Carmen

José arrives with the new guard, which is greeted and imitated by a crowd of urchins ("Avec la garde montante").

As the factory bell rings, the cigarette girls emerge and exchange banter with young men in the crowd ("La cloche a sonné"). Carmen enters and sings her provocative habanera on the untameable nature of love ("L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"). The men plead with her to choose a lover, and after some teasing she throws a flower to Don José, who thus far has been ignoring her but is now annoyed by her insolence.

A month has passed. Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercédès are entertaining Zuniga and other officers ("Les tringles des sistres tintaient") in Pastia's inn. Carmen is delighted to learn of José's release from a month's detention. Outside, a chorus and procession announces the arrival of the toreador Escamillo ("Vivat, vivat le Toréro"). Invited inside, he introduces himself with the "Toreador Song" ("Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre") and sets his sights on Carmen, who brushes him aside. Lillas Pastia hustles the crowds and the soldiers away.

Tales of Hoffman Act 3 (Giulietta)

Venice. The act opens with the barcarolle "Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour." Hoffmann falls in love with the courtesan Giulietta and thinks she returns his affections…"Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour" (often referred to as the "Barcarolle") is a piece from The Tales of Hoffmann, 's final . A duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano, it is considered the most famous barcarolle ever written[1] and described in the Grove Book of as "one of the world's most popular melodies."[2] The text, concerning the beauty of the night and of love, is by Jules Barbier.

Fidelio

The opera tells how Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named "Fidelio", rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison. Bouilly's scenario fits Beethoven's aesthetic and political outlook: a story of personal sacrifice, heroism and eventual triumph (the usual topics of Beethoven's "middle period") with its underlying struggle for liberty and justice mirroring contemporary political movements in Europe.

Leonore, hoping to find Florestan, asks Rocco to let the poor prisoners roam in the garden and enjoy the beautiful weather. Marzelline also begs him, and Rocco agrees to distract Pizarro while the prisoners are set free. The prisoners, overjoyed at their freedom, sing joyfully ("O welche Lust" [O what a joy]), but, remembering that they could be caught, are soon quiet.

The Magic Flute,

The Magic Flute is noted for its prominent Masonic elements. Schikaneder and Mozart were Masons and lodge brothers, as was Ignaz Alberti, engraver and printer of the first libretto.[10] The opera is also influenced by Enlightenment philosophy, and can be regarded as an allegory advocating enlightened absolutism.The opera was the culmination of a period of increasing involvement by Mozart with Schikaneder's theatrical troupe, which since 1789 had been the resident company at the Theater auf der Wieden. (Change of scene: The interior of a pyramid.) (The Priests march in, led by Sarastro.)

No.18: Chorus of Priests

CHORUS O Isis and Osiris! What delight! The dark night retreats from the light of the sun! – Soon will the noble youth experience a new life, soon will he be wholly dedicated to our Order. His spirit is bold, his heart is pure, soon will he be worthy of us.

The Flying Dutchman

Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), WWV 63, is a German-language opera, with libretto and music by Richard Wagner.

Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired to write the opera following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839. In his 1843 Autobiographic Sketch, Wagner acknowledged he had taken the story from Heinrich Heine's retelling of the legend in his 1833 satirical novel The Memoirs of Mister von Schnabelewopski (Aus den Memoiren des Herrn von Schnabelewopski).[1] The central theme is redemption through love. Der fliegende Holländer Wagner uses a number of leitmotifs (literally, "leading motifs") associated with the characters and themes. The leitmotifs are all introduced in the overture, which begins with a well-known ocean or storm motif before moving into the Dutchman and Senta motifs.

A group of local girls are singing and spinning in Daland's house. (Spinning chorus: "Summ und brumm, du gutes Rädchen" – "Whir and whirl, good wheel") Senta, Daland's daughter, dreamily gazes upon a gorgeous picture of the legendary Dutchman that hangs from the wall; she desires to save him. Against the will of her nurse, she sings to her friends the story of the Dutchman (Ballad with the Leitmotiv), how Satan heard him swear and took him at his word. She vows to save him by her fidelity

The Barber of Seville

"Largo al factotum" (Make way for the factotum) is an aria from The Barber of Seville by , sung at the first entrance of the title character; the repeated "Figaro"s before the final patter section are an icon in popular culture of operatic singing. The term "factotum" refers to a general servant and comes from the Latin where it literally means "do everything."

Due to the constant singing of triplets in 6/8 meter at an allegro vivace tempo, the piece is often noted as one of the most difficult baritone arias to perform.[1] This, along with the tongue-twisting nature of some of the lines, insisting on Italian superlatives (always ending in "-issimo"), have made it a pièce de résistance in which a skilled baritone has the chance to highlight all of his qualities.

Nabucco

Va, pensiero" (Italian: [va penˈsjɛro]), also known in English as the "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves", is a chorus from the third act of the opera Nabucco (1842) by , with a libretto by Temistocle Solera, inspired by Psalm 137. It recollects the story of Jewish exiles in Babylon after the loss of the First Temple in Jerusalem. The opera with its powerful chorus established Verdi as a major composer in 19th-century Italy. The full incipit is "Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate", meaning "Fly, thought, on the golden wings" (note that the first word is in modern orthography spelled Va', with an apostrophe, but this is absent in the libretto.)

La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini set to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime written by Eugène Scribe and choreographed by Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur. The ballet had premiered in Paris in September 1827 at the height of a fashion for stage works incorporating somnambulism.

Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly Musical Highlight: The Humming Chorus

Puccini describes Cio-Cio-San’s vigil, as she desperately awaits the return of Pinkerton, with a chorus of ethereal beauty.

When Giacomo Puccini saw David Belasco’s play Madame Butterfly in London in 1900, he fell in love with the production. Belasco was a true man of the theatre, known for his spectacular stage effects. Madame Butterfly featured the heroine’s magnificent ‘all-night’ vigil for her husband Pinkerton. Butterfly sat on stage in silence for 14 minutes, while subtle shifts of light illustrated the passage from dusk to dawn – the first time, Belasco claimed, that electricity had been used for a poetic purpose. Puccini knew he would need to come up with music that was equally poetic for his operatic vigil. He certainly succeeded. The ‘Humming Chorus’ has become one of the most famous of opera excerpts. It is often played over loudspeakers in Glover Garden, Nagasaki, where young lovers come (perhaps unwisely) to be photographed at a shrine dedicated to Butterfly. It’s also had some surprising reincarnations in film: in Heavenly Creatures (1994) it’s heard as two adolescent girls plan the murder that they hope will free them to love each other; and in M. Butterfly, partly inspired by Puccini’s opera, a French diplomat listens to the ‘Humming Chorus’ as he yearns for his (male) Chinese lover.