It all started for me with Phantom of the Opera. I have always loved Broadway shows (and operetta, starting in 2003) and after listening to the original cast soundtrack and reading Phantom 3 times in a row cover to cover, decided to try listening to a real opera. The first operas available to me were Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Giovanni,and Dido and Aeneas. But as soon as I could get to a Borders bookstore, I bought myself a copy of Faust, because this opera is central to the plot of Phantom. Christine sings the role of Marguerite, Faust's virginal victim, in this most famous of Gounod's operas (or entire works). Faust was the most popular and first opera at the Metropolitan Opera House when it opened in 1883, and continues to be performed today because of its dramatic story and archetypal characters. But there were other operas mentioned in Leroux' novel: La Juive, by Halevy; Le Prophete, by Meyerbeer; and more. These operas, blockbusters in their day, survive today on excerpts albums or curiosity revivals. If Meyerbeer is thus represented, what of the countless other operas which premiered in this era of luxury and grand 5 act dramas only to be forgotten by the newer trends?
This question has intrigued me since I first listened to Faust, in 2006. Some time I would like to find a list of performances in the 1870s-1900s at the Paris Opera, and research the scores and composers who have become obscure. There may be better reasons for their disappearance than changing tastes, but the librarian in me would love to properly archive them in order to facilitate research and possible revivals.
Here is an aria which made it out of obscurity into recent renown when Placido Domingo performed it at the original Three Tenors concert, 1990.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TscVCfHAJvc O Paradis, from Meyerbeer's L'Africaine sung by 20th c. tenor Jussi Bjorling
