# Rarest operas (that aren't entirely trash)



## tyroneslothrop (Sep 5, 2012)

What are some of the rarest operas which you have recordings of or have heard in live performance? I have many, but let me start with a real esoteric one--Salvador Dalí as a composer!

Salvador Dalí's _Être Dieu_

_(BTW, I put the comment "that aren't entirely trash" in the title, because otherwise, there would be just too many. )_


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

I rather love Haydn's L'isola disabitata. Although it is admittedly not a very great opera, but it's nice enough.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

Weinberger's _Schwanda the Bagpiper _is lots of fun; I'm rather surprised that it never became more popular. Ferdinando Paër's _Leonora_ will always be in _Fidelio_'s shadow, but the music is attractive and appealing in its own right. It's no wonder the conductor Peter Maag championed it back in the late '70s.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

Ethel Smyth's _The Wreckers_ is my favorite rare opera (of the few rare operas I know). Here is a thread about it, if you'd like to listen to samples:
http://www.talkclassical.com/14030-wreckers.html


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

Heh! The Dali one could be interesting.

Our quality "junior" house here makes a habit of putting on one or two rarities in it's 3 opera season, which is a nice counterbalance to the warhorse fare offered by the main house in town.

Past favorites have included:
The Tenderland by Aaron Copland
and Moscow, Cheryomushki a light-hearted romp (!!?!) by Shostakovich

Also looking forward to Maria di Buenos Aires, the "tango opera" by Astor Piazzolla and Verdi's Giovanna D'Arco next year.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Cavaradossi said:


> Heh! The Dali one could be interesting.
> 
> Our quality "junior" house here makes a habit of putting on one or two rarities in it's 3 opera season, which is a nice counterbalance to the warhorse fare offered by the main house in town.
> 
> ...


I love the idea of a 'Junior House' - this theatre I presume?

http://www.chicagooperatheater.org/


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

The Dwarf by Zemlinsky (based on a story by Wilde called 'The Birthday of the Infanta'). I think it's a fine work - I wouldn't know if it could be considered 'rare' (there is at least one recording currently available) but nevertheless I've haven't come across anyone else who's heard it. 

Zemlinsky composed some other goodies for the stage, including another setting of Wilde, a taut one-act psychodrama called Eine florentinische Tragodie, and his final one, Der Konig Kandaules (the orchestration of which he had to neglect as a consequence of his escaping to the USA from Vienna in 1938) and I think they deserve to be known better.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Some Australian ones:

*Richard Meale's* _Voss_, a neoromantic opera from the 1980's. Its been a while since I'd heard it, but I do remember it contains some quite atmospheric, evocative and psychologically charged music. Its set in the Australian desert, and is the story of an exploration expedition that goes horribly wrong.

*Peggy Glanville-Hicks' *_The Transposed Heads_, from around the same time, her music uses pentatonic scale and also elements of atonality. I am thinking of getting this one, its just been reissued: http://shop.abc.net.au/products/glanville-hicks-p-disc-cd

*Brett Dean's*_ Bliss,_ which in recent years had some sucess both here and abroad in Europe. Dean is fascinated with the period of Modernism between the two world wars, eg. the Viennese atonalists. I don't know this work, I have talked to someone who heard it and liked it, but I've heard some of his orchestral and chamber music, and it is an interesting blend of 'old' Modernism and new things.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

sospiro said:


> I love the idea of a 'Junior House' - this theatre I presume?
> 
> http://www.chicagooperatheater.org/


Yep. I really have to give credit to recently retired general director Brian Dickie (of Glyndebourne and elsewhere) for taking them from just a quality local company to our 'Junior House'.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I have lots of interesting rarely performed operas in my CD ocllection : for example, in no particular order:

Erwin Schulhoff - Flammen . Louis Spohr - Faust . Heinrich Marschner - Der Vampyr .

Dvorak - Armida . Smetana - Libuse, The Devil's Wall, the Kiss, Peter Cornelius- Der Barbier von Bagdad ,

Antonio Carlos Gomes - Il Guarany , Roussel -Padmavati , Rodion Shchedrin - Dead Souls ,

Zemlinslky - A Florentine Tragedy , Franz Schmidt- Notre Dame , Walter Braunfels- Die Vogel (the Birds),

Busoni - Arlecchino , Anton Rubinstein - The Demon , Albert Lortzing - Undine , 

Rimsky-Korsakov- Kashchei the Immortal , The Maid of Pskov , Sadko , Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh,

Chabrier - Gwendoline , Carl Nielsen - Saul & David , Franz Schreker - Der Ferne Klang ,

Pavel Haas - The Charlatan , Gluck - Armide , Rued Langaard - The Antichrist ,

Richard Strauss - Friedenstag, Doe Liebe Der Danae , Mozart - Lucio Silla , Il Re Pastore .


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

You can see Busoni Arlecchino here:


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## Bardamu (Dec 12, 2011)

Rarest?
I Shardana by Ennio Porrino

One of the better italian opera post WW2 IMO.

Other two favorite of mine rarely performed are L'oracolo by Franco Leoni and Napoli Milionaria by Nino Rota.

EDIT:
Laughed at the "that aren't entirely trash" specification


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## perduto (Aug 28, 2012)

"Neither", written by opera-hater Morton Feldman.


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## tyroneslothrop (Sep 5, 2012)

Here is the only known video recording of the opera _Dubrovsky_ by Napravnik:

Napravnik's _Dubrovsky_ (1961)


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Rameau's Zaïs! Performed by Le Petit Band and Gustav Leonhardt.

It's an extremely rare recording, and it took me seven years to obtain a copy. So good!


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

So many! Thanks for this thread. I have heard of (never mind heard) hardly any of them.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

*Armen Tigranian*:"_Anoush_", from what I understand the Armenian national opera & quite colourful it seems





 (complete)


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

_Le roi Arthus_ by Ernest Chausson

_Merlin_ by Isaac Albeniz

Both operas are based on the Arthurian legends, and both were written in the shadow of Wagner's _Parsifal_. It's a shame that neither of these excellent operas gets much attention.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

THE MINES OF SULPHUR by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett:










Unsure of how "rare" this opera is; nevertheless, it premiered in 1965 and (to my knowledge) did not receive any commerical recording until 40 years later with this Chandos album from 2005.


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## dominique (Sep 22, 2012)

Iannis Xenakis ' 'Oresteia' is a wonderful and very rare interpretation of the original Aeschylus' tragedy although it is not performed often. Of course that is if you already like Xenakis, I understand that many people find him difficult or even intolerant.


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