I’ve added 12 more lists to the opera meta-lists, bringing the total number of lists to over 30. The three opera lists (by rank, chronological, and by composer) were in need of an update – I hadn’t done any serious work on the lists since 2017. The only major change I made was I eliminated the operas that were only on two of the original source lists. Since the last update, I have tried to adopt a consistent standard throughout the Make Lists, Not War website to include only items that are on at least three original source lists.
Here are links to the updated meta-lists:
Best Operas of All Time – By Rank
Best Operas of All Time – Chronological
Best Operas of All Time – By Composer
The addition of new lists has rearranged the top operas quite a bit. Here are the new top 10 (including ties):
1. THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (Mozart)
1. CARMEN (Bizet)
2. LA TRAVIATA (Verdi)
2. LA BOHÈME (Puccini)
3. TOSCA (Puccini)
4. THE MAGIC FLUTE (Mozart)
4. THE BARBER OF SEVILLE (Rossini)
5. MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Puccini)
6. DON GIOVANNI (Mozart)
7. RIGOLETTO (Verdi)
The meta-list contains 141 operas by 74 composers with libretti in seven languages:
Italian: 44 operas
German: 27
French: 24
English: 13
Russian: 10
Czech: 6
Hungarian: 1
The oldest opera premiered in 1607 and the two most recent operas on the list are from 1987.
The composers with the most operas on the meta-list are:
Giuseppe Verdi: 13
Richard Wagner: 11
Giacomo Puccini: 8
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: 6
Richard Strauss: 6
Benjamin Britten: 6
The 12 new ‘best operas’ lists come from the following sources:
- DavesMusicDatabase (another meta-list site)
- iconik magazine
- Classic.FM
- English National Opera
- Classical-Music.com
- Radio Art
- MSN
- San Francisco Opera
- udiscovermusic
- Gramophone
- Stage Door
- Phamox Music
All 12 lists were published between 2018 and 2025.