# Help me with my next opera.



## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I have a good many operas, mostly by the insanely prolific, like Mozart, who weren't opera composers specifically, and Verdi, and Wagner who were almost exclusively. I've decided that my next cd will be an opera of some sort. So with that in mind, I'd like something slightly off beat, either of the French or Russian persuasion, as those are two languages I am actively studying at the moment.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Samson et Delila by Saint-Saens may be what you're looking for. A mezzo leading lady, a few famous arias, some rousing choruses, the Bachannale - it's pretty good stuff


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

How about a French opera sung in French by an Italian composer:

Donizetti's La fille du régiment.

Beware though of the slightly different translation of this opera to Italian: La figlia del Reggimento.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Florestan said:


> How about a French opera sung in French by an Italian composer:
> 
> Donizetti's La fille du régiment.
> 
> Beware though of the slightly different translation of this opera to Italian: La figlia del Reggimento.


Still enjoying that DVD then? 

Here's another good Donizetti opera in French, La Favourite:









It's the 1912 complete recording with Henri Albers- from the days when French singers still sounded French, including diction (usually) clear enough for a learner to understand the words.

http://www.marstonrecords.com/favorite/favorite_tracks.htm


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Lakme is pretty good.


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## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:French-language_operas

Faust (Gounod)
Manon (Massenet)
Le comte Ory (Rossini)


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Not even a question about it:
Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin"
A total winner.
Try finding the DVD with Fleming/Hvorstovsky/Vargas. That'll hook you!

(Go onto You-tube right now and treat yourself to Neil Shicoff singing "Kuda, kuda." Never done better than that)


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

_Boris Godunov_

These are my favourites

CD










DVD


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## Speranza (Nov 22, 2014)

Coq D'Or by Rimsky-Korsakov is pretty offbeat in my opinion


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Stravinsky's Le Rossignol, begun in 1908, before The Firebird and finished in 1914, after The Rite of Spring.


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## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

For Russian off beat, also look at Glinka, Prokofieff, Rimsky Korsakov, Borodin and Rachmaninov.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

There's also "The Nose" by Shostakovich. _Very_ "slightly off beat" indeed!


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I'm really enjoying this one.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

starthrower said:


> I'm really enjoying this one.


Faust is a great opera.


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