# Operas with the least number of vocalists?



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I am curious what operas have only a few (if not even less than a few) vocalists. I would say that we could consider how few soloists there are and still have chorus parts, but also what about operas with no choral parts and very few vocalists?

What spurred this question is that I just heard that Bluebeard's Castle has no choral parts and just two vocalists (or I misunderstood). At any rate, Bluebeard or not, still curious about operas with few vocalists.


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## Il Maestro (Oct 27, 2015)

_La voix humaine_.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwartung


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## Jeffrey Smith (Jan 2, 2016)

Florestan said:


> I am curious what operas have only a few (if not even less than a few) vocalists. I would say that we could consider how few soloists there are and still have chorus parts, but also what about operas with no choral parts and very few vocalists?
> 
> What spurred this question is that I just heard that Bluebeard's Castle has no choral parts and just two vocalists (or I misunderstood). At any rate, Bluebeard or not, still curious about operas with the vocalists.


??? You have never heard Bluebeard's Castle!!!!
Yes, only two characters.
Now go to Amazon and order the Kertesz recording.


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## Jeffrey Smith (Jan 2, 2016)

Il Maestro said:


> _La voix humaine_.


Came immediately to mind.

Not staged works, but Berlioz wrote a couple of cantatas for solo voice and orchestra.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Menotti's _The Telephone_.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Jeffrey Smith said:


> ??? You have never heard Bluebeard's Castle!!!!
> Yes, only two characters.
> Now go to Amazon and order the Kertesz recording.


Not everyone know about every opera.
Bluebeard´s Castle is also not a superpopular opera.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Jeffrey Smith said:


> ??? You have never heard Bluebeard's Castle!!!!
> Yes, only two characters.
> Now go to Amazon and order the Kertesz recording.


I am an opera novice. My first opera experience of recent times is a couple years ago when I got totally into Beethoven and was listening to Fidelio.

ASIDE: What doesn't count is in the 1980s I attended maybe a dozen operas, mainly as a vehicle for getting dates. I found that the ladies were quite willing to attend opera with me and hoped it was going to keep me outside the pool of low-life women such as the blind date I once had who when she met me had a quart of beer in a brown paper sack--ugh! It may be also that the ladies figured that I was a classier guy being that I was into opera. At any rate, those operas are vague memories and I get much more out of opera now with subtitled DVDs.

But back on subject. I had heard of Bluebeard's Castle, even skimmed over a brief synopsis, but it seemed rather weird, so I passed. Might check it out now (and others being posted in this thread).


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Dim7 said:


> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwartung


I listened to Schoenberg's _Erwartung_ at the weekend (it is coupled with Berg's _Wozzek_ on Decca) and I very much enjoyed it. A very dark tale of a woman and her dead lover in a dark wood (so only has one singer) with some ravishing music. Yes, a real treat - intense in music, word and subject with rich textures and very condensed themes.

However ... is it an 'opera' or a 'melodrama in 4 acts'?


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Florestan said:


> I am an opera novice. My first opera experience of recent times is a couple years ago when I got totally into Beethoven and was listening to Fidelio.
> 
> ASIDE: What doesn't count is in the 1980s I attended maybe a dozen operas, mainly as a vehicle for getting dates. I found that the ladies were quite willing to attend opera with me and hoped it was going to keep me outside the pool of low-life women such as the blind date I once had who when she met me had a quart of beer in a brown paper sack--ugh! It may be also that the ladies figured that I was a classier guy being that I was into opera. At any rate, those operas are vague memories and I get much more out of opera now with subtitled DVDs.
> 
> But back on subject. I had heard of Bluebeard's Castle, even skimmed over a brief synopsis, *but it seemed rather weird, *so I passed. Might check it out now (and others being posted in this thread).


Opera is weird. People sing not speak! Get used to it!


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

... and I just remembered Benda (1722-1795) wrote a number of _melodramas_ (although some call them 'opera') with only one (or a few) vocal parts --- for example _Medea, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Pygmalion _ , although these tend to be speaking roles rather than true singing roles.

I listened to two of these discs last week .... and found them pretty hard going (I don't speak German and didn't have a libretto at hand) but they were apparently rather popular in the 1770s


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

DavidA said:


> Opera is weird. People sing not speak! Get used to it!


Guess I wasn't clear. The synopsis of Bluebeard's Castle seems weird. The singing instead of speaking only weird if people did it in real life, though I think that would be great fun and propose a National Opera Day where everyone sings anytime they want to talk.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Pergolesi's short opera La Serva Padroni has just 3 performers. Might be a bit too baroque for you. (I can only take so much harpsichord!)


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Dim7 said:


> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwartung


The only work by Arnold Schönberg together with Gurrelieder that I really like.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Sloe said:


> The only work by Arnold Schönberg together with Gurrelieder that I really like.


If you like Gurrelieder, you'll probably like the orchestral songs op 8 - very lovely


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

dgee said:


> If you like Gurrelieder, you'll probably like the orchestral songs op 8 - very lovely


Thank you.
I find it somewhat enjoyable it reminds me more of Erwartung maybe because I recently listened to it.


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

Peter Maxwell-Davies's _The Lighthouse_ has only three voices in a work lasting approx. 75 minutes.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Don Fatale said:


> Pergolesi's short opera La Serva Padroni has just 3 performers. Might be a bit too baroque for you. (I can only take so much harpsichord!)


Ah! I totally forgot. I love that opera. And only two of the performers sing as I recall. The other guy is a mute as I recall. Here is a clip with my favorite performance:


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Headphone Hermit said:


> I listened to Schoenberg's _Erwartung_ at the weekend (it is coupled with Berg's _Wozzek_ on Decca) and I very much enjoyed it. A very dark tale of a woman and her dead lover in a dark wood (so only has one singer) with some ravishing music. Yes, a real treat - intense in music, word and subject with rich textures and very condensed themes.
> 
> However ... is it an 'opera' or a 'melodrama in 4 acts'?


It's a *mono*drama, not a melodrama. Schoenberg referred to Pierrot lunaire as a melodrama, and Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte and A Survivor from Warsaw also come under that category. Moses und Aron is best understood as an opera with elements of melodrama, while Stravinsky's Persephone is best understood as a melodrama with operatic elements.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

What about Holst's short opera *Savitri*, which has just three singers?

Britten's *The Turn of the Screw* has a relatively small cast too, Governess, Mrs Grose, Miss Jessel, Flora, Quint and Miles.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Florestan said:


> But back on subject. I had heard of Bluebeard's Castle, even skimmed over a brief synopsis, but it seemed rather weird, so I passed. Might check it out now (and others being posted in this thread).


_Bluebeard's Castle_ has only two characters, and is one of the most powerful and beautiful of 20th-century operas. Yes, being Bartok, it is rather weird, and when I first saw it on TV in my teens I was somewhat weirded out and was uneasy about reinvestigating it for a while. Bluebeard in Hungarian is "Kekszakallu," which is pretty weird-sounding all by itself! But it's really no weirder than, say, _Parsifal_, and is similar in being a symbolic, psychological study more than a story - not to be taken literally, in other words. Once it gets inside you it'll haunt you forever. Mwwwaaaa-hahahahahahaha!


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Jeffrey Smith said:


> ??? You have never heard Bluebeard's Castle!!!!
> Yes, only two characters.
> Now go to Amazon and order the Kertesz recording.


noooo, Ramey and Norman! XD


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

_Émilie_, Kaija Saariaho's third opera from 2010 is written for a single soprano. It is about 75 minutes long.

I don't think there is a full recording, though there is a CD with an instrumental suite.

I was checking on another opera and found a page from 2003 listing operas by number of singers. Within each number of singers it is even sorted by voice type. It does not count chorus, speaking, or mute roles, though these are noted for each opera. Many of them are quite obscure, with most exceptions already mentioned in this thread.

There are 21 listed for 1 lead; at least 11 of these do not include a chorus or any additional speaking or mute roles.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Don Fatale said:


> Pergolesi's short opera La Serva Padroni has just 3 performers. Might be a bit too baroque for you. (I can only take so much harpsichord!)


To much harpsichord is bad for your health


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Florestan said:


> I am an opera novice. My first opera experience of recent times is a couple years ago when I got totally into Beethoven and was listening to Fidelio.
> 
> ASIDE: What doesn't count is in the 1980s I attended maybe a dozen operas, mainly as a vehicle for getting dates. I found that the ladies were quite willing to attend opera with me and hoped it was going to keep me outside the pool of low-life women such as the blind date I once had who when she met me had a quart of beer in a brown paper sack--ugh! It may be also that the ladies figured that I was a classier guy being that I was into opera. At any rate, those operas are vague memories and I get much more out of opera now with subtitled DVDs.


Nobody is born knowing ever single opera!  And you don't have to be 'classy' to love opera. My Aunt and Uncle adored opera; she was a cleaner and he was a mechanic. I bet you're a lovely guy anyway. :kiss: (don't worry, I'm probably old enough to be your granny!!)



Florestan said:


> But back on subject. I had heard of Bluebeard's Castle, even skimmed over a brief synopsis, but it seemed rather weird, so I passed. Might check it out now (and others being posted in this thread).


I love it because of the bass role but it *is* weird. Rewarding though.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> noooo, Ramey and Norman! XD


No...........Kertesz


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Pugg said:


> No...........Kertesz


When the Kertesz performance came out reviewers compared it favourably to the Decca Gotterdamerung. It is superbly sun, played and recorded.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

One vocalist:
Argento - Miss Havisham's Wedding Night; A Water Bird Talk
Henze - El Cimarrón; Der Langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheuer 
Poulenc - La voix humaine 
Schoenberg - Erwartung
Stravinsky - Perséphone 
Toch - Egon und Emilie

Two vocalists:
Bartók - Duke Bluebeard's Castle
Dibdin - The Brickdust Man
Menotti - The Telephone
Pergolesi - La serva padrona
Rimsky-Korsakov - Mozart and Salieri
Telemann - Pimpinone
Wolf-Ferrari - Il segreto di Susanna


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Just listened to clips and revisited the synopsis. Bluebeard is definitely a weird opera. It may take a while to get used to it. The singers would be a huge factor in selecting a performance.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> _But it's really no weirder than, say, Parsifal, !_


_

Bluebeards Castle is much shorter than Parsifal so one do not have to spend so much time getting through the opera._


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Sloe said:


> Bluebeards Castle is much shorter than Parsifal so one do not have to spend so much time getting through the opera.


Short may be good in this case.
Edit: In fact, short may be so good in this case as to not listen at all. That is as short as it gets.:lol: Sorry, but this one is just not drawing me in. I'll stick with La Serva Padrona, and speaking of that, here is an excellent performance (but for the added antics of the two goofballs):


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Delicious Manager said:


> One vocalist:
> Argento - Miss Havisham's Wedding Night; A Water Bird Talk
> Henze - El Cimarrón; Der Langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheuer
> Poulenc - La voix humaine
> ...


Interesting that all these one-voiced operas, and most of the two-voiced, were written in the 20th century. I suspect that an audience of earlier times would have thrown rotten vegetables and demanded its money back if only one singer showed up for a performance.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Florestan said:


> Short may be good in this case.
> Edit: In fact, short may be so good in this case as to not listen at all. That is as short as it gets.:lol: Sorry, but this one is just not drawing me in. I'll stick with La Serva Padrona, and speaking of that, here is an excellent performance (but for the added antics of the two goofballs):


Interesting that most of these operas are short.
Then for one or two persons to be on stage singing for two to five hours might be too much of an effort.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Interesting that all these one-voiced operas, and most of the two-voiced, were written in the 20th century. I suspect that an audience of earlier times would have thrown rotten vegetables and demanded its money back if only one singer showed up for a performance.


Possibly - though Benda apparently managed to gain both popularity and critical acclaim in late C18 Vienna with one person speaking rather than singing


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

You're referring to his melodramas? Those are quite interesting. Apparently very popular then.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

mountmccabe said:


> _Émilie_, Kaija Saariaho's third opera from 2010 is written for a single soprano. It is about 75 minutes long.
> 
> I don't think there is a full recording, though there is a CD with an instrumental suite.


I missed the edit window: I was mistaken; the suite is not instrumental. It is a vocal suite from the opera.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Maybe it was mentioned in this thread, but I just discovered the existence of Segreto de Susanna. Alas, there appear to not be any decent recordings.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Florestan said:


> Maybe it was mentioned in this thread, but I just discovered the existence of Segreto de Susanna. Alas, there appear to not be any decent recordings.


Try this one, you will be surprised


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## Johnhanks (Feb 21, 2016)

Delicious Manager said:


> One vocalist:
> Argento - Miss Havisham's Wedding Night; A Water Bird Talk
> Henze - El Cimarrón; Der Langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheuer
> Poulenc - La voix humaine
> ...


Quibble over the Toch: Egon does get the last word (albeit spoken, not sung).


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## wirorg (Feb 17, 2016)

Follow here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monodrama
http://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-monodrama-operas/reference
http://www.aopopera.org/monodrama.htm


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Halevy 's Eclair is a 3 act opera comique with only 4 parts.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

I ran across this list - http://opera.stanford.edu/misc/UnaVoce.html when I was looking for information about "The Brickdust Man" by Charles Dibdin.


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