The Best Italian Operas

Over 900 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Best Italian Operas
While opera isn’t a genre too many people are very familiar with, opera can be the most amazing experience of in the world; there’s nothing quite like the passion of the well-trained human voice filling an entire room such a powerful way. Some great, well-known operas are in Italian, but what are the best Italian operas of all time?
 
The operas on this list include some of history’s greatest operas of all time. Many well-known composers wrote these incredible Italian operas, including Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Vincenzo Bellini. All of these composers were of Italian birth and forever changed the course of music history in their time periods. In fact, their works are still being celebrated and performed across the globe today.
 
This list features the best Italian operas, ranked by voters, including: Aida, Cavalleria Rusticana, Il Barbiere De Siviglia, La Gioconda, La Traviata, L’elisir D’amore, Madama Butterfly, La bohème, and Turandot. Vote up the best Italian operas below.
Most divisive: Idomeneo
Ranked by
  • Tosca
    1

    Tosca

    Giacomo Puccini
    228 votes
  • La bohème
    2

    La bohème

    Giacomo Puccini
    212 votes
    La bohème is an opera in four acts, composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger. The world premiere performance of La bohème was in Turin on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio, conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini. Since then, La bohème has become part of the standard Italian opera repertory and is one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide. In 1946, fifty years after the opera's premiere, Toscanini conducted a performance of it on radio with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. This performance was eventually released on records and on Compact Disc. It is the only recording of a Puccini opera by its original conductor.
  • La Traviata
    3

    La Traviata

    Giuseppe Verdi
    191 votes
  • Rigoletto
    4

    Rigoletto

    Giuseppe Verdi
    173 votes
  • Don Giovanni
    5

    Don Giovanni

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo Da Ponte
    151 votes
  • Turandot
    6

    Turandot

    Giacomo Puccini
    132 votes