Liking Wagner doesn't necessarily mean that I have any particular devotion to him nor his music. Of all his works, I like Der Flegende Hollander the best and even that can get tedious at times.
I also like Der Meistersinger von Nuremberg, mostly because it is a satire. Besides who doesn't like works in C major? Only the prize song in this opera is chromatic and aimed directly at the critic, Hanslick, who appears as a character, very transparently, in the opera. This gasser complained about Wagner's use of chromaticism and all the odd keys his works are in. So Richard wrote one in C major, so there!
If you ever get to see a live performance of Beethoven's Fidelio, by all means go. It starts out like Mozart, and by the beginning of the second act it is much more like Wagner, but lightens up at the end. I used to have a recording with the Voice of God (John Vickers) as Florestan, with Christa Ludwig as Leonore and her husband Water Beery as Rocco. A definitive performance. I think Beethoven wrote this opera just to show he could write a masterwork in this genre too. Classical composers were nothing if not humorists.
This Mozartian game is played also at the beginning of Der Flegende Hollander, but Wagner's muse won't allow this to continue.
When it comes to German opera, I am also partial to Der Frieschutz. Good and evil, well defined. Almost as much fun as Faust.
I am pretty much attached to most vocal music, and especially music drama. So if it is performed on stage with singing and an orchestra I generally like it. I like Der Drei Groschen Oper as well and, of course, Cabaret, even though it is really a horror story.
Like all opera lovers, I guess I am also stuck on Puccini's war horses as well as those of Verdi and the other Italians, and I also like modern composers such as Leonard Bernstein (Candide, West Side Story), the tin pan alley guys with the Broadway musicals which are actually operas, and even our own Geoffrey Rideout and Healy Willan (Dierdre).
