What are the best love songs in opera? Here, conductor Robin Ticciati selects his favourite depictions of love right across the form, from Mozart to Poulenc.
Best love songs in opera
‘Like the changing of seasons, so my choice of moments of love in music are constantly in motion,’ says Robin. ‘When you catch me today, soon after the birth of my daughter, these are some moments that spring to mind…’
Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde – Act II
Everyone talks about the intoxication of Wagner’s writing in Tristan und Isolde; almost drug addled. It was only when I conducted it at Glyndebourne that it began to course through my own veins. What strikes me so deeply in the score is the balance between the world of carnal passion and the ephemeral world of the numinous. The love and the Schopenhauer inspired philosophy of their love is played out in Act II – a love that is released only in death.
Hector Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette – ‘Scène d’amour’
My first memories of Berlioz go back to lessons with the conductor Sir Colin Davis when I was 13. He read me passages of Shakespeare and spoke to me about the poetry, about how to trust the music and what it is to ‘set up’ a piece. Berlioz’s music is all in the imagination. His feelings were almost too much for an interpreter to capture fully!
In Roméo et Juliette, nestled in the middle of the love scene is a heart-breaking duet for cor anglais and flute in unison. The flute for Berlioz was an instrument of innocence, of the church, his father… and in these some 30 bars there is a melody that captures the love in its purest form and foreshadows the loss to follow. Rippling violas and cellos ebb and flow to Hylas and the waters of the Trojans.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro – Act IV finale
Friendships come and go, but I’ve always felt that Mozart will be in my life till the end as a source of uplifting comfort. So often the striking moments in opera are made manifest by the dialogue between conductor, director and singer – what goes on between the count and the countess at the end of The Marriage of Figaro? How pure? And how broken? How cynical?
On days when I need comforting, or on days when life seems to be rolling well, I believe that her ‘yes’ is a ‘yes’. All is forgiven. Mozart seems to offer us in his music the possibility of what we could be as humans; a utopian world filled with love.
More best love songs in opera
Francis Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmélites – ‘Salve regina’
Working with Barrie Kosky on Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites in 2023 gave me a glimpse into how a director can push singers to their limits and find a clarity on stage that hits the audience in the solar plexus. There are many touching and anguished moments, but I would choose the final scene, ‘Salve Regina’ as an example of extreme love in faith.
Only female voices, searing strings, the inescapable thud of the basses, and the shock of the unexpected guillotine, culminating in a moment of stillness when Soeur Constance holds the hand of Blanche and goes to her death. It is up to every audience member to decide how to feel about martyrdom, but when conducting the music I can’t but help, in that moment, believe.
Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier – Final Trio
The trio in Rosenkavalier’s Act III is beautiful music even out of context. But it’s only once you have gone through the bluster of Baron Ochs, and the new money of Faninal that the complex relationship between the Marschallin, Octavian and Sophie really presents itself. It is the love of letting go, of detachment, of guilt, of the new shoots of hope.
Through it, Strauss spins together heavenly lines, culminating in one of the greatest climaxes in all music. Octavian and Sophie are left to themselves as Strauss returns to the simplicity of a classical dance tinged with fin de siècle harmony, giving extra poignancy to the new union.
Antonín Dvořák: Rusalka – ‘Líbej mne, líbej, mír mi přej’
The first time I conducted Dvořák's Rusalka, I met my wife – a moment never to be forgotten. At my core I am a Romantic, however what a balance it is (in music) to find true pathos and not leak… all too easily into kitsch.
With our cast and LPO in the pit at Glyndebourne, I will always have in my heart the Prince's words in Act III, ‘Kiss me, so I may die.’ A sentiment that rises out of the lowest part of the tenor tessitura and soars to a top A. I will never cease to give thanks for how art can open up worlds of such emotional depth, however sad or traumatic.
Claude Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande – ‘C’est le dernier soir’
Pelléas should be like a play… whispers, dark corners, forest murmurs; it has to be led by the text. The more I travel through these wonderful operas, the more I analyse the hierarchy between the text, melody, harmony, orchestration. In Debussy the play IS the thing: the rhythm of text, punctuation, speed are integral to the drama.
In Act IV, Mélisande confesses to Pelléas that she has loved him from the first moment… their kiss is immediately interrupted by Goloud. Debussy gives us a smallest glimpse of a cosmic, almost supernatural, love and then cuts it down. Their tender, sweet, sexual love is encroached upon by a monster, the music curdles, twists, stopped horns, timpani, screams… it turns bloody so quickly. A miracle in dramatic pacing.
Who is Robin Ticciati?
Born in London, Robin Ticciati trained as a violinist, pianist and percussionist. He was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain when, aged 15, he turned to conducting under the guidance of Sir Colin Davis and Sir Simon Rattle.
He holds the position of Sir Colin Davis Fellow of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, and was awarded an OBE for services to music in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours. Ticciati has been music director of Glyndebourne since 2014 and marks his 10th anniversary in the role in 2024. Earlier this summer he conducted a new production of Bizet’s Carmen that opened the 2024 Glyndebourne Festival. On 29 July, he will conduct a revival of Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.