Essential Opera - Premium Quality Opera Glasses for Theater, Concerts & Performances | Perfect for Opera Enthusiasts & Classical Music Lovers

The title has a nice ring to it, but "Essential Opera" does not exactly provide the twelves most important, greatest, or even most recognizable highlights from the history of opera. What it does present are twelve highlights performed by the proverbial galaxy of stars:1. Prelude to Act I from Bizet's "Carmen," performed by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra conducted by James Levine.2. "Largo al factotum" from Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia," sung by Leo Nucci at the Metropolitan Opera.3. "Un bel di" from Puccini's "Madama Butterfly," sung by Mirella Freni as part of a Unitel Production.4. "La fleur que tu m'avais jetee" from Bizet's "Carmen," sung by Placido Domingo as part of a Unitel Production.5. "Gloria all'Egitto" (Grand March and Ballet) from Verdi's "Aida," performed by the Metropolitan Opera conducted by James Levine.6. "Nessun dorma" from Puccini's Turandot, sung by Luciano Pavarotti at a concert.7. "Voi che sapete" from Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro," sung by Maria Ewing as part of a Unitel Production.8. "Che gelida manina" from Puccini's "La Boheme," sung by Gianni Raimondi as part of a Unitel Production.9. "Intermezzo" from Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana," conducted by Georges Pretre as part of a Unitel Production.10. "Vissi d'arte" from Puccini's "Tosca," sung by Raina Kabaivanska as part of a Unitel Production.11. "Bella figlia dell'amore" from Verdi's "Rigoletto," sung by Joan Sutherland, Isola Jones, Luciano Pavarotti, and Leo Nucci at the Metropolitan Opera.12. "Non piangere Liu" from Puccini's "Turandot," sung by Placido Domingo, Leona Mitchell and Paul Plishka at the Metropolitan Opera.I was familiar with all of the pieces except the last one (Pavarotti has been doing "Nessun dorma" as his encore piece for decades but it is not like "Turandot" has become part of the standard repertoire), but when you listen to part of "The Anvil Chorus" during the end credits you start to second guess the selections. But then there is a second volume of "Essential Opera," which may well have those "essentials" that are missing on this tape. Just off the top of my head I would say that you want one of the soprano aria's from "Carmen" and not a tenor piece, there are much better choices for a single Mozart selection, and if you have Joan Sutherland singing it should be something from "Lucia di Lammermoor" (the "Mad Scene" or at least the Sextet).The mix of stage and film performances works well. "Madama Butterfly" sung outside is effective and the staging of the Grand March from "Aida" and the scene from "Turandot" are visually stunning. It is amazing how many people they can get on the stage of the Met. The end result is a nice sampler of pieces and if the selections could be improved that does not take away from its overall effectiveness in giving viewers a taste of several major operas. The assumption would be that after seeing one of these scenes you might be interested in catching the entire work, most of which are available on videotape.