Top 20 opera highlights by Hatstand Opera
We confess, we are suckers for those “Top 100” TV shows that list everything from gadgets to YouTube videos. So, we decided to create our own list based on our years of performing opera highlights across the UK.
This list may not have been voted for by the Great British Public, but it’s certainly heavily influenced by what we found most audiences enjoy – and ask us to sing again next time!
The figures are drawn from our performance database, in which we have recorded each performance we have sung since September 1998, and what music we sang at it. (We were performing from December 1992 onwards, but we didn’t have the software then!)
It’s interesting to see what has stood the test of time, and it’s not always what we expected either… So, here are the top 20 opera excerpts we have sung, and the number of times we have sung them!
title | opera | composer | no of times sung | |
1 | Champagne | Die Fledermaus | Strauss, J | 335 |
2 | Flower Duet | Lakmé | Delibes | 307 |
3 | Goodbye | The White Horse Inn | Stolz | 294 |
4 | Brindisi | la Traviata | Verdi | 287 |
5 | Quando m’en vo | La bohème | Puccini | 235 |
6 | La ci darem | Don Giovanni | Mozart | 228 |
7 | Barcarolle | The Tales of Hoffmann | Offenbach | 199 |
8 | O soave fanciulla | La bohème | Puccini | 190 |
9 | Seguidilla | Carmen | Bizet | 174 |
10 | Che gelida manina | La bohème | Puccini | 171 |
11 | Soave sia il vento | Cosi fan Tutte | Mozart | 158 |
12 | Prima Donna Trio | The Impressario | Mozart | 140 |
13 | Sull aria | The Marriage of Figaro | Mozart | 139 |
14 | Fly duet | Orpheus in the Underworld | Offenbach | 139 |
15 | Au fond du temple saint | The Pearl Fishers | Bizet | 135 |
16 | No I declare | The Merry Wives of Windsor | Nicolai | 130 |
17 | Nessun dorma | Turandot | Puccini | 130 |
18 | Chi il bel sogno | La Rondine | Puccini | 128 |
19 | Olga’s aria | Eugene Onegin | Tchaikovsky | 127 |
20 | Have a little priest | Sweeney Todd | Sondheim | 118 |
As you can see, the top composer honour goes to Puccini with five entries, and runner-up is Mozart with four entries. We might add that we have over 1000 items on our database, so your favourite might well be in there…