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: Dave’s Music Database: “Classical Works: Top 100” Dave’s Music Database: other best-of-genre lists First posted 9/11/2018; last updated 2/25/2026.

Today in Music (1607): Monteverdi's L'Orfeo performed for first time

L’Orfeo (Orpheus) Claudio Monteverdi

Composed: 1607 First Performed: February 24, 1607 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: classical > opera > late Renaissance/early baroque

Parts/Movements: Prologo: 1) Tocatta 2) Ritornello-Dal mio Permesso amato Act 1: 1) "In questo lieto e fortunato giorno" - "Vieni, Imeneo" - "Muse, onor di Parnasso" 2) "Lasciate i monti" - "Ma tu, gentil cantor" 3) "Rosa del ciel" - "Io non dirò qual sia" - "Lasciate i monti" - "Vieni, Imeneo" 4) "Ma se il nostro gioir" - "Ecco Orfeo" Act 2: 1) Sinfonia - "Ecco pur ch'a voi ritorno" 2) "Mira che sé n'alletta" - "Dunque fa degni, Orfeo" 3) Ritornello-Vi ricorda o bosch'ombrosi 4) "Ahi, caso acerbo" - "In un fiorito prato" 5) "Ahi, caso acerbo" - "Ma io, che in questa lingua" 6) "Chi ne consola, ahi lassi?" - "Ahi, caso acerbo" Act 3: 1) Sinfonia - "Scorto da te, mio nume" - "Ecco l'atra palude" - "Dove, ah, dove te'n vai" 2) "O tu ch'innanzi morte" 3) "Possente spirto" 4) "Ben mi lusinga" - "Ahi, sventurato amante" - Sinfonia - "Ei dorme" 5) Sinfonia-Nulla impresa per huom Act 4: 1) Signor, quel infelice - Benché severo - O degli abitator - Quali grazie ti rendo - Tue soavi parole 2) Pietade, oggi, e amore - Ecco il gentil cantor 3) "Qual onor di te" - "O dolcissimi lumi" - "Rotto hai" 4) "Ahi, vista troppo dolce" - "Torn'a l'ombra -Dove ten vai" 5) Sinfonia-É la virtite un raggio Act 5: 1) Ritornello-Questi i campi di Tracia 2) Sinfonia-Perch'a lo sdegno ed al dolor 3) Ritornello-Vanne Orfeo felice a pieno 4) Moresca Average Duration: 1.75 to 2.5 hours

Rating: 4.626 out of 5.00 (average of 6 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Work: Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo is “based on the Greek legend of Orpheus, and tells the story of his descent to Hades and his fruitless attempt to bring his dead bride Eurydice back to the living world.” WK “While Jacopo Peri's Dafne is generally recognised as the first work in the opera genre, and the earliest surviving opera is Peri's Euridice L'Orfeo is the earliest that is still regularly performed.” WK “By the early 17th century the traditional intermedio—a musical sequence between the acts of a straight play—was evolving into the form of a complete musical drama or "opera". Monteverdi's L'Orfeo moved this process out of its experimental era and provided the first fully developed example of the new genre.” WK “It was written in 1607 for a court performance during the annual Carnival at Mantua.” WK It “was staged again in Mantua, and possibly in other Italian centres in the next few years. Its score was published by Monteverdi in 1609 and again in 1615. After the composer’s death in 1643 the opera went unperformed for many years, and was largely forgotten until a revival of interest in the late 19th century led to a spate of modern editions and performances. At first these performances tended to be concert (unstaged) versions within institutes and music societies, but following the first modern dramatised performance in Paris, in 1911, the work began to be seen in theatres. After the Second World War many recordings were issued, and the opera was increasingly staged in opera houses, although some leading venues resisted it. In 2007, the quatercentenary of the premiere was celebrated by performances throughout the world.” WK In his published score Monteverdi lists around 41 instruments to be deployed, with distinct groups of instruments used to depict particular scenes and characters. Thus strings, harpsichords and recorders represent the pastoral fields of Thrace with their nymphs and shepherds, while heavy brass illustrates the underworld and its denizens. Composed at the point of transition from the Renaissance era to the Baroque, L'Orfeo employs all the resources then known within the art of music, with particularly daring use of polyphony. The work is not orchestrated as such; in the Renaissance tradition instrumentalists followed the composer's general instructions but were given considerable freedom to improvise.” WK

Reviews: WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 8/26/2018; last updated 6/27/2025.