I have again counted the operatic performances I have attended this year. The following includes concert performances, but gives only one point per evening; Il trittico counts as one, then, but so does Gianni Schicchi. I am not sure what, if anything, this shows beyond what it immediately claims. It clearly reflects my interests but just as clearly, perhaps more so, reflects what has been available. A horrendous year politically, which, more than any other I can remember, cried out for a staging, indeed multiple stagings, of Nono's Intolleranza, had none; alas, I could not stamp my foot and have it be otherwise. Puccini's ranking has, however, been most surprising to me over the past three years; it cannot be entirely explained by undoubted over-exposure from timid opera management. His companions, Mozart and Wagner, have remained identical. Strauss has come fourth, or joint fourth, in each of these years too.
5 Mozart, Puccini,
Wagner
4 Strauss
2 Bartók, Peter Maxwell Davies, Debussy, Purcell, Tchaikovsky
1 Beethoven, Berg,
Birtwistle, Bizet, Tansy Davies, Handel, Henze, Hindemith, Humperdinck,
Monteverdi, Tarik O’Regan, Rihm, Matt Rogers, Luigi Rossi, Salieri, Schoenberg,
Stravinsky, Luke Styles, Szymanowski, Weill
2014
13 Mozart
10 Wagner
9 Puccini
8 Strauss
2 Britten, Gluck, Birtwistle
1 Julian Anderson, Ferdinando Bertoni, Bizet, Borodin, Elspeth Brooke, Hunter Coblentz, Francisco Coll, Debussy, Dvořák, Søren Nils Eichberg, Luca Francesconi, Handel, Henze, Edwin Hillier, Janáček, Algirdas Kraunaitis, Frank Martin, Monteverdi, Lewis Murphy, Poulenc, Rachmaninov, Rossini, Schoenberg, Schubert, Josephine Stephenson, Tippett, Weber
2013
17 Wagner
7 Mozart
6 Puccini
3 Berg, Strauss
2 Benjamin, Birtwistle, Britten, Ravel
1 Gerald Barry, Beethoven, Bizet, Cavalli, Charpentier, Peter Maxwell Davies, Monteverdi, Olga Neuwirth, Offenbach, Purcell, Rossini, Johann Strauss, Turnage, Weber
