# Which opera(s) do you genuinely hate and why?



## amadeus1928 (Jun 16, 2021)

Everybody talks about which operas they like but I'm curious on which ones you don't like.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

IMO "don't like" is very different from "hate".


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

No hate. I dislike "The Merry Widow", "Cosi fan tutte"


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Turandot. some of the music is fabulous, but Calaf is the biggest simp in the world for a grandiose narcissist willing to have him killed for no reason other than her pride (it doesn't help that Nessun Dorma has been beaten to death like a prisoner of war in Somalia)


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

For me opera becomes interesting in the romantic period (say from Weber and Rossini onward). So basically, everything before that (including Handel and Mozart) I don't particularly like. From the romantic period, Verdi is a curious blind spot for me. I love Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and especially Puccini, but Verdi's operas don't do it for me.


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## amadeus1928 (Jun 16, 2021)

I do agree that romantic era operas are way more interesting than classical and baroque era ones.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

As ArtRock says, "hate" is a very strong word, but there are operas I don't particularly like and would never listen to on disc, though I might be prepared to go to a staged performance, even if it wouldn't be my first choice. Amongst those would be both Berg's operas and Schoenberg's *Moses and Aaron*. The operas of Philip Glass hold very little interest for me and I have no desire to watch or listen to anything by Stockhausen.

Other than that, I enjoy quite a range of different operas by composers of different nationalities and different eras and, looking through my CD collection I note that it extends from the operas of Monteverdi to twentieth century works by such as Barber, Britten and Shostakovich, though I note that the only fairly recent work I have on disc is Previn's *A Streetcar Named Desire*, which, in any case, harkens back to the music of a previous era, with jazzy overtones and echoes of Korngold and Strauss. Maybe it's just the New Viennese School that I actively dislike.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

amadeus1928 said:


> Everybody talks about which operas they like but I'm curious on which ones you don't like.


I am very interested in your choice .


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Life's too short; why bother hating on an opera? Those that don't appeal to me at first, I set aside, leaving open the possibility of appreciating them more in the future.


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

I can't think of any, although I sometimes have a bit of an issue with certain characters or weak/convoluted plots. If I were to dislike some because of the music it would probably be more do to with not liking the composer in the first place.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

I recently sat through an audio recording of Rienzi for the first time. While I certainly enjoyed parts of it, much of the music felt tediously dull and derivative. Despite being an engaging and well-sung performance (Hollreiser with Rene Kollo). I nearly fell asleep at one point.

When I listen to the five-hour version someday, I will be brandishing a Wagnerian-sized thermos of very strong coffee.


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## mparta (Sep 29, 2020)

Celloman said:


> I recently sat through an audio recording of Rienzi for the first time. While I certainly enjoyed parts of it, much of the music felt tediously dull and derivative. Despite being an engaging and well-sung performance (Hollreiser with Rene Kollo). I nearly fell asleep at one point.
> 
> When I listen to the five-hour version someday, I will be brandishing a Wagnerian-sized thermos of very strong coffee.


If you're going to do something that painful, fill the thermos with something more deadening, don't keep yourself up!!


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Hate is quite a strong emotion. I don't think I hate anything.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

HenryPenfold said:


> Hate is quite a strong emotion. I don't think I hate anything.


bo-ring! come on man. let a rip


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## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

Honestly, I am not a big fan of most Italian Bel Canto Operas, such as the famous ones by Berlini and Donizetti. Those pieces do have a few highly memorable melodies. But other than that, huge blocks of mundane and cliche-heavy fillers. Also, the plots usually seems to be unrealistic, frivolous or even ridiculous.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Bruckner Anton said:


> Honestly, I am not a big fan of most Italian Bel Canto Operas, such as the famous ones by Berlini and Donizetti. Those pieces do have a few highly memorable melodies. But other than that, huge blocks of mundane and cliche-heavy fillers. Also, the plots usually seems to be unrealistic, frivolous or even ridiculous.


I feel similarly, but I think the singing makes all the difference in that repertoire. A singer who can not only dispatch the vocal intricacies but find the drama in trills and scales is a rare bird. Lilli Lehmann said, famously, that one Norma was tougher than all three Brunnhildes; Wagner gives his orchestra at least half the burden of dramatic expression, but Bellini places nearly all of it on the singer.


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