extracts from opera Tag

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…