Opera Daily 🎶 — Your Greatest Hits (and a summer hiatus)

This week's Opera Daily features the most loved pieces we’ve covered throughout our journey together.

👋 Hello to the new Opera Daily subscribers who have joined us this week. I hope you’re sitting on a plushy couch with a warm beverage and enjoying your weekend. You can check out the complete Opera Daily archives and the playlist on YouTube for more selections. If you were forwarded this email by a friend, join us by subscribing here:

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When I started this newsletter, I aimed to help you find your greatest hits. 

It was simple—I wanted to introduce you to new pieces that you loved so you could build your collection.

However, after years of doing this, I realized that what I was really trying to share with all of you was how music, specifically opera, taught me how to listen.

In a world with so much going on—where we’re creating and accessing more content than ever and our lives are filled with infinite scrolling—there is an opportunity to stop and listen.

If you spend time with a piece of art and give it some effort, it will provide you with things that you could take into your own life without even realizing it. 

American composer Aaron Copland wrote about this idea in his book What to Listen for in Music:

There are three levels of listening to music: sensuous, expressive, and sheerly musical.

The sensuous level is the most basic but pleasurable level of enjoyment. This level of listening requires the least amount of brain power; therefore we usually engage this level when we use music as background music—to fill the silence in the room.

The expressive level requires some concentration, for we can feel some emotion from the music. Copland stresses that we may not be able to specify what we feel, but we know it is there.

Then there is the third level, the sheerly musical level. Most people do not reach this level, which consists of “the notes themselves and their manipulation”.

Professional musicians are aware of this level, but so much so that they lose the ability to enjoy it on the sensuous level. These levels are not used separately; instead all three levels of listening to music contribute to the musical experience.

He writes that we should be “not someone who is just listening, but someone who is listening for something”.

Before we get to our selections for today, I wanted to share with you that Opera Daily is going to be pausing for the summer. I hope to return in August (or sooner!) with more selections.

I thought today we might listen to the most loved pieces we’ve covered throughout our journey.

As a reminder, you can find all 378 selections we’ve shared since we began in one easy-to-access playlist on YouTube.

Can you please share your most loved pieces with us in the comments? I will add links to all of them in this post.

Here’s to our greatest hits and so much more. 🥂

Franco Corelli, “Vittoria! Vittoria!” from Tosca, Puccini

Renée Fleming, Christine Schäfer, Susan Graham, Trio from Act 3, from Der Rosenkavalier, Strauss

Tito Schipa, “Com'è gentil”, from Don Pasquale, Gaetano Donizetti

Mirella Freni and Luciano Pavarotti , “Suzel, buon dì…Tutto tace,” L’amico Fritz, Pietro Mascagni

Victoria de los Ángeles, “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”, Carmen, Georges Bizet

Maria Callas, “Inneggiamo, il Signor non è morto” (The Easter Hymn, Cavalleria Rusticana, Mascagni

Shirley Verrett, Nicolai Gedda, “Nuit d'ivresse et d'extase infinie”, Les Troyens, Hector Berlioz

Cecilia Bartoli, “Agitata da due venti”, Griselda, Antonio Vivaldi

Maria Callas, “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana”, La Wally, Alfredo Catalani 

Lawrence Brownlee, “Ah! mes mis, quel jour de fête!”, La Fille du Régiment, Gaetano Donizetti

Patrizia Ciofi, Véronique Gens, “The Letter Duet”, Le Nozze di Figaro, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Luciano Pavarotti, “Che gelida manina”, La bohème, Giacomo Puccini

Joan Sutherland, “Bel raggio lusingier,” Semiramide, Gioachino Rossini

Jussi Björling & Robert Merrill, “O fond du temple saint”, Les pêcheurs de perles, Georges Bizet

I wish you all a wonderful summer, and thank you again for reading (and commenting) every week. It's a pleasure to press "send" every Sunday. 

Grateful for your time and ears,

Michele

PS. Missed our last edition? We featured two arias from the Italian opera Norma by Vincenzo Bellini.

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