So this ambitious opera has flaws, but are there any great operas without them?

But "Perelà" is his most ambitious opera to date, one that aims unblushingly at the mainstream of opera with strong narrative, considerable lyricism and emotional punch.

In a review of the CD Robert Carl noted "...this is one of the freshest, most ambitious new American operas I've heard in ages.

As Byrne labors on his ambitious opera, he even finds distractions in the increasingly brutal society around him.

Yet behind the extraordinary sets and costumes lay another story that tells a bit about the direction West Germany's ambitious, state-subsidized operas and theaters are taking at a time of general belt-tightening.

The work was very popular in Victorian England and had gone through several editions by the time Wallace chose it as the subject for his fourth and most ambitious opera.

By rights, "The Tales of Hoffmann," Jacques Offenbach's most ambitious and lastingly popular opera, left unfinished when the composer died in 1880, should not have fared as well.

Such ambitious operas as Britten's Rape of Lucretia or Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos directed by Weiss appeared in its repertoire.

Late last year his ambitious opera "The Great Gatsby" was given its premiere at the Met.

Despite occasional performances by stars of the time, the quality of performance was usually below average, a mix of comedy, vaudeville, operetta and, occasionally, a more ambitious opera.