# All male operas? Operas without soprano roles?



## FrankE (Jan 13, 2021)

Are there many?
I can only think of Rachmaninoff's The Tight Knight Op. 24 but it's not performed much.
The voices & orchestration listed on B+ H: 2T,2Bar,B3 (III=picc).2.corA.2.bcl.2-4.3.3.1-timp.perc:cyms/BD/tgl/tam-t-
harp-strings.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Britten’s Billy Budd.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

FrankE said:


> Are there many?
> I can only think of Rachmaninoff's The Tight Knight Op. 64 but it's not performed much.
> The voices & orchestration listed on B+ H: 2T,2Bar,B3 (III=picc).2.corA.2.bcl.2-4.3.3.1-timp.perc:cyms/BD/tgl/tam-t-
> harp-strings.


It is a good one and there are two DVDs of it, one excellent and one weird.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Boris Godunov, 1869 version, has limited female parts.

"The Original Version of 1869 is rarely heard. It is distinguished by its greater fidelity to Pushkin's drama and its almost entirely male cast of soloists."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Godunov_(opera)


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## FrankE (Jan 13, 2021)

Thanks. I don't think I've heard Billy Budd.
I was going to buy Boris Godunov last night but the site removed the already dear 'used-VG' Solti Tannhauser from my basket and bumped the price so I had to remove Boris and another prospective purchase from my basket, so as not go over my record budget for this month. Oh. it's only the 2nd.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

As far as I know there are only two recordings of Boris 1869, Gergiev (which is a 5-disk set combined 1869 and 1872 versions) or the recent Nagano set which is two disks.

One thing about the 1869 is that you will definitely get Mussorgsky's orchestration. Nobody has re-orchestrated it like they have the 1872 version.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

FrankE said:


> Are there many?
> I can only think of Rachmaninoff's The Tight Knight Op. 24 but it's not performed much.
> The voices & orchestration listed on B+ H: 2T,2Bar,B3 (III=picc).2.corA.2.bcl.2-4.3.3.1-timp.perc:cyms/BD/tgl/tam-t-
> harp-strings.


What's the fun in opera without soprano's.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Massenet's _Jongleur de Notre-Dame _(until Mary Garden thought otherwise).


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

FrankE said:


> Thanks. I don't think I've heard Billy Budd.
> I was going to buy Boris Godunov last night but the site removed the already dear 'used-VG' Solti Tannhauser from my basket and bumped the price so I had to remove Boris and another prospective purchase from my basket, so as not go over my record budget for this month. Oh. it's only the 2nd.


I resisted Britten's *Billy Budd* for some time, thinking that an opera with no female voices would lack variety. I was so wrong. Britten conjures up the most wonderful textures from his all male chorus. I have the superb Hickox recording and have seen it in the theatre a few times and always found it absolutely riveting. Highly recommended.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I resisted Britten's *Billy Budd* for some time, thinking that an opera with no female voices would lack variety. I was so wrong. Britten conjures up the most wonderful textures from his all male chorus. I have the superb Hickox recording and have seen it in the theatre a few times and always found it absolutely riveting. Highly recommended.


One of Britten's greatest achievements imho.


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## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

Just a short opera - Rimsky-Korsakov's _Mozart and Salieri_ - comes to mind...


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Shostakovich's _Igroki_ (_The Gamblers_), after Gogol. Unfinished, though.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Parsifal only had one female.
L'amore dei tre re also only 1 female.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> Parsifal only had one female.


What about the Flowermaidens?


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg does have a female part but you don't get to hear much of it compared to all the male commotion going on. Should fill your bill nicely.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Meistersinger has two females, Eva and Magdalena

"From the house of the dead" has two females (or one is actually a male child, sung by a female), but I think they are minor roles.

There are probably more all female (voices) operas? Suor Angelica being the best known, but there must be baroque ones with only alto, mezzo, soprano.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

SixFootScowl said:


> As far as I know there are only two recordings of Boris 1869, Gergiev (which is a 5-disk set combined 1869 and 1872 versions) or the recent Nagano set which is two disks.


There's also a recording of the 1869 version on Kontrapunkt, conducted by Dimitri Kitaenko, on which Aage Hauglund sings Boris, Pimen, and Varlaam. It's pretty dreadful.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

wkasimer said:


> There's also a recording of the 1869 version on Kontrapunkt, conducted by Dimitri Kitaenko, on which Aage Hauglund sings Boris, Pimen, and Varlaam. It's pretty dreadful.


Thanks for the reminder. I often toyed with buying that one but never found a copy cheap enough.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

SixFootScowl said:


> Thanks for the reminder. I often toyed with buying that one but never found a copy cheap enough.


My copy was very cheap, and I still felt that I was cheated. Stick to Gergiev and Nagano.


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## JTS (Sep 26, 2021)

Rogerx said:


> What's the fun in opera without soprano's.


Must con confess as a lover of the soprano voice, that I agree. Why I find the first two acts of Seigfried pretty hard going


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Assuming it isn't stretching things too much by categorising them as an offshoot of opera, I can think of a few more...

Carl Orff's one-act 'little world theatre' _Der Mond_ features an all-male cast but there is a mixed choir and one child in a minor spoken role.

Also, Britten's three church parables.


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## Dick Johnson (Apr 14, 2020)

Responding to the post about the relative lack of female roles in Meistersinger:

The current Met production of Meistersinger really opened my eyes to the role of Eva. The whole cast is great - hard to imagine a better current singer for Hans Sachs than Michael Volle - but it is Lise Davidsen as Eva that really brought the house down. Amazing performance!! Her voice absolutely filled the hall - most notable in the quintet - one of the reviews in the newspaper said it sounded like a soprano with 4 backup singers - but I loved it that way. Sung by Davidsen, Eva is a powerful character - not just the prize to be settled by Sachs, Walther, and Beckmesser. There are a few more shows this month if anyone's in the area...


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

wkasimer said:


> My copy was very cheap, and I still felt that I was cheated. Stick to Gergiev and Nagano.


As I recall, the Kitaenko Boris had something else wrong with it, maybe it was an incomplete performance. Right now it is selling for over $50 on Amazon and ebay. I would grab it for a few dollars out of curiosity, but hardly worth it with an added shipping charge.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

SixFootScowl said:


> As I recall, the Kitaenko Boris had something else wrong with it, maybe it was an incomplete performance.


For me it was the same problem I have with Christoff's recordings. One singer assuming the roles of Boris, Pimen, and Varlaam turns a great opera into little more than a vanity project. And Aage Haugland was no Boris Christoff.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Dick Johnson said:


> Responding to the post about the relative lack of female roles in Meistersinger:
> 
> The current Met production of Meistersinger really opened my eyes to the role of Eva. The whole cast is great - hard to imagine a better current singer for Hans Sachs than Michael Volle - but it is Lise Davidsen as Eva that really brought the house down. Amazing performance!! Her voice absolutely filled the hall - most notable in the quintet - one of the reviews in the newspaper said it sounded like a soprano with 4 backup singers - but I loved it that way. Sung by Davidsen, Eva is a powerful character - not just the prize to be settled by Sachs, Walther, and Beckmesser. There are a few more shows this month if anyone's in the area...


I listened to some of the Sirius broadcast, and Davidsen was the only principal who sounded in reasonable vocal health. Volle sounded every one of his 60 years, as did Kränzle. Zeppenfeld sounded like he was really struggling with the tessitura of Pogner's big scene in Act 1, unable to sing a sustained legato line and straining in his upper range. And whatever voice Klaus Florian Vogt ever possessed appears to be leaving him.


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## KevinJS (Sep 24, 2021)

There is an all-male version of Mozart’s Apollo et Hyacinthus but, since most of the cast are kids, it falls short of your ‘no sopranos’ requirement.


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## Dick Johnson (Apr 14, 2020)

wkasimer said:


> I listened to some of the Sirius broadcast, and Davidsen was the only principal who sounded in reasonable vocal health. Volle sounded every one of his 60 years, as did Kränzle. Zeppenfeld sounded like he was really struggling with the tessitura of Pogner's big scene in Act 1, unable to sing a sustained legato line and straining in his upper range. And whatever voice Klaus Florian Vogt ever possessed appears to be leaving him.


We will have to agree to disagree about Davidsen and Volle. Davidsen is in much better than "reasonable" vocal health. She was amazing. As for Volle and Kranzle sure, they are age-appropriate for their parts - but I think that helps with their very good characterization, vocally and otherwise.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Not sure, but I think we can rule out Elektra. 

Hope this helps! :tiphat:


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