing endings. I watched a grand total of 3 comedies (Falstaff, Don Giovanni, The Barber of Seville) - these were fun, but nothing I would watch to cure a broken heart  (OK, maybe The Barber...)


Perhaps L'elisir d'amore, L'amico Fritz, Don Pasquale or La Cenerentola would cure a broken heart? Each has a couple who have had their struggles but a happy ending together. All four are comedies.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Florestan said:


> Perhaps L'elisir d'amore, L'amico Fritz, Don Pasquale or La Cenerentola would cure a broken heart? Each has a couple who have had their struggles but a happy ending together. All four are comedies.


They might cheer you up but they would not actually your broken heart. For that you would need a change in circumstances


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