Grand emotional landscapes, gripping storylines: it’s no surprise that opera has produced some of the most captivating and powerful music of all time. Whether they’re stirring duets or passionate arias, the very best and most famous opera songs effortlessly evoke our most profound emotions — be they joy or desolation, love or loss — through their soaring melodies and emotive performances.
Here are 15 songs, plucked from many, many possible contenders, that continue to soar in popularity centuries after they were first heard.
Famous opera songs
1. Nessun Dorma by Puccini
Closely associated with Luciano Pavarotti, who sang it many times in the ‘90s after performing it at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, Nessun Dorma (‘Let no one sleep’) is possibly classical music’s greatest gift to contemporary pop culture.
It actually comes from the final act of Puccini’s opera Turandot, where it is sung by the prince Calaf, who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but frosty Princess Turandot.
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But it is often performed as a standalone work, thanks to its lush orchestration, its bittersweet harmonies and, most of all, its melody, that – in its slow build to a towering climax – tugs with all its might at the heart-strings.
2. Voi Che Sapete by Mozart
Sung by the randy teenager Cherubino, this aria from The Marriage of Figaro is about puberty, involuntary bodily functions and lust – specifically Cherubino’s lust for the Countess, on whom he has a teenage crush. Mozart’s music is elegantly simple, but beneath the swan-like surface is a tremulousness befitting the song’s subject matter.
3. O Soave Fanciulla by Puccini
Another Puccini classic here, this one from La bohème, his 1895 opera about a group of young bohemians living in Paris. Sung as the closing number of Act One, this duet between the main lovers – Rodolfo and Mimi – is one of the most romantic and famous opera songs in the entire canon – a cocktail of ravishing orchestration and gooseflesh-inducing melody.
4. Galop infernal by Offenbach
OK, let’s call it by the name you probably know it: the ‘Can-can’. For his 1858 opera Orpheus in the Underworld, the German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach included the Galop infernal, a song that deployed the can-can, a vigorous, physical dance, all high kicks and breathless speed, that was taking France by the storm at the time.
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5. Flower Duet by Delibes
British Airways made it their theme song in the 1980s, but this serene duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano has continued to do well since then, finding its way into films such as Meet the Parents and television shows including The Simpsons.
It comes from Lakmé, Delibes’s tragic 1883 opera set in British India, and is sung by the title character and her servant Mallika, as they go to gather flowers by a river. But you’d be forgiven for not knowing that, given how rarely the full opera gets performed nowadays.
More famous opera songs
6. Major-General’s Song by Gilbert and Sullivan
You’ll know this one. It crops up (in nonsense form) in the film Despicable Me 3. Other shows to deploy some comic version of the Major-General’s Song include Family Guy, The Muppet Show, Star Trek and Frasier. ‘I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General‘, to give it its full name, is perhaps the most famous and best loved song in the entire Gilbert and Sullivan canon.
We love the premise of the Major-General’s Song. It’s basically Major-General Stanley, key protagonist of The Pirates of Penzance, presenting himself as something of a polymath – he’s well versed in all matters classical, historical and scientific. The one area where he falls short, he admits, is military strategy. It’s a cunning satire on the typical ‘educated’ British Army office of the late 1800s.
With its fast pace and tongue-twisting lyrics, the Major-General’s Song is famously difficult to perform. Among its many memorable performances and tributes, we’d single out the brilliant spoof from the late, great conductor Sir Andrew Davis for his farewell speech at the 1992 BBC Proms.
7. La donna e mobile by Verdi
This aria, from Verdi’s Rigoletto, claims that women are fickle and untrustworthy. That’s not surprising, as it’s sung by the Duke of Mantua, a rapist, misogynist and otherwise thoroughly reprehensible character. So while the words might be pretty unpleasant, they clearly don’t represent the composer’s view. As for the tune – a popular showcase for the tenor voice – it is nothing if not catchy.
8. O Mio Babbino Caro by Puccini
This aria comes from Gianni Schicchi, Puccini’s 1918 one-act comedy about a Florentine con-man known for his powers of mimicry, who changes an old man’s will for his own gain, and that of his daughter Lauretta. ‘O Mio Babbino Caro’ is sung by the young Lauretta, as she begs her father to let her marry the love of her life Rinuccio. As such, its earnest tone and heart-rending melody provide a rare moment of poignancy in what is otherwise a pretty cynical little opera.
9. Un bel dì vedremo by Puccini
Much of the attraction of this famous aria is its heightened emotional content. ‘Un bel dì vedremo’, which translates as ‘One fine day we shall see’, is sung by Cio-Cio-San, the main protagonist of Puccini’s Madam Butterfly.
In this passionate aria, Cio-Cio-San expresses her unfaltering hope that her husband, the American naval officer Pinkerton, will return to her. He has not been by her side for many years now, but she still believes that he will return to Japan and that they will be reunited. It’s a powerfully emotional moment on two levels: firstly, Cio-Cio-San’s strong love and unwavering faith is very touching. On a more tragic and poignant level, though, the audience knows all too well that Pinkerton will not return to her.
As such, ‘Un bel dì vedremo’ is one of the great Romantic opera arias and deservedly one of the most famous songs in the opera repertoire. A perfect showcase for Puccini’s expressive and emotional gifts as a composer, it’s been a signature aria for many of the greatest sopranos.
10. L’amour est un oiseau rebelle by Bizet
Known more commonly as the Habanera, this aria from Georges Bizet’s 1875 opera Carmen is all about the untameable nature of love and is sung by the title character, whose sultry allure it fully encapsulates. With its whistleable melody, which sidles chromatically down a descending scale, it’s one of the best-known songs in all of opera and has appeared in everything from films to adverts.
Five more famous opera songs
11. Catalogue Aria by Mozart
As famous for its text as for its music, this darkly comic bass aria from Mozart’s Don Giovanni is sung by the servant Leporello to Giovanni’s jilted lover Elvira, in an attempt to encourage her to forget his master. Against a busy and light-hearted musical background, Leporello details Giovanni’s endless sexual conquests around the world (‘In Italy, six hundred and forty; In Germany two hundred and thirty-one; A hundred in France; in Turkey, ninety-one; But in Spain already one thousand and three)’. Anyone will do, he says, as long as she wears a skirt.
12. Ombra mai fu by Handel
This one is quite an unusual entry in our list of famous opera songs in that it’s not sung to a loved one, or even to an implacable Fate… but to a tree. A plane tree, specifically. The first song performed in Handel’s 1738 opera Xerxes, ‘Ombra mai fu’ is known for its first three words, which translate roughly to ‘Never was a shade’. (You may also ehar it called Largo from Xerxes or even simply Handel’s Largo). Xerxes is so overwhelmed the beauty of said tree that he decorates it and arranges for it to be guarded before he goes on his travels.
Ombra mai fu is a prime example of an aria that has somewhat outgrown its parent opera. It’s now far better known than Xerxes itself, and can be heard in various guises. Handel composed the aria to be sing by a soprano castrato (in modern performances of Xerxes, it typically features a countertenor, contralto or a mezzo-soprano. It’s also enjoyed various transcriptions, including solo piano, solo organ, cello and piano, and string ensemble.
Ombra mai fu lyrics
The charming lyrics go:
Tender and beautiful fronds
of my beloved plane tree,
let Fate smile upon you.
May thunder, lightning, and storms
never disturb your dear peace,
nor may you by blowing winds be profaned.
Never was a shade
of any plant
dearer and more lovely,
or more sweet.
Queen of the Night Aria by Mozart
With its rapid, stratospheric staccatos reaching up to that elusive high ‘F’, this aria from Mozart’s The Magic Flute has tested the mettle of many a fine soprano. What better way to depict the white-hot fury of the Queen of the Night? ‘Hell’s vengeance boils in my heart,’ she rages as she exhorts her daughter Pamina to assassinate Sarastro, the Queen’s rival. And we have no trouble believing her.
Largo al factotum by Rossini
Some of us (including myself) first came across this aria in the opening credits of Mrs Doubtfire – thanks to a hyper-exuberant Robin Williams. In fact it’s from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, and is sung by the barber himself – Figaro – as he makes his grand entrance. With its irrepressible drive and enthusiastic repetitions of ‘Figaro!’, it is one of the sunniest, most infectiously optimistic moments in opera.
Summertime by Gershwin
The only 20th-century composition to feature on our list, ‘Summertime‘ is the best known song from George Gershwin‘s hugely popular 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. It has since become one of the most covered and iconic songs in the history of American music.
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Porgy and Bess is noted for its eclectic soundworld, which mixes classical music with jazz, blues, and African American gospel and spirituals. With the glorious ‘Summertime’ we get something that’s best described as a languid, slightly jazz-fuelled lullaby. Clara, a young mother, sings it to her baby, an expression of calm, hope, and the simple pleasures of mellow summer days.
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Photo: Anna Siminska as Queen of the Night in the Royal Opera’s production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Zauberflote directed by David McVicar and conducted by Cornelius Meister at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London. Credit: Getty Images.