# What are your favorite acts from opera?



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Not whole operas, just your favorite acts.

i'll start with Act 3 of Meistersinger
Act 2 of Siegfried
Act 2 of Lohengrin


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Act 2 Tristan
Act 3 Tristan
Act 1 Tristan
Act 3 Die Walkure
Act 3 Gotterdammerung
Act 3 Meistersinger
Act 2 Parsifal
Act 3 Parsifal
Act 1 Meistersinger
Act 1 Parsifal
Act 2 Tannhauser
Act 1 Die Walkure
Act 1 Gotterdammerung (+ Prologue)
Act 3 Siegfried
Scene 1 Rheingold
Act 2 Lohengrin
Act 2 Die Walkure
Act 3 Tannhauser
Scene 2 Rheingold
Act 2 Meistersinger
Act 1 Tannhauser
Act 3 Lohengrin
Scene 4 Rheingold
Act 2 Gotterdammerung
Act 2 Siegfried
Act 1 Lohengrin
Scene 3 Rheingold
Act 1 Dutchman
Act 2 Dutchman
Act 3 Dutchman
Act 1 Siegfried


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## Xavier (Jun 7, 2012)

Act I -- Pelleas et Melisande (Actually, the first Act of P&M may be my favorite act in ALL opera.

Act II -- Pelleas et Melisande

Act II -- Pfitzner's Palestrina


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Couchie, you sure???????


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Itullian said:


> Couchie, you sure???????


Pretty sure up to about #15. Once the earlier operas come into play it gets more difficult. There's no doubt about the supremacy of Tristan and the 3rd acts of Walkure, Gotterdammerung and Meistersinger, although I suppose the order of those could be subject to change depending on mood. Also all acts of Parsifal are of such equally high other-worldly quality it's difficult to rank them, although no single act rises above the unequivocally great aforementioned acts, I would say.


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## powerbooks (Jun 30, 2012)

Well, depending on what you are looking for:

Figaro Act II is pretty humorous and very exciting with all the story lines popping up everywhere.
La Boheme Act III is chilly and heart broken.
Aida Act IV purely clam to face the death! 
Meistersinger Act III the deep meditation about humanity!

Well, too many to list for now......


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Couchie said:


> Pretty sure up to about #15. Once the earlier operas come into play it gets more difficult. There's no doubt about the supremacy of Tristan and the 3rd acts of Walkure, Gotterdammerung and Meistersinger, although I suppose the order of those could be subject to change depending on mood. Also all acts of Parsifal are of such equally high other-worldly quality it's difficult to rank them, although no single act rises above the unequivocally great aforementioned acts, I would say.


hey Couchie,

all i ever listen to is Wagner anymore. I guess i'm hopeless.

now we need to get Dark Angel away from all that Verdi and over here too.

only how?


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Itullian said:


> only how?


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

- _Fidelio_, Act II

Okay, now that the obsession is out of the way, here are some of my other favorites:

- _Madama Butterfly_, Act I
- _Die Zauberflöte_, Act II
- _Rigoletto_, Act II
- _Tosca_, Act I
- _La Clemenza di Tito_, Act II
- _Lohengrin_, Act III

Trouble is, I also like the other acts of _Die Zauberflöte_, _Rigoletto_, and _La Clemenza di Tito _about as much as the ones I listed. (And, of course, Act I of the obsession . . . )


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

MAuer said:


> - _Fidelio_, Act II
> 
> Okay, now that the obsession is out of the way, here are some of my other favorites:
> 
> ...


Hey M,
if that's your obsession you better have Karajan's EMI version.
the most exciting of all. chills guaranteed.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

Itullian said:


> Hey M,
> if that's your obsession you better have Karajan's EMI version.
> the most exciting of all. chills guaranteed.


No, don't have that one -- not wild about the cast. (I prefer lyric-spinto voices in the two leads.) But I do have 12 others . . .


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Couchie said:


> Act 2 Tristan
> Act 3 Tristan
> Act 1 Tristan
> Act 3 Die Walkure
> ...


I like act 3 of Tristan better.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Itullian said:


> hey Couchie,
> 
> all i ever listen to is Wagner anymore. I guess i'm hopeless.
> 
> ...


Mission impossible.....the world of Verdi is my natural home! :angel:

Yes it is true that in the early days Callas dipped her toes into the world of Wagner but quickly found 
her true calling in the Italian Bel Canto style of Verdi, Bellini, Donizetti


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Madama Butterly, Act 1 

Pelleas et Melisande, Act 4 

Boris Godunov, Act 4 (Rimsky Korsakov Version)


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Not in any order (except for *Ligeti* being above all)

Act 3 of Tristan und Isolde
Act 3 of Albert Herring
Act 3 of Le Nozze di Figaro
Act 2 of La Bohème
Act 2 of Le Grand Macabre
Act 1 of Nixon in China


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I like act 3 of Tristan better.


What makes Act 3 of Tristan so much better than Act 1 and 2? I'm not challenging that fact. The superiority of Act III seems to be taken for granted among musicians. User Bach said it was his favorite part of Tristan was Act 3.

Act 3 gets singled out for some reason. In a book on Tristan und Isolde edited by Carolyn Abbate an essay that that "In 
particular, Act III of Tristan abounds in episodes where the continual transformation of a 
pleasing sonority into timbral negativity expresses a musico-dramatic meaning."

What makes Act 3 so special?

Also, can you identify where this (I know it's from Act 3) is from?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

brianwalker said:


> What makes Act 3 of Tristan so much better than Act 1 and 2? I'm not challenging that fact. The superiority of Act III seems to be taken for granted among musicians. User Bach said it was his favorite part of Tristan was Act 3.
> 
> Act 3 gets singled out for some reason. In a book on Tristan und Isolde edited by Carolyn Abbate an essay that that "In
> particular, Act III of Tristan abounds in episodes where the continual transformation of a
> ...


Page 253, fifth system of my vocal score published by G. Schirmer. 4:57 in this video:






What do you mean where is it from?


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Page 253, fifth system of my vocal score published by G. Schirmer. 4:57 in this video:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Just the corresponding libretto to that part of the score. You answered it with the YouTube.

Care to explain why Act III is so awesome?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

brianwalker said:


> Just the corresponding libretto to that part of the score. You answered it with the YouTube.
> 
> Care to explain why Act III is so awesome?


I think it's all awesome. When I saw Act III for the first time on that DVD Couchie goes on about I thought it was spellbinding. I haven't analysed the music, but even the first chord played by the orchestra seems so tragic and dramatic and it draws me in a bit more than in the other acts. My favourite part would be the end of scene one and the first part of scene two up until Tristan dies, especially when the time signature goes into 5/4. I think Act III has some very powerful music and the is very emotional and tragic, capable of drawing me to tears. In the last five bars of the entire work I love how Wagner finally resolves his Tristan chord first established right at the beginning of the opera. Act III is the one I most often listen to.

And another thing: since basically all the leitmotifs have been established, the listener will be more familiar with them by the third act since they have been played so often. A lot of listeners like the be familiar with music and by putting the same leitmotifs in different musical contexts in Act III the listener would be able to pick out certain parts in the same way one coukd pick out themes from the exposition in the development section of sonata form, and the whole thing doesn't become boring.


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I think it's all awesome. When I saw Act III for the first time on that DVD Couchie goes on about I thought it was spellbinding. I haven't analysed the music, but even the first chord played by the orchestra seems so tragic and dramatic and it draws me in a bit more than in the other acts.


Interesting that usually the star is Isolde (the two most famous recordings are famous for their Isolde) when Tristan gets the best music...

"Tristan's authority can be setagainst conventional interpretations of the two lovers as androgynous and equivalent, a view that relies on platitudes of char-acter-analysis (Isolde is strong-minded, Tristan dithers), or reading gender con-fusion into rhetorical figures like chiasmus ('Du Isolde, Tristan ich'; 'Tristandu, ich Isolde') that Wagner also borrowed from Gottfried. The Schopenhauer-ianmingling of I and not-I in Act II, the mystical conjoining of the two egos,is, of course, unmistakable. But notequally strong figures- no androgynoustwins - are thus made one. This unequal relationship is projected into a simple musical device. During much of Act II, Tristan and Isolde sing in parallel,with the same melody, phrase, or verse given to both. But it is usually Tristan who starts off and Isolde who echoes. This is true in the parallel strophes cited by Dahlhaus (in Ex. 2), in 'so stiirben wir, umungetrennt' [so might we die,that neverparted] and, critically, at the end of the act, as Tristan requests thatIsolde follow him into death: 'Dem Land, das Tristan meint,/der Sonne Lichtnicht scheint' [To this land that I mean,/where the sun nevershines]. So itis in thepoem: Tristan's voice, with itspower overlanguage, dominates absolu-tely. Isolde must deal in theshapes he fashions." - Carolyn Abbate

From http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/823596?uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21101075858143



> *My favourite part would be the and of scene one and the first part of scene two up until Tristan dies, *especially when the time signature goes into 5/4. I think Act III has some very powerful music and the is very emotional and tragic, capable of drawing me to tears. In the last five bars of the entire work I love how Wagner finally resolves his Tristan chord first established right at the beginning of the opera. Act III is the one I most often listen to.
> 
> And another thing: since basically all the leitmotifs have been established, the listener will be more familiar with them by the third act.[


That is my favorite six and a half minutes of Tristan and Isolde. It's quite dynamic.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Not in any order (except for *Ligeti* being above all)
> 
> Act 3 of Tristan und Isolde
> Act 3 of Albert Herring
> ...


Add to that, Act 3 of Nixon in China.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

In addition to an apparent preference for the most cliched operatic spectacles, I also like those early moments of happiness and possibility right before everything goes horribly, horribly awry:

Mefistofele, Prologue (OMG... literally)
La Boheme, Act II
Carmen, Act II (Gypsy Song, Toreador Song, Flower Song)
Aida, Act II (Cue elephants!)
La Traviata, Act I


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