Top 50 operas

These operas span four centuries and give a flavour of repertoire's huge range and variety• Listen to a Guardian playlist of these operas1 L'Orfeo Claudio Monteverdi Mantua, Italy, c1607With 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 Gla...

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