# Operabase Top 50: How many do you know?



## Otis B. Driftwood (4 mo ago)

According to *Operabase*, these are the top 50 most performed operas in the world. 
How many of these operas have you seen or heard at least once?

*50 most played titles*

TitleComposerPerformancesProductionsThe Magic FluteMozart736111La BohèmePuccini675122La traviataVerdi581118CarmenBizet573100ToscaPuccini46895The Marriage of FigaroMozart45285AidaVerdi36467Madama ButterflyPuccini36462Don GiovanniMozart33677Hansel and GretelHumperdinck32146RigolettoVerdi28567The Barber of SevilleRossini24560Così fan tutteMozart22044TurandotPuccini21439NabuccoVerdi20541Eugene OneginTchaikovsky,P20347Don PasqualeDonizetti20139The Elixir of LoveDonizetti19752RusalkaDvořák,A19640CinderellaRossini19540The Flying DutchmanWagner,Richard14628The TroubadourVerdi13932FalstaffVerdi12828Lucia di LammermoorDonizetti12535The Knight of the RoseStrauss,R11919Les contes d'HoffmannOffenbach11524Der FreischützWeber11221SalomeStrauss,R10921NormaBellini10922Orpheus and EurydiceGluck10828PagliacciLeoncavallo10624LohengrinWagner,Richard10622Dido and AeneasPurcell10330Cavalleria rusticanaMascagni10235Tristan and IsoldeWagner,Richard10125MacbethVerdi9519A Masked BallVerdi9520FaustGounod9526Ariadne on NaxosStrauss,R9417OtelloVerdi9420Gianni SchicchiPuccini9120ElectraStrauss,R8921Bluebeard's CastleBartók8315The Abduction from the SeraglioMozart8018SiegfriedWagner,Richard7923FidelioBeethoven7817OrfeoMonteverdi7720AlcinaHändel7015The RhinegoldWagner,Richard6824The ValkyrieWagner,Richard6220


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Seen: none;
Heard: all, except Humperdinck, Gluck, Purcell, Monteverdi, and Händel.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I know the list is a given and not up for discussion, but I'm surprised that Britten (Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, Death in Venice), Debussy (Pelleas et Melisande) and Janacek (Cunning little Vixen, Jenufa) are missing completely.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Is this the last season? Or only one country/group of countries?
Seems a bit odd and not correct (L'elisir must be more popular than Don Pasquale) if averaging over a longer period (I was pretty sure Operabase did this as well...)
Anyway, I am not really an opera buff and in the last years I usually was far too lazy to go see any on stage.

Of that list:

Seen *on stage*: Tosca, Figaro, Giovanni, Rigoletto, L'elisir d'amore, Rosenkavalier, Dido (Purcell), Abduction, Fidelio, Siegfried

*Not* heard (except excerpts on anthologies) or no recollection of: Nabucco, Don Pasquale, Cinderella, Lucia, Norma, Pagliacci, Cavalleria, Ariadne.
Not *sure *because I have a recording and heard at least some of it but maybe not all: Gounod's Faust.
Definitely *heard highlights* on disc: Hansel & Gretel

But many of the ones that remain as "heard" (but not seen) I don't know at all well. Of the ones I have seen I know most reasonably well except Rosenkavalier.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I've heard or seen all except Rossini's _Cenerentola_ and Handel's _Alcina_. Could _Cenerentola_ possibly be performed more often than all the great operas that follow it on the list? What am I missing?


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

It must be a kind of snapshot without sufficient averaging out over many seasons. This leads to a few distortions although I'd guess about 40 of them would also be in the top 50 over ~50 seasons since ~1970.
Rheingold cannot usually be more frequently staged/performed than Walküre or Siegfried. None of them are done frequently outside cycles but esp. Rheingold is probably never done except in a Ring cycle.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

What I find interesting, which seems different than what occurs on TC, is that Verdi is performed three times more often than Wagner.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Wagner has the "worst" (inefficient) ratio between productions and performances; probably because the operas are so long and in smaller companies would require hiring extra musicians so they do fewer performances.

I am actually more surprised that Wagner is so clearly ahead of Rossini and Donizetti and that nowadays Handel is ahead of Strauss, if barely (and probably not stable averaging over 20 seasons).


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

I have seen neither _Un ballo in maschera_ nor _Così fan tutte_. But that will be corrected when I see both next month and in November in Munich. As for what the productions will be like, that remains to be seen.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I've heard all of them, but Tchaikovsky's is the only one I attended in person. That one was in Poland when I was attending my son's wedding.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Seen: 9
Heard/have a recoding: 39


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

SanAntone said:


> What I find interesting, which seems different than what occurs on TC, is that Verdi is performed three times more often than Wagner.


I can think of several reasons. 1.) TC has a high proportion of performers, composers, other musical professionals, and people serious about classical music in general. Wagner is of greater interest than Verdi outside the opera house. 2.) Wagner's operas are longer and require larger and more expensive performing forces. 3.) Very few people sing several key Wagner roles even tolerably well, and those few probably command astronomical fees. 4.) Verdi writes more hummable tunes that show off the singers more. 4.) _La Traviata. _It's almost as ubiquitous as _La Boheme. _There's something about tuberculosis...


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Woodduck said:


> I can think of several reasons. 1.) TC has a high proportion of performers, composers, other musical professionals, and people serious about classical music in general. Wagner is of greater interest than Verdi outside the opera house. 2.) Wagner's operas are longer and require larger and more expensive performing forces. 3.) Very few people sing several key Wagner roles even tolerably well, and those few probably command astronomical fees. 4.) Verdi writes more hummable tunes that show off the singers more. 4.) _La Traviata. _It's almost as ubiquitous as _La Boheme. _There's something about tuberculosis...


But they don't mention the diagnosis.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I haven't seen live 12 of 50: Hansel and Gretel, Don Pascuale, L'elisir, Der Rosenkavalier, Der Freischütz, Il barbiere, Rusalka, Bluebeard's castle, Faust, both Orpheus, Fidelio. 
I haven't heard and seen on video or in recording Der Freischütz and Hansel and Gretel.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I'm surprised by absence of Queen of spades, both operas by Músorgski and, too, Saint-Sans and Debussy. Handel also is not such a repertoire rarity.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

ColdGenius said:


> But they don't mention the diagnosis.


That might explain why Anna Netrebko's Violetta appeared radiantly healthy until the moment she dropped dead, with a bed nowhere to be seen. They could have just hung her from that giant clock and called it a timely execution.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I once read that "consumption" in the 19th century need not necessarily mean tuberculosis. This was the most likely disease behind the symptoms but it might sometimes have been something else (not that it is important, people sing well in opera even after being stabbed with swords or daggers).


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

There is plenty of diseases and causes of death, especially of sudden death popular in opera. Venous tromboembolism, fatal arythmias, aneurysms, strokes. Or what happened to Lucia or Azucena?


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Heard: all
Seen live: 30ish
Performed in: 8
Own on CD: 41

What's sad about this list is that it could have been made 100 years ago or so. There isn't a single "modern" opera on it!


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I've seen all of them (although Alcina only in concert, going to see it staged soon).

N.


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## ThaNotoriousNIC (Jun 29, 2020)

Listened to 40/50 of these operas in full! Have listened to 47/50 in parts.

I have seen productions of 19/50 of the operas.


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## Artran (Sep 16, 2016)

Seen 23 (live 2). But I'm on track to see them all. Opera is my current obsession.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Does seen mean live at an opera house or watched a DVD or streaming performance? I've heard almost all of them.

If the latter is acceptable, I have seen all of the Verdi, Puccini and Mozart works on the list I've either live at the Met during the '80s or streamed from their Opera on Demand site. I've also streamed the Ring, or watched DVDs I think for four different productions, and seen Tristan, and Parsifal at least once.

The ones I haven't watched in any form are
Hansel and Gretel
Eugene Onegin
Rusalka (started watching it but didn't get very far)
Cinderella
The Flying Dutchman

and most of those after these, with the exceptions of the ones I've noted above.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Woodduck said:


> TC has a high proportion of performers, composers, other musical professionals, and people serious about classical music in general


and snobs


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Otis B. Driftwood said:


> According to *Operabase*, these are the top 50 most performed operas in the world.
> How many of these operas have you seen or heard at least once?
> 
> *50 most played titles*
> ...


I’ve seen them all live in SF. Why are some of the titles in English? Surely they’re not performed in the vernacular?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

hammeredklavier said:


> and snobs


Speak for yourself. Or maybe that's what you're doing?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I've seen 40 and heard all 50. I have recordings of 48 of them.


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## yogidan (4 mo ago)

Kreisler jr said:


> It must be a kind of snapshot without sufficient averaging out over many seasons. This leads to a few distortions although I'd guess about 40 of them would also be in the top 50 over ~50 seasons since ~1970.
> Rheingold cannot usually be more frequently staged/performed than Walküre or Siegfried. None of them are done frequently outside cycles but esp. Rheingold is probably never done except in a Ring cycle.


Generally true Herr Kreisler - but sometimes the Ring is performed over 4 years so one or two season's snapshot would not capture all 4 operas. BTW in 2023 we will enjoy 2 complete RIng cycles AND 1 concert performance of Das Rheingold in Australia.


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## yogidan (4 mo ago)

ColdGenius said:


> There is plenty of diseases and causes of death, especially of sudden death popular in opera. Venous tromboembolism, fatal arythmias, aneurysms, strokes. Or what happened to Lucia or Azucena?


Azucena lived on...


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## Otis B. Driftwood (4 mo ago)

So far I have seen/heard 42 of the above.



Kreisler jr said:


> Is this the last season? Or only one country/group of countries?


The statistics are from 2018 - 2022, across all 10 countries.
For the curious, here is an older list which covers 2005 - 2010: (link)


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

yogidan said:


> Azucena lived on...


In some stagings she falls dead, as written in libretto (German and Russian Wikipedia). In Italian Wikipedia it's written that she pierces herself by a dagger.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

There has to be something (slightly) wrong with the stats (and not only that counting productions would probably be better than counting performances). That second link is even more puzzling. I can barely believe that Zauberflöte might edge out all the Italians and Figaro and Giovanni and that Cenerentola is the 2nd of Rossini but I cannot believe that Nabucco is the 4th popular Verdi and Rheingold the 2nd popular Wagner opera.


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## Aerobat (Dec 31, 2018)

Seen live in theatre: 28

Owned on CD / DVD / Blu-ray: 43

Listened to or watched most / large parts of a further 6 (over and above the 43)

Gave up and couldn't listen to: 1 (Dido)


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Aerobat said:


> Gave up and couldn't listen to: 1 (Dido)


 It's not even one hour long! It's also one of my favorite operas...
(For some reason I have seen relatively more oddities than famous operas on stage, e.g. Purcell's King Arthur, not even a real opera and virtually unstageable but beautiful music.)


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## niknik (Oct 4, 2014)

41/50 seen or heard


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Most Performed Operas in the world by woopera_blog — February 22, 2018








Most Performed Operas in the world


What are most performed operas in the world? According to OperaBase, in the opera season 2015-2016 (the last one reported) ,




blog.woopera.com


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## Ice Dragon (Jun 20, 2018)

I've seen all on DVD/Internet videos except for Seraglio. I've seen none live, unfortunately. I'd have to travel hours to an actual opera house, which I don't have the funds for. There's a good theater relatively nearby that shows a lot of touring musicals, concerts, and other shows, but I've never heard of them hosting an opera. The only ballets they've ever shown are Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty. I got to see the latter a few years ago, and that's the only ballet I've ever seen live.


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

I've seen them all except Alcina. That lacunae doesn't bother me, as baroque opera is my least favourite (all those da capo arias). Off to Siegfried in a couple of hours.


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## Admiral (Dec 27, 2014)

47/50 heard either live or home stereo.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I know all of these backwards and forwards, whether on LP long ago when I first became an opera fan back in the stone age , CD ,DVD , attending live performances , and as a performing musician, I've even played performances of some of them, such as Carmen, La Boheme, Tosca, La Traviata, Aida , Cavalleria Rusticana , Pagliacci , Don Pasquale and. L'Elisir D'Amore .


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

50.


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