The best operas, to G'joth's mind, kept the music simple to allow the singers free rein.

"It is one of the best operas of Rossini," she said.

However Giulietta e Romeo is nowadays often considered his best opera.

Mascagni often wrote that Ratcliff was his best opera.

It is thought to be one of Handel's best operas.

He died in 1893 at 39, and "La Wally" was his last and best opera.

He said he considered it one of the best regional operas in the country.

That's why many of the best operas are melodramatic.

The theatre was comparable to the best opera and vaudeville houses in the country at the turn of the century when it was constructed.

For this and other reasons Handel's best operas are extraordinarily difficult to cut.