Well, to complete the MANON picture, I already mentioned in the French opera thread that Auber staged the first MANON LESCAUT, although I haven't heard his   Of the other two I have a sneaking preference for the Puccini - because I think he reveals the exploitative bitch who remains only latent in the Massenet version.

There are a series of operas about the life of Russian Tsar Peter I "the Great". Almost all of them concern themselves with Peter's third marriage to Marfa Skavronskaya (who took the name "Ekaterina I" on marriage).  Most of the librettists either didn't know, or didn't care, that she had been named Marfa at the time of the events in the plot.  This story of "merrie monarch marries flirtatious floozie" was excellent box-office material, of course.

Gretry's PIERRE LE GRAND is one of the earliest - a grimly uneven work, but with good arias for both Peter & Catharine.  Donizetti was the next out with this story - his first opera, composed as a graduation work, PIETRO IL GRANDE.  The story is more or less the same,  although the comic character of Prince Menshikov, Peter's libertine boon companion (a spoken role in the Gretry piece) disappears.  Mussorgsky's KHOVANSCHINA barely mentions Peter I as he is away (cavorting with Catherine) fighting in Finland, but his regal presence as the King who has allegedly caused all the troubles is felt throughout the piece.  Next up is Lortzing, whose ZAR UND ZIMMERMAN ("Tsar And Carpenter") is a rollicking comedy set in the docks in Holland...  Tsar Peter is believed to be working as a carpenter in the docks, to learn the skills of a shipwright.  A Russian carpenter, coincidentally named Peter, is believed - wrongly - to be the Tsar.  Meanwhile the real Tsar Peter is believed - wrongly - to be a carpenter.  Love, in the form of a soprano, settles the matter.  Finally we come back to French Opera, and L'ETOILE DU NORD (Meyerbeer). This has the Catherine story, but this time redone as a Bellini-style tragedy...   believing herself rejected by the King (who has gone to fight the Khovanskiyites) Catherine falls into a state of madness.  She can only be revived when (in a Mad Scene) of course, she hears the flute of her beloved Tsar (did I mention he now plays the flute?) and returns to consciousness and a chorus of thanksgiving that brings the final curtain down.

One subject - five operas. Ladies & Gentlemen, my hat is in the ring

I'm with you on MEFISTOFELE - it's a mixed bag, though, isn't it?  Extraordinarily advanced music in some places, and then in others he drifts off into the banal.

At the risk of allowing you to equal my High-5,  you've let a FAUST slip through your fingers... although it's pretty obscure  Louis Spohr set the piece in 1813  (although not performed until 1816, when the Prague Opera accepted it for performance).  Spohr tinkered with the score for his whole life, producing a revised version in the 1850s.   I know one aria only, for Margarita, which I've got somewhere in an anthology of German soprano arias - not bad at all,  I wonder what the rest is like?  I suppose I want it to be like Weber, but I fear it won't be

Totally forgot about Spohr.  If you include the story of Baucis and Philemon as part of the Faust legend (I know it comes from Ovid, but Goethe filches it), that brings in works by Haydn and Gounod, bringing Faust to six


Philip Glass?

That's already an impressive list, Mr B  I do know of one more, but I'm not sure if the genre is allowed?  Dargomyzhsky wrote a "Melodrama" called Orphee.  It's for male voice and orchestra, it mostly consists of declaimed poetry but there are one or two snatches of melody when the performer gives the words spoken by the characters.  Very unusual for its day, I think?  We did it at the RAM as a fringe event for THE MASK OF ORPHEUS, Nicholas Cleobury conducted, but we failed to make a recording


I'm afraid I've only heard the Overture

Edit: I take that back, I've also heard his LUSTIGE WEIBER VON WINDSOR, it's in rep at the Pokrovsky Opera here. Probably it's a nice work, but the musical standards are so poor at that theatre now that it's misery to hear them perform anything much...

What about the Cleopatra/Casear/ Mark Anthony saga? Plenty of operas there, but they don’t all deal with the same aspects of the story.

Barber – Antony and Cleopatra
Handel - Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Massenet – Cléopâtre
Cimarosa – Cleopatra
Johann Matheson – Cleopatra
Hasse - Antonio e Cleopatra
Graun - Cesare e Cleopatra

I’m very fond of the Massenet, as some here will know, and have it as my ‘neglected opera for the Proms’ nomination; some fantastic music there and good characterisation. I have heard the Barber, from a live account staged by Menotti, and that’s another work I’d like to see performed.

Very good, martle! The only one of those I know/ have seen is the Thomas Adès. Did you see this? Your opinion?

I saw the Ades (first time round). I had very mixed feelings about it, and felt that it was written in a big rush. For me, the libretto didn't work at all well, and was utterly enmired by the sing-songy rhyming couplets, so paltry in comparison to WS's rich poetry. It was also far too long. But some of the music (Ariel's songs, the final passacaglia quartet...) was just utterly beautiful, and very arresting and 'new'-sounding for Ades. To me, it (was) an opera in need of a big chubby blue pencil.

I've heard the Westergaard (he was a teacher of mine). It sets every single word of the play. Nuff said. And I know the Tippett well, of course.

And I saw the Berio when it was done at ROH in the 1990s, and was completely gobsmacked. It's extraordinarily beautiful, very, very interesting and it's a crime against Art that there isn't a 'proper' recording out there. The production was a rave success, as I remember.

And the evening was made even more special by Berio inviting me back to his pad for supper afterwards <smug grin>