Opera Excursions (Part Two)

After finishing my Verdi binge, I felt in the mood for a little change of atmosphere. I half-retract my antipathy towards Mussorgsky to say that Boris Godunov is quite interesting. Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar is also very much worth listening to. Most of all, though, I have been more than pleasantly surprised by Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mlada. I came across it by accident, having never heard of the opera before, but what a lucky find it was! The soaring instrumental interludes and forceful choruses are without a doubt some of the best in the genre.

Appropriately to my current surroundings, I have spent many an evening replaying Turandot, which got me into another opera binge. There can be little argument over Turandot, Madame Butterfly, Gianni Schicchi, La Boheme, and Tosca belonging to the pinnacle of Puccini’s oeuvre, but I have found that none of his other operas disappoint. La Rondine and Suor Angelica stand out in particular as underappreciated treasures.  

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