My Favorite Opera Arias
Martin Rutte
Dear Heaven Maker:
We’re all spending more time at home. And if you’re like my wife and I, our TV and movie watching has skyrocketed.
She and I are also spending our time listening to and watching a passion of ours…opera.
If you’re thinking “I hate opera,” let me tell you a story.
At one time, I knew very little about opera. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t like. Oh yes, there were a few opera songs that I might know if I heard them on radio or as background for a film or tv show. But overall opera wasn’t for me.
Then I met my wife Maida. She loved opera. She’d actually been an opera singer, and she introduced me to this new world. I discovered the arias (songs), composers, and singers that I grew to love.
She also had me listen to the same aria sung by different people so I could appreciate which singers I loved, which singers I didn’t, and why.
Over the years I’ve developed a deep love of opera and when people discovered this they asked what arias and singers I recommended.
I started a ‘Favorites’ list and sent it out to people who asked for it. And I want to share the list with you.
I’ll begin with some of the more familiar arias. And throughout I’ve also added some comments.
Choosing your favorite opera singer is like choosing your favorite food. There’s always a great diversity of opinion.
Here’s my list.
Enjoy and let me know what you think.
Luciano Pavarotti (3 of his Best)
🎵 “Nessun Dorma” from Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot
🎵 “Che gelida manina” from Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème
🎵 “Un di all’azzurro spazio” from Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chenier
(I saw Maestro Pavarotti early in his career and late in his career. Both times I was transported to another dimension. For me, he simply was the best, by far, of the current era.)
Montserrat Caballé
🎵 “Signore Ascolta” from Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot
(She was referred to as La Superba. She is, for me, one of the finest sopranos ever.)
Jussi Björling & Robert Merrill
🎵 “Au Fond du Temple Saint” from Georges Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers)
(This is ‘The Standard’ for a male duet. No one, and I mean no one, comes even close. Listen for each voice singing separately and then listen as a ‘third voice’ emerges when they sing together…incredible!!) For years I’ve been searching for a female duet who set ‘The Standard’ and I finally found it:
Anna Netrebko & Elīna Garanča
🎵 “Barcarolle” from Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann
Jussi Björling
🎵 “Amor Ti Vieta” from Umberto Giordano’s Fedora
(This version is The Standard. He ‘keeps the musical line in the air, even in the pauses notice how it still keeps moving forward.
I’d also like you to hear 3 other top tenors singing this same aria, here. You’ve already heard Björling, so start at 1:54 and hear Luciano Pavarotti and then at 3:29 Mario Lanza. Which of the 3 tenors do you like best and why?)
Diana Damrau
🎵 “Queen of the Night Aria” from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute
In studio: (Watch what she does at the very end of the video.)
And, the same aria, sung by her in costume, on stage, in performance
(To see and hear the same woman sing the same song in these two very different settings is incredible.
I had the pleasure of hearing her sing in Paris and she signed autographs afterwards. She easily switched from French to German to English without hesitation.)
Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli
🎵 “In Questa Reggia” from Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot
(Birgit Nilsson could sink a battle ship with her voice. This role requires both a powerhouse voice and a presence, and she delivers the goods.)
Joan Sutherland, Franco Corelli, Nicolai Ghiaurov
🎵 “Ange Pur” from Charles Gounod’s Faust
(I remember the first time I heard this, years ago. I was transformed. I’d never heard anything like it before. Three singers who just kept taking me up and up and up. Most of the other selections on this list are videos but this is The Standard version so I had to include it.)
Jonas Kaufman & Kristine Opolais
🎵 “O Soave Fanciulla” from Giacomo Puccini’s La Boehme
(He starts off so STRONG and you think, she can’t possibly match him…but she does….and she also matches him in the quieter, pianissimo, moments. A fabulous duet.)
And here’s the very same duet song by the GIANTS of their day.
Renata Tebaldi & Jussi Björling
🎵 “O Suave Fanciulla”
“Ombra Mai Fu” (2 versions)
From Serse by George Fredrick Händel
🎵 Dmitri Hvorostovsky
And the same aria by
🎵 Fritz Wunderlich
(Listen especially to the opening note.)
(I go back and forth on these 2 versions…depending on the day, but I have to say my favorite is Wunderlich’s. I love to listen to it when I’m taking off on a plane.)
Teresa Berganza
🎵 “Voi Che Sapete” from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro
(I used to pretend to conduct my wife singing this aria. Funny thing is….she never obeyed!!!)
Liudmyla Monastyrska with Jonas Kaufmann
🎵 “Ah! lo vedi, chè” from Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana
(This will blow your socks off.)
Alfredo Kraus
🎵 “Je Crois Entende” from Georges Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers)
(He is simply mesmerizing. Every time I watch it I have to watch it again…I simply can not watch it only once.)
(I really, really love this aria. If you’d like to see 13 other versions of it go here)
Zinka Milanov
🎵 “Song to the Moon” (2 versions) From Antonin Dvorak’s Rusalka
(This was the first opera aria that my wife ever heard.
It transformed her life and she went on to study and sing opera.)
The same aria by Rene Fleming, here. (Rene floats it.)
Joan Sutherland
🎵 “Casta Diva” from Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma
(finish listening at 6:15)
(This is The Standard sung by ‘La Stupenda’.)
Montserrat Caballé
🎵 “Vissi d’arte” from Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca
(Her pianissimo (soft singing) at the end is World Class.)
And here is the same aria by
🎵 Maria Callas
(She sings it so totally differently and so distinctly Callas – strong, focused, unique.)
For any of the arias on this list, I invite you to go to YouTube and listen to other people singing the same aria and hear and feel the difference. Same aria, different singer, different experience.
These songs are not from operas but the singing is SENSATIONAL!!!
Sissel
🎵 “Pie Jesu” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem
(You’re listening to an angel singing.)
Roberto Alagne
🎵 “Le Marseillaise”
The French National Anthem
(Such power, strength, and pride.)
Red Army Choir, Boris Alexandrov
🎵 “Kalinka”
Leonid Kharitonov & The Red Army Choir
🎵 “Song of the Volga Boatmen”
Please share this beautiful music with one or two people.
Martin Rutte
