1 L'Orfeo

Claudio Monteverdi Mantua, Italy, c1607

With a mythological musician as hero, L'Orfeo
ranks as the first great opera. Monteverdi was the
"founding father" of operatic form. Euridice dies
from a snake bite. The sorrowful Orpheus, through
his music, tries to save her from the Underworld. A popular operatic subject
(Gluck, Jaques Offenbach, Philip Glass), L'Orfeo is emotional, melancholy and
transcendent.

Dido and Aeneas

Henry Purcell London, UK, 1689

A lone English operatic success until the 20th

century, Dido recounts the tale of the tragic Queen of
Carthage and her love for Aeneas, inconveniently en
route to found a new Troy. In addition to sailors and
witches, Purcell gave us one of the most sublime laments in
opera: Dido's When I Am Laid in Earth.

3 Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar)

George Frideric Handel London, UK, 1724
An epic of love and war often considered Handel's
finest work, Giulio Cesare has a richly intricate plot
and the bonus of a brilliantly characterised and
outrageously seductive Cleopatra (see
Glyndebourne's Opus Arte DVD with the dancing Danielle de Niese as Cleo).
Caesar, written for castrato, is often sung by a countertenor. Other good
Handel: Rinaldo, Radamisto, Tamerlano, Rodelinda, Ariodante, Alcina.

4 Serse (Xerxes)
Handel London, UK, 1738

Opens with one of Handel's best known arias, Ombra Mai Fu,
sung by Serse, King of Persia, in honour of a plane tree and its
shade. A plot of jealousy, infidelity and treachery results in a
cocktail of bravura music. ENO's 1992 production by Nicholas
Hytner helped put Handel's
operas back on the map.

5 Orfeo ed Euridice
and Eurydice)

(Orpheus
Christoph
Austria, 1762

Willibald Gluck Vienna,

Written in Italian, this intense drama was later revised as the French Orphe.
A mix of old and new styles, poised at the birth of Romanticism, this is
regarded as one of the key operas of the 18th century. Maria Callas made J'ai
Perdu Mon Eurydice a stand-alone hit.

6 Idomeneo
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Munich, Germany,
1781
Not one of the composer's best known, this opera
seria is treasured by Mozartians as containing some
of his greatest operatic music, hinting at glories yet to come. Despite
its imperfections as drama and a too neat happy ending, Mozart's retelling of
the story of the King of Crete forced to sacrifice his son has slowly earned its
status as a masterpiece.

7 Le Nozze di Figaro (The

Marriage of Figaro)
Mozart Vienna, Austria, 1786
Together with Don Giovanni and Cosi fan Tutte, which
make up Mozart's trio of masterpieces with libretti by
Da
Ponte, Figaro is for many the perfect opera: a
balance
of wit, humanity and astounding, glorious music.
Others find it too long, and the garden scene dreary. The Queen called it "the
one about the [lost] pin".

8 Die Zauberflte (The Magic Flute)

Mozart Vienna, Austria, 1791

The monstrous Queen of the Night, the birdcatcher Papageno, lovers,

philosophy, Freemasonry The Magic Flute has it all. The music is ravishing,
some of it probably familiar. Its prominent use of dialogue makes it a
challenge to stage. Despite appearances, it's not as easy for children as it may
look; wait a while. Mozart died only weeks after completing it.

Barber of Seville)

9 Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The

Gioachino Rossini Rome, Italy, 1816

Pure, inane, fizzing delight, ferociously difficult to sing: The Barber of Seville,
written in a fortnight by a composer who had penned 35 operas by the age of
37 then abruptly retired, tops the list of all operatic comedies. It includes the
famous Figaro-here, Figaro-there Largo Al Factotum. Check out the
Royal Opera House DVD with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato.

10 Guillaume Tell (William Tell)

Gioachino Rossini Paris, France, 1829
The William Tell overture is one of the most famous pieces of classical music.
Yet Rossini's enormous, final opera, involving the fight for Swiss freedom,
remains a rarity despite thrilling arias and exciting choruses. A BBC Proms
performance and a new EMI CD conducted by Antonio Pappano may restore
interest.

1 Norma
Vincenzo Bellini Milan, Italy, 1831
Boasting the famous Casta Diva aria, Norma is the ultimate bel canto tragedy
about a druid priestess who, secretly, has two children and an erring lover,
with catastrophic results. Bellini's extravagant, melodic operas Il Pirata, La
Sonnambula provide a musical stepping stone from Rossini to Verdi.

2 L'Elisir d'Amore (The Elixir of

Love)
Gaetano Donizetti Milan, Italy, 1832
Frequently performed and a cheerfully reassuring first step into opera, this is
the comic tale of the fraudulent quack Dulcamara who dupes the poor,
lovesick Nemorino with his "elixir"; melodic, witty, heart-warming and
touchingly silly. The exuberant and prolific Donizetti's sharp humour is at play
in the shrewish character of the love object, Adina.

3 Lucia di Lammermoor
Gaetano Donizetti Naples, Italy, 1835
No one provides a better coloratura "mad scene" a 19th-century Romantic
opera habit than Donizetti in Lucia, based on Walter Scott's The Bride of

Lammermoor. Scott's novels were all the rage in Europe, with 16 turned into
operas by, among others, Bellini, Rossini and Bizet.

4 Rigoletto
Giuseppe Verdi Venice, Italy, 1851
Verdi, one of opera's greats, had a long career. For many his Egyptian Aida is
an ideal first opera. For dramatic intensity, Rigoletto compact, tuneful,
melodramatic is even better. The hunchback prompts pity when he tries to
protect his daughter. It's never been the same since ENO's 1982 "Mafioso"
staging had the Duke singing La Donna e Mobile at a jukebox in a diner.

5 La Traviata
Giuseppe Verdi Venice, Italy, 1853
Perhaps Verdi's most performed work, La Traviata contains all the elements of
operatic addiction: a beautiful, consumptive, fallen-woman heroine, grand
Parisian party scenes, the travails of love, a troubled father and a deathbed
scene, all set to Verdi's faultless score. Hard to beat.

6 Don Carlos/ Don Carlo

Giuseppe Verdi Paris, France, 1867

Known in both its French and Italian versions, this enormous five-act work
based on Schiller shows Verdi at the height of his powers. Politics, kingship,
heresy, adultery and love combine with incomparable pomp and solemnity,
with a score to match. The bass role of King Philip II of Spain is one of opera's
loneliest.

7 Falstaff
Giuseppe Verdi Milan, Italy, 1893
Like Otello (written in a final, brilliant outpouring in 1887), Falstaff after
Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor is a Verdian favourite among buffs,
though some find its quixotic, quick-fire charms less beguiling. Knowledge of
the final fugue, celebrating the folly of the human condition (Tutto nel Mondo)
is essential to any opera lover's armament.

8 Pagliacci
Ruggero Leoncavallo Milan, Italy, 1892
Considered the stronger half of the popular "Cav and Pag"
double bill, Pagliacci (the clowns) is Leoncavallo's one
surviving hit, usually paired with Mascagni's Cavalleria
Rusticana. Pag cleverly uses a commedia dell'arte troupe to
enact averismo tragedy. Top tenors love to sing the brokenhearted clown's Vesti la Giubba (Put On the Motley).

9 La Bohme
Giacomo Puccini Turin, Italy, 1896
If Puccini himself cried after composing the final scene of
Bohme, one of the most adored of all operas, how can the
rest of us resist? Mimi, the Bohemian seamstress of the title,
her poet lover Rodolfo and their destitute Parisian friends
capture the pains and pleasures of young love in an attic.

10 Tosca

Giacomo Puccini Rome, Italy, 1900

Dubbed a "shabby little shocker", Tosca opens with
three crashing orchestral chords and never lets up
until the opera-singer heroine, having stabbed the
villain Scarpia and watched her artist-lover
Cavaradossi die, leaps to her own death. Her Vissi
d'arte and Cavaradossi's E Lucevan le Stelle
epitomise opera's power to stir passion. Famous
Toscas: Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Angela Gheorgiu.