Fifteen Opera Songs for Lovers of Cross-Over, Pop, and Even Rock Music

So you are not familiar with the opera but enjoy cross-over singers such as Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Hayley Westenra, or Katherine Jenkins? Very good then! If you like what these guys and gals are singing, then chances are good that opera won't be such a hard music genre for you to relate to. It's super cool that you're exploring a type of music that requires a lot of skills to sing. But why stop exploring it with the crossover renditions? Why not dig a bit deeper to see if you won't find the bona fide opera singers worth listening to as well? Opera singers don't just sing these music at least equally well, but many are just as much a pleasure to see as they are to hear (the artist whose photo appears on this page doesn't look like a 'screeching fat lady' now, does she?). And they sing all these amazingly beautiful and difficult music without any aid of a microphone, too!

1. Händel: Rinaldo: Lascia ch'io pianga
Sample:www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3cNXNRhU_4 (Sandrine Piau)
A favorite of cross-over singers, this poignant aria of lamentation is sung by Almirena, who is abducted from her beloved Rinaldo by the spunky (to say the least) sorceress Armida during the Crusade. Even though it was written over 200 years ago, none of the magic is lost from this Händel tune. Many will recognize it from the film 'Farinelli: il Castrato', about the famous soprano castrato who was the 'rock star' of the Baroque singing scene. Sung by Sandrine Piau, the French soprano, beauty is just a dimension of this emotionally revealing rendition.

2. Bizet: Carmen: Habanera 'L'Amour est un oiseau rebelle'
Sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lARMM2-UmVk (Marina Domashenko)
Of all the operatically rebellious sirens, fiercely independent Carmen is the most fetching. And, as she voices in the first chunk of music she sings, Love is a rebellious bird, no man manages to tame this free-spirited gypsy. Though with Domashenko' Slavic good look and alluringly gorgeous dramatic mezzo-soprano voice... can you really blame the men from trying?