Best opera

[ATOB2]

I want to go to the opera for the first time. What is the best opera to cut my teeth on?

[bazzer]

Try "The Pirates of Penzance" by Gilbert and Sullivan. It's not too long, there's talking as well as singing, it's in English and the story is quite simple. You may even recognise a few of the songs as there has been a Hollywood and Broadway version, I think Kevin Kline was in one. Basically, it about a bloke who was apprenticed by accident to a pirate instead of a ship's pilot until his 21st birthday. Having decided to leave the pirate group on that day, he tells them he will try to have them locked up. By a quirk of fate, he was born on 29th February so he will be about 84 when he is finally allowed to leave. There's a bit of romance, a few sub plots and a happy ending.

[Luonnotar]

Pirates of Penzance would put me off opera for life. Its nothing but Tum te Tum from beginning to end, and anyway its an operetta. Alban Berg's Wozzeck blew me away the first time I heard it. OK its not easy listening but the force of the music and the taut dramatic structure will make that objection immaterial. I always think it speaks more directly, with a plot that that could have come out of one of the grittier soaps. But for sheer enchantment try the Magic Flute or Maurice Ravel's L'Enfant et Les Sortileges. The latter is about a naughty child whose victims - the family cat, thedragon fly whose wings he's pulled off etc - all rise up against him. I'm always moved by the the final chord when the chastened child is reunited with his mother. If you come to opera from musicals, give Stravinsky's The Rakes Progress a try. I say this because the arias are as immediately memorable as many show tunes. Check out the auctioneers patter scene. The opera is a iake on the Faust legend, and the scene when the devil demands the Rakes soul is a real spine tingler. He almost gets taken down to hell but is saved by the love of his jilted sweetheart

[Alison Moran]

Andy Hughes recommends anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

[Alison Moran]

Personally, I'd push you in the direction of Madam Butterfly if you're taking a bird and want to pull by being romantic (if indeed, you are male or lesbian). Have a hanky handy to dab that river of mascara (hers, yours or both). Otherwise, Mozart's Magic Flute incorporates the highest soprano note in the main aria and is fairly easy ear-candy for a beginner.

[COLLYWOBBLES]

Don Giovanni is good if you see a good production of it but that goes for any opera i suppose. Any Mozart will be ok ( he wrote the Magic Flute) Alternatively you have probably heard alot of excerps from operas by Puccini without even realising it so maybe that would be a good place to start. The Opera can be daunting at first so you should ease yourself in with a bit of familiarity. (Puccini wrote Madame Butterfly By the way)

[Robpyatt]

Although often frowned upon by "Proper" opera people, any of the Gilbert & Sullivan works are quite a good start. I, however would recommend "Carmen" by Bizet. If you can't find a version performed in English, make sure you get a guide from the internet befopre you go to help you through the plot.