If you want human emotion laid bare, opera is your art form - despair, longing, joy, love, it’s all there. And within an opera the purest expression of this is the aria, where a singer will reflect upon or drive forward the drama in a solo song.
In the hands of a great composer an aria is a perfect marriage of text and music, often producing music of the profoundest beauty. Great arias tend to be the most celebrated part of any opera, so much so that musicians often choose to perform them as stand-alone concert pieces.
Here is our choice of the most beautiful of these magnificent works. Follow the links to find sheet music for your instrument and to practise with our exclusive backing tracks.
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![Code breaker Alan Turing at the age of 16 and 1748 portrait of code maker J.S. Bach [Source:Wikipedia]](/discover/turing_bach.jpg)
Alan Turing played an important role in the breaking the the Nazi Enigma codes during World War 2. His life was made into the 2014 film, ‘The Imitation Game.’
It has now also been turned into an opera, ‘The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing’ by Justine F Chen to a libretto by David Simpatico, which will premiere on 23rd March in Chicago's Harris Theater for Music and Dance.
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![Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo [Source: Wikipedia]](/discover/3_tenors_s.jpg)
January 2023 saw two of the original three tenors, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo, perform together in Tokyo’s Garden Theatre. The concert was to mark 20 years since the last three tenors concert, held in Columbus, U.S. It was dedicated to the memory of Luciano Pavarotti, who died in 2007.
Given the controversy surrounding Domingo’s career and the age of both singers, the concert was slammed by some for its tackiness.
Perhaps then better to remember the heyday of three tenors mania, when Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti wowed concertgoers with their interpretations of great works from the opera and song literature.
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