Essential Opera

19 selections · Stage Door Society Editorial

A carefully curated journey through the operatic canon — from Mozart's divine comedies to Puccini's devastating final act. These are the works that every serious arts patron must know, each one a universe unto itself.

Opera

La Bohème

Giacomo Puccini · 1896

On a freezing Christmas Eve in a Parisian garret, four impoverished bohemians—a poet, painter, philosopher, and musician—navigate love, poverty, and artistic dreams. When the poet Rodolfo meets Mimì, a delicate seamstress from the neighboring apartment, they fall passionately in love, only to be tested by jealousy, circumstance, and Mimì's grave illness. Set against the vibrant backdrop of the Latin Quarter's cafés and streets, this achingly human opera captures the bittersweet beauty of youth, romance, and the cruel indifference of fate.

Opera

Tosca

Giacomo Puccini · 1900

In Puccini's masterpiece of operatic passion and political intrigue, the celebrated soprano Tosca becomes entangled in a deadly game of power when Rome's tyrannical Police Chief Scarpia demands her body in exchange for her lover Cavaradossi's life. Set against the backdrop of Napoleonic Rome, this verismo tragedy unfolds across a church, a palace, and a fortress, culminating in acts of desperation, betrayal, and ultimate sacrifice. A searing exploration of love, corruption, and the price of freedom, Tosca remains one of opera's most visceral and dramatically compelling works.

Opera

Carmen

Georges Bizet · 1875

In Seville, the seductive Romani factory worker Carmen captivates the naïve soldier Don José with her untamable spirit and sensuality, luring him away from his duty and childhood sweetheart Micaëla. As José descends into obsession, Carmen's affections shift to the charismatic bullfighter Escamillo, setting the stage for a tragic confrontation between love, jealousy, and fate. Bizet's masterpiece combines Spanish passion with operatic grandeur, exploring themes of desire and the destructive power of unbridled emotion.

Opera

La traviata

Giuseppe Verdi · 1853

Violetta Valéry, a celebrated Parisian courtesan of wit and independence, encounters the earnest young Alfredo Germont and discovers a love that transcends her gilded but hollow existence. As their passion deepens, Alfredo's father demands she renounce their affair to preserve his family's honor, forcing Violetta into an agonizing choice between personal happiness and societal duty. In a tragic denouement, she sacrifices everything for love, only to find redemption in death.

Opera

Don Giovanni

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1787

Mozart's masterpiece of seduction and damnation follows the libertine Don Giovanni as he pursues conquest across Seville, leaving a trail of betrayed women and vengeful suitors in his wake. When he mockingly invites the statue of a murdered nobleman to dinner, the supernatural reckoning arrives—a darkly comic meditation on desire, honor, and divine retribution that blends comedy with existential terror.

Opera

The Marriage of Figaro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1786

On his wedding day, the clever valet Figaro discovers that his master, the Count Almaviva, intends to exercise his feudal right to seduce Figaro's bride Susanna. As the Count pursues his designs with cunning and persistence, Figaro and Susanna—aided by the Countess and her page Cherubino—orchestrate an elaborate scheme of disguises and deceptions to outwit the aristocrat. In a night of escalating chaos and mistaken identities, the servants ultimately triumph, exposing the Count's infidelity and forcing him to beg his wife's forgiveness.

Opera

Rigoletto

Giuseppe Verdi · 1851

At the licentious court of the Duke of Mantua, the Duke's hunchbacked jester Rigoletto mocks the cuckolded husbands of his master's conquests, earning their bitter hatred. When the nobleman Count Monterone curses both the Duke and Rigoletto for seducing his daughter, the jester becomes obsessed with revenge—only to discover that his own innocent daughter Gilda has fallen in love with the very Duke he seeks to destroy. In a tragic denouement, Rigoletto's plot to assassinate the Duke backfires catastrophically, and he is left to mourn the death of his beloved child, the curse fulfilled.

Musical Theatre

Aida

Jim Barne, Kit Buchan · 2023

In ancient Egypt, the warrior Radamès loves Aida, an enslaved Ethiopian princess, unaware of her true identity. When he is chosen to lead the Egyptian army against Ethiopia, Aida's father—the Ethiopian king—commands her to betray Radamès for her homeland. Torn between love and loyalty, Aida's anguished choice sets in motion a tragedy of impossible devotion, culminating in a final act of transcendent sacrifice.

Opera

Madama Butterfly

Giacomo Puccini · 1904

A young Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, marries an American naval officer, Pinkerton, believing their union to be eternal, while he views it as a temporary arrangement. Years pass as she waits faithfully for his return, bearing his child in secret, only to discover he has remarried and intends to claim their son. In a devastating climax, Butterfly chooses death over dishonor, leaving her child to his American father.

Opera

Turandot

Giacomo Puccini · 1926

In ancient Peking, the beautiful and ruthless Princess Turandot has sworn never to marry, condemning all suitors who fail her three riddles to death. When the exiled Prince Calaf arrives and falls instantly in love with her, he accepts the challenge, determined to win her heart. As Calaf solves the riddles and claims his prize, the opera explores the transformative power of love against a backdrop of imperial grandeur and tragic sacrifice.

Opera

Die Zauberflöte

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1791

A young prince embarks on a perilous quest to rescue a maiden from the clutches of darkness, guided by a magical flute and an unlikely bird-catcher companion. As Tamino penetrates the mysteries of an enlightened temple, he discovers that truth and virtue demand trials of fire and water, while the forces of night conspire to reclaim what they have lost. A transcendent fusion of fairy tale enchantment and Enlightenment ideals, where love, wisdom, and brotherhood triumph over chaos and deception.

Opera

Norma

Vincenzo Bellini · 1831

In occupied Gaul, the high priestess Norma has shattered her sacred vows by bearing two children with the Roman proconsul Pollione, who now abandons her for the young priestess Adalgisa. As the Druid people cry for war against their oppressors, Norma's private anguish and public duty collide in a tragedy of love, betrayal, and ultimate sacrifice. Bellini's masterpiece of bel canto lyricism transforms this classical conflict into an unforgettable meditation on passion and redemption.

Opera

Il trovatore

Giuseppe Verdi · 1853

A troubadour soldier and a noble lady are bound by passionate love, yet torn apart by the machinations of a jealous count and a dark family secret that binds the troubadour to a vengeful Romani woman. As war rages and identities unravel, passion and fate collide in Verdi's most dramatically intense masterpiece, culminating in tragedy born from a curse that spans generations.

Opera

Lucia di Lammermoor

Gaetano Donizetti · 1835

A young Scottish noblewoman, Lucia, finds herself ensnared between her passionate love for Edgardo di Ravenswood—sworn enemy of her family—and her brother's ruthless manipulation, orchestrated through forged letters and threats of ruin. When Edgardo departs for France and Lucia is deceived into believing him faithless, she is coerced into marriage with another man, only to have her beloved return at the wedding feast, shattering all hope. The tragedy culminates in madness, murder, and death, as Lucia's fragile spirit succumbs to the cruelty of circumstance and family ambition.

Opera

Der Rosenkavalier

Richard Strauss · 1911

In the glittering salons of 18th-century Vienna, the aging Marschallin and her youthful lover Octavian are interrupted by the arrival of her boorish cousin, Baron Ochs, who seeks to marry the beautiful Sophie von Faninal for her wealth. When Octavian, disguised as a chambermaid, presents the ceremonial silver rose to Sophie, the young couple fall passionately in love, setting in motion a cascade of intrigue, deception, and comic chaos. Strauss's masterpiece explores the bittersweet passage of time, the transformative power of love, and the social pretensions of Viennese aristocracy through shimmering waltzes and soaring vocal lines.

Opera

Tristan und Isolde

Richard Wagner · 1865

A knight and princess fall into forbidden love via a magical potion, exploring desire and death in Wagner's revolutionary masterpiece.

Opera

Otello

Giuseppe Verdi · 1887

Verdi's shattering tragedy follows Otello, a Moorish general whose marriage to the Venetian noblewoman Desdemona becomes a crucible of jealousy and manipulation. The malevolent Iago, consumed by resentment, orchestrates a campaign of psychological destruction, planting false evidence of infidelity that transforms Otello's love into murderous rage. As suspicion metastasizes into certainty, the general descends into madness, culminating in a devastating act of irreversible violence. This operatic apotheosis of Shakespeare's masterpiece stands as Verdi's most psychologically penetrating work, a study in the annihilation of the human soul.

Opera

La Cenerentola

Gioachino Rossini · 1817

Rossini's sparkling reimagining of Cinderella strips away magic in favor of virtue triumphant. Angelina, a gentle stepdaughter enslaved by her pompous father Don Magnifico and his vain daughters, captures the heart of Prince Ramiro, who disguises himself as a valet to discover a bride of true character. Through wit, charm, and unwavering goodness, Cenerentola transcends her servitude to claim her rightful place—and the Prince's devotion.

Opera

The Barber of Seville

Gioachino Rossini · 1816

In sun-drenched Seville, the resourceful barber Figaro becomes the unlikely architect of romance when he aids the lovesick Count Almaviva in his pursuit of the spirited Rosina, ward of the miserly Doctor Bartolo. Through wit, disguise, and audacious scheming, the unlikely conspirators outwit the elderly guardian and his scheming music master, Don Basilio, in a whirlwind of mistaken identities and comic chaos. The opera celebrates the triumph of youth, love, and cunning over age, greed, and propriety—all set to some of the most exuberant and infectious melodies in the operatic canon.

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