This is Opera poster
Documentary

The Best Episodes of This is Opera Season 2

Every episode of This is Opera Season 2 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of This is Opera Season 2!

The Best Episodes of This is Opera Season 2

An exploration of opera in unconventional ways attempting to attract not just existing opera fans, but also those less familiar with the art form. The...
  1. 9.2/10(5 votes)

    #1 - The Birth of Opera

    Loading...
    S2:E14

    Gener retells the origin of opera and compares it to a metaphoric pregnancy. He guides explaining a double journey: the life journey of a future baby and Opera's "journey" to Florence and Mantua, through the history of music, of its evolution and gestation, until it gives birth to a genre as universal as the one of being human.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  2. 8.6/10(5 votes)

    #2 - Madama Butterfly

    Loading...
    S2:E12

    Madame Butterfly teaches us about hope, longing, unconditional love and the problems when two cultures collide. Gener visits a cherry tree plantation in full bloom and will discover more about the symbolism of this tree in Japanese culture in general, and in Madame Butterfly specifically.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  3. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #3 - Pagliacci

    Loading...
    S2:E1

    "Theatre is life" is the verism motto behind this beautiful opera. Gener explores Pagliacci in which fiction and reality intermingle and where nothing is as it might appear.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  4. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #4 - Eugene Onegin

    Loading...
    S2:E2

    Tchaikovsky and Pushkin- the greatest examples of Russian Romanticism-speak to us about impossible romances, homosexuality, dandies, love letters and duels of honor. Gener goes to the Liceu Conservatory to collaborate with some aspiring musicians.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  5. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #5 - Fidelio

    Loading...
    S2:E3

    Gener discusses Beethoven and the composer's main drives in life- love, injustice, and freedom.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  6. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #6 - Handel

    Loading...
    S2:E4

    In London Gener reveals how Handel managed something which nobody had ever managed before: to make England love opera. This is an episode about a very competitive man who achieved everything he aimed for and converted opera into something which could be enjoyed by everyone in London.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 BEST Episodes of This is Opera

    READ
  8. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #7 - Così fan tutte

    Loading...
    S2:E5

    Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the leading examples of musical classicism, and its main topic, narrated as a comedy, is infidelity.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  9. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #8 - Salome

    Loading...
    S2:E6

    Based on the timeless play by Oscar Wilde, Richard Strauss wrote a troubling, uneasy score which portrays very clearly man's basic instincts. It is a story about obsession, about curiosity and about our desire for the prohibited. And the score expresses these topics perfectly: music which arouses strong emotions. Gener walks the viewer through how Salome makes one face his own fears and conscience.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  10. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #9 - Nabucco

    Loading...
    S2:E7

    Gener explains why Verdi's other operas would never have existed if Nabucco had never come to be. Gener travels to Valencia where Nabucco is being put on at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia. There, he speaks about one of the central themes in Verdi's career- that of parent-child relationships.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  11. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #10 - Der Rosenkavalier

    Loading...
    S2:E8

    "Der Rosenkavalier" by Richard Strauss, is a wonderful comedy of errors that reflects upon the passage of time. Set in eighteenth century imperial Vienna, it tells the story of the romance between an aristocratic woman at the gates of later life and a handsome boy of seventeen. Gener interviews psychologist Patricia Ramírez Loeffler, to discuss topics about the passage of time, about how it affects us all, about our fear of aging, about couples with a significant age difference, but also, about giving up and accepting.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  12. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #11 - The Magic Flute

    Loading...
    S2:E9

    The Magic Flute is the ideal opera for all ages, from children to seniors. Gener goes to a Spanish school to interview 7 year olds and their parents about their reception to the opera. Later, he interviews a neuroscientist and a musicologist to understand more how Mozart's music is so captivating.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  13. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #12 - Vivaldi and Venice

    Loading...
    S2:E10

    Gener explains the three reasons why opera came to Venice in the middle of the 17th century and became a true phenomenon for the masses. Then Gener heads to the wonderful Teatro Olimpico di Vicenza, the first enclosed theatre in the world, to understand what theatres were like before opera exploded on the scene as a fashionable spectacle and to see how theatres alla italiana were born and proliferated in Venice.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  14. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #13 - Lulu

    Loading...
    S2:E11

    Lulu is an opera about our most basic instincts, starring an enigmatic, dangerous and spellbinding woman. Sex, death and psychoanalysis are the necessary ingredients for a story that will leave no one indifferent.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  15. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #14 - Rusalka

    Loading...
    S2:E13

    Written in the early 20th century by Antonin Dvorák, "Rusalka" is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story "The Little Mermaid". The heart of the story is accepting one's own identity. But it also explores one of the great mysteries of humankind: the fragility of love. Will giving up on being who we are bring us happiness or misery? Is "Rusalka" a metaphor for racism? Or is it simply an exaltation of difference?

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A
  16. NaN/10(0 votes)

    #15 - Opera Is Life

    Loading...
    S2:E15

    Gener speaks about the most important operas in history and why, thanks to emotions (both positive and negative), human beings are capable of feeling.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A

Season 2 Ratings Summary

"The Birth of Opera" is the best rated episode of "This is Opera" season 2. It scored 9.2/10 based on 5 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 12/20/2015. This episode is rated 0.6 points higher than the second-best, "Madama Butterfly".