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.
Love the redo – and in my case it’s just fabulous that you’ve done some counting, which otherwise would lead me to a deadly dose of tedium.
We differ (for good reasons) on classifying operas by :”nationality.” You use the language of rthe librettio and that makes a lot of sense, but I use the nationality of the composer’s adolescence. My assumption is that’s when one learns the basics and gets the first experience of creating opera – a key question when you’re trying to explain the hegemony of operas by Italian and German speaking composers. So I count both Mozart, who wrote several operas with Italian libretti, and Handel, whose operatic career was largely English but whose early training was in Germany
(and who studied in Italy). What complexity! but maybe that’s crucial. “Diversity enables creativity.” And I use the composer because operagoers tend to care more about the music than the lyrics. Hence the popularity of arias sung as concert pieces, hence out of context. But the most popular operas, it’s clear, are loved for the book as well as the music.
Anyway, a lusty bravio, John.
Sam: Thanks as always for the informed feedback. I think your focus on the composer’s country of origin makes perfect sense. It also brings up an interesting issue – translations. For example, the version of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice I have is the French version by Hector Berlioz, arguably an entirely different opera, as Berlioz made significant changes to Gluck’s score. “Diversity enables creativity!”
– John