Showing posts with label Carmen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carmen. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Top 50 Operas of All Time

Opera:

The Top 50

This list was created, as are most DMDB lists, by aggregating multiple best-of lists, both those focused specifically on opera and those on all albums/works regardless of genre, alongside sales, chart data, and album ratings. Here are the results:

Check out other best-of-genre/category lists here.

1. Richard Wagner The Ring Cycle (Der Ring Des Nibelungen) (1874)
2. George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, & Dubose Heyward Porgy and Bess (1935)
3. Georges Bizet Carmen (1875)
4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) (1786)
5. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Don Giovanni (1787)
6. Richard Wagner Tristan Und Isolde (1859)
7. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) (1791)
8. Giacomo Puccini La Bohème (The Bohemian Life) (1896)
9. Giacomo Puccini Tosca (1900)
10. Gioacchino Rossini Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) (1816)

11. Giuseppe Verdi La Traviata (The Fallen Woman) (1853)
12. Claudio Monteverdi L’Orfeo (Orpheus) (1607)
13. Giacomo Puccini Turandot (1926)
14. Giuseppe Verdi Rigoletto: La Donna È Mobile (1851)
15. Giuseppe Verdi Aida (1871)
16. Henry Purcell Dido and Aeneas (1689)
17. Ludwig van Beethoven Fidelio (1805)
18. Giacomo Puccini Madama Butterfly (Madame Butterfly) (1904)
19. Vincenzo Bellini Norma (1831)
20. Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) (1911)

21. Claudio Monteverdi L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppaea) (1642)
22. Alban Berg Wozzeck (1922)
23. George Friedrich Händel Julius Caesar in Egypt (Giulio Cesare in Egitto) (1724)
24. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Cosí Fan Tutte (Thus Do They All) (1790)
25. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) (1781)
26. Luciano Pavarotti with Placido Domingo & Jose Carreras The Three Tenors in Concert/Mehta (live: 1990)
27. Andrea Bocelli Romanza (1997)
28. Gaetano Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor (1911)
29. Christoph Willibald Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice (Orpheus and Eurydice) (1762)
30. Gaetano Donizetti L'Elisir d'Amore (The Elixir of Love) (1873)

31. Gioacchino Rossini Guillaume Tell (William Tell) (1829)
32. Giuseppe Verdi Otello (1887)
33. Richard Wagner Lohengrin (1850)
34. Modest Mussorgsky Boris Godunov (1873)
35. Giuseppi Verdi Il Trovatore (The Troubador) (1853)
36. Richard Wagner Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg (The Master-Singers of Nuremburg) (1868)
37. Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin (1879)
38. Giuseppe Verdi Don Carlos (1867)
39. Charles Gounod Faust (1859)
40. Richard Wagner Der Fliegende Hollander (aka “The Flying Dutchman”) (1843)

41. Claude Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande (1902)
42. Richard Wagner Tannhauser (1845)
43. Giuseppe Verdi Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar) (1842)
44. Giuseppe Verdi Falstaff (1893)
45. Pietro Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) (1890)
46. Rugerro Leoncavallo Pagliacci (The Clowns) (1892)
47. Jules Massenet Manon (1884)
48. Richard Strauss Salome (1905)
49. Amilcare Ponchilelli La Gioconda (1876)
50. Richard Strauss Elektra (1909)

Resources and Related Links:

First posted 9/11/2018; last updated 2/25/2026.

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Monday, March 3, 1975

Today in Music (1875): Bizet's Carmen premiered

Carmen

Georges Bizet (composer)

Composed: 1873-74

First Performed: March 3, 1875

Peak: 18 UK

Sales (in millions): --

Genre: classical > opera

Parts/Movements:

  1. No. 1, Prelude [Les Toréadors]

    Act I:

  2. No. 2, "Sur la place, chacun passe" (Soldats)
  3. No. 3, "Avec la garde montante" (Chorus des Gamins)
  4. No. 4a, "La Cloche a sonne, nous des ouvrieres" (Jeunes Gens) (Chrous of Cigarette Girls)
  5. No. 4b, "La voila! Voila la Carmencita!" (Tous)
  6. No. 5, "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" (Habanera) (Carmen w/Chorus)
  7. No. 6, "Carmen! sur tes pas" (Les Jeunes Gens)
  8. No. 7, "Parle-moi de ma mere!" (Don Jose)
  9. No. 8, "Au secours!" (Chorus)
  10. No. 9, "Voyons, brigadier"
  11. No. 10a, "Pres des remparts de Seville" (Seguidilla) (Carmen)
  12. No. 10b, "Voice l'orde" (Zuniga)

    Act II:

  13. No. 11a, "Entr'acte" [Les Dragons d'Alcala]
  14. No. 11b, "Les tringles des sistres tintaient" (Gypsy Song) (Carmen)
  15. No. 11c, "Danse bohemienne"
  16. No. 11d, "Vous avez quelque chose"
  17. No. 12a, "Vivat, vivat le torero!" (Chorus)
  18. No. 12b, "Votre toast... je peux vous le rendre" (Toreador's Song) (Escamillo)
  19. No. 13, "Nous avons en tete une affaire!" (Dancaire)
  20. No. 14, "Halte-la! Qui va la?" (Don Jose)
  21. No. 15a, "Je vais danser en votre honneur" (Carmen)
  22. No. 15b, "Au quartier! pour l'appel" (Carmen)
  23. No. 15c, "La fleur que tu ma'vais jetee" (Flower Song) (Don Jose)
  24. No. 15d, "Non! tu ne ma'aimes pas!" (Carmen)
  25. No. 16, "Hola! Carmen!" (Zuniga)

    Act III:

  26. No. 17a, "Entr'acte" [Intermezzo]
  27. No. 17b, "Ecoute, compagnon, ecoute" (Les Contrebandiers)
  28. No. 17c, "Notre metier est bon" (Les Six)
  29. No. 18a, "Melons! Coupons!" (Card Scene) (Mercedes, Frasquita)
  30. No. 18b, "Voyons, que f'essaie a mon tour"
  31. No. 18c, "En vain, pour eviter les reponses ameres" (Carmen)
  32. No. 19, "Quant au douanier c'est notre affaire" (Carmen, Mercedes, Frasquita et Femmes)
  33. No. 20, "Je dis que rien ne m'epouvante" (Micaela's Aria) [Nocturne]
  34. No. 21, "Je suis Escamillo" (Escamillo)

    Act IV:

  35. No. 22a, "Entr'acte" [Aragonaise]
  36. No. 22b, "A deux cuartos!" (Chorus)
  37. No. 23, "Les voici, voici la quadrille" (Chorus) [Les Toréadors]
  38. No. 24, "Si tu m'aimes, Carmen" (Escamillo)
  39. No. 25, "C'est toi!", Final Duet (Carmen, Don Jose)

Average Duration: 148:50

Rating:

4.079 out of 5.00 (average of 7 ratings)

Quotable:

A “cornerstone item in any opera collection” – AllMusic.com

Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

About the Work:

Carmen is “one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon.” WK Bizet based the four-act opera on a Prosper Mérimée novella of the same name with a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. WK The four-act opera is “written in the genre of opéra comique with musical numbers separated by dialogue.” WK “The music of Carmen has since been widely acclaimed for brilliance of melody, harmony, atmosphere, and orchestration, and for the skill with which Bizet musically represented the emotions and suffering of his characters.” WK

The story, set in southern Spain, documents “the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by…the fiery gypsy Carmen. José abandons his childhood sweetheart and deserts…yet loses Carmen…to the glamorous matador Escamillo, after which José kills her in a jealous rage.” WK

Initially, Parisian critics condemned the opera “for its overt sexuality and graphic final scene.” WK However, “the depictions of proletarian life, immorality, and lawlessness, and the tragic death of the main character on stage, broke new ground in French opera and were highly controversial.” WK Eventually, it “intrigued a number of sophisticated minds and ultimately reached the public in a way that perhaps no other opera has.” AM “It is ironic that Bizet composed one of music’s most evocative landscapes of Spain without ever having been there.” AM

It was first performed on March 3, 1875 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. WK Bizet sadly died after the 33rd performance, missing the international acclaim it would achieve in the next decade.

Reviews:

Related DMDB Links:

Last updated 2/24/2026.

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