# Which Comic Operas Are The Funniest ?



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I just got the DVD of Dvorak's delightfully droll comic opera "The Devil And kate," sung in English 
and performed at the Wexford opera festival in Ireland in 1988 . This opera is great fun !
I don't know if any of you are familiar with this comoic masterpiece, but if you enjoy Rusalka,
by all means try this comic counterpart to it.
Which makes me ask, which comic operas are the funniest? The ones which really make you chuckle and chortle with delight , based both on the music and the story and comic situations ?


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

Rossini's _L'Italiana in Algeri_, particularly the "pappataci" scene.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Also Rossini''s "Barber" and "Cenerentola" (by no means in English).
Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffmann" and Donizetti,s "L'Elisir" 
Also Cornelius' "Barber of Baghdad".


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Leaving aside the G&S works which are very funny, Offenbachs Orpheus in the Underworld is quite funny. It all depends on the director and the cast.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

drpraetorus said:


> Leaving aside the G&S works which are very funny, Offenbachs Orpheus in the Underworld is quite funny. It all depends on the director and the cast.


You are quite right,specially with Dr.Dulcamara---Geraint Evans was a delight.


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

moody said:


> Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffmann"


Seriously? Apart from the Olympia scene which does have its moments, but winds up being a total bummer, I'm not quite sure how Hoffmann qualifies as funny in any way, shape or form.

But:

Maskarade - Nielsen (points if you know Danish)
Falstaff - Verdi
Just about everything Offenbach wrote apart from Hoffmann (stay away from Rheinnixen whilst you're at it). La vie Parisienne is a laughfest. As is Orphée. Drpraetorus has excellent taste.
Rossini's comedies also have a tendency of being rather hilarious. Those recommended already are a very good starting point.


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

Offenbach's Orphee is my favourite. Also Puccini's Gianni Schicchi - a total hoot from the crocodile tears of the grasping relatives at the start to the pandemonium near the end when the crafty impersonator leaves everything to himself. Ravel's L'heure espagnole is quite amusing, as well.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Bethrothal in a monastery from Sergei Prokofiev is my funniest favourite.










The best










Second best


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

I always laugh on Mozart operas, especially at Leporello from Don Giovanni! 

Best regards, Dr


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Aksel said:


> Seriously? Apart from the Olympia scene which does have its moments, but winds up being a total bummer, I'm not quite sure how Hoffmann qualifies as funny in any way, shape or form.
> 
> But:
> 
> ...


Certainly it's a comedy,Offenbach called it an opera fantastique and it was based on some of E.T.A. Hoffmann's strange tales.
Of course it is not a knock-about Keystone-Cops comedy but the whole thing is based upon the complete ineptitude and gullibility of the "hero",Hoffmann himself .
His hopeless search for romance is very funny in that everything he attempts goes wrong and ends up in disaster.
Naturally you would not consider the Antonia act as being a laugh a minute ,but it's the ridiculous concept of 
Hoffmann's hopeless efforts that makes it comedic.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

oh, yea, _L'Italiana_ is hilarious, as is the much later _Le Comte Ory_. The obvious _Le Nozze di Figaro_ is also very funny and _Cosi fan tutte_, if you like lowbrow humour, Offenbach's _La belle Helene_ is properly zany (but then most of his stuff is), _L'elisir d'amore_ is pretty funny, too, Cimarosa's _Il matrimonio segreto_ ain't bad if you dig 18th century humour. While we're in the 1700s, I'd also cast a vote for Handel's _Xerxes_, which has some funny bits (Ombra mai fu, enough said) as does Monteverdi's _L'incoronazzione di Popeea_, if I think about it.

forgot Die Fledermaus! hysterical  gah, and Der Rosenkavalier... there's more comedy then drama to it.


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## Hausmusik (May 13, 2012)

_Falstaff _ seems to work wonderfully on stage: the version I saw was sidesplitting. I love _Nozze _but have never seen a version that actually made me laugh, as opposed to mirthfully arch an eyebrow.


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Jean-Philippe Rameau's "Platée".

The ending "anagnorisis", as the Greeks would call it, is hilarious.


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

I laughed a lot seeing Il Turco in Italia!


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Menotti's Last Savage*

In 2009 my wife and I attended a production to Menotti's _Last Savage_ with the Sante Fe Opera. It was a riot. One of the funniest stage shows, opera or musical, we have ever seened. :lol:


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Aksel said:


> Seriously? Apart from the Olympia scene which does have its moments, but winds up being a total bummer, I'm not quite sure how Hoffmann qualifies as funny in any way, shape or form.


I'll second this, I don't think Les contes d'Hoffmann is a comic opera by the formal meaning, whether it's been called _comique_ by the composer or not, but it sounds quite in opposite rather tragic, describing a man's hopeless try, a man who can't keep himself away from falling deeper and deeper into a vortex which has surrounded him, both in music and drama, and it's not funny at all.


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## Hesoos (Jun 9, 2012)

It's not my favorite but it's the funniest: Die Fledermaus
Usually I don't laugh with operas, I just smile. But the story of the drunken politic masked as a bat in the center of the town makes me really laugh. :lol:
My favorites are l'Italiana and l'Elisir.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

A funny opera like a dramatic opera is only good if you have the right cast and director. This is true in just about every performing arts situation that I can imagine.


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

drpraetorus said:


> A funny opera like a dramatic opera is only good if you have the right cast and director. This is true in just about every performing arts situation that I can imagine.


But making it actually funny is even more difficult.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" is highly amusing with its tale of tricking the miserly Don Pasquale into allowing the marriage of his nephew to the lovely Norina.
Mozart's "Die Entfuehrung Aus dem Serail". Not only extremely funny with Belmonte's efforts to rescue Konstanza and Blondchen from the harem,but it's a brilliant work and I cannot account for its lack of popularity on TC.

Or am I going to be told that it is really a tragedy illustrating the evilness behind mens' treatment of women ?


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

moody said:


> Mozart's "Die Entfuehrung Aus dem Serail". Not only extremely funny with Belmonte's efforts to rescue Konstanza and Blondchen from the harem,but it's a brilliant work and I cannot account for its lack of popularity on TC.
> 
> Or am I going to be told that it is really a tragedy illustrating the evilness behind mens' treatment of women ?


It has comic elements (it is labeled as a comic Singspiel, after all), but it definitely has some very dark undertones. Martern aller Arten isn't excactly roses and butterflies in the park.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Aksel said:


> It has comic elements (it is labeled as a comic Singspiel, after all), but it definitely has some very dark undertones. Martern aller Arten isn't excactly roses and butterflies in the park.


You are difficult to please are you not,Mozart thought it was funny I think it's funny and everyone at the various performances I've been to thought it very funny. Have you seen it?


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

moody said:


> You are difficult to please are you not,Mozart thought it was funny I think it's funny and everyone at the various performances I've been to thought it very funny. Have you seen it?


Yes. All I'm saying is that it's not without it dark sides.


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## Bardamu (Dec 12, 2011)

Some of my choices were already posted.
I add pergolesi's La serva padrona and Livietta e Tracollo.
Rota's Il cappello di paglia di Firenza.
And last but not least Wolf Ferrari's I quatro rusteghi.


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