Tannhäuser 

Tannhäuser   is an especially interesting case since Wagner revised the opera so much it essentially had three premieres. It’s also a case of changes worsening the original and adding a new set of problems. While the original premiere was not nearly the success that Wagner’s previous opera Rienzi   had been, it also wasn’t booed and jeered like Madama Butterfly   or The Barber of Seville   had been. Wagner continued to revise the opera but remained dissatisfied with it. Wagner would get another chance to give Tannhäuser   a successful opening when in 1861 Emperor Napoleon III requested for the opera to be performed at the Paris Opéra. The stakes were high for Wagner, who needed to re-establish himself after being exiled from Germany in 1849. However, the Paris Opéra had a tradition that every show performed there must contain a ballet in Act 2. Wagner would include a ballet in Tannhäuser but placed it in Act 1.  

Come opening night, the opera was well-received initially, but whistles and catcalls began to fill the theater in Act 2 and were nonstop by Act 3. Wagner would try to remove the elements that caused the initial mockery for the second night, but this performance saw even more disturbances thanks to a group of wealthy aristocrats called the Jockey Club. They were outraged to have missed the ballet, since they always showed up during Act 2 and refused to change their dining schedules so they could make the beginning of the opera. Because of this, they encouraged audience disturbances, making it an even noisier performance. Wagner would not attend the third performance which saw so much uproar that the opera had to be paused several times. After more revisions, the opera had its premiere in Vienna in 1875, and at last the opera got the premiere it deserved. While Tannhäuser   is now regarded as a masterpiece, the uproar from the Paris Opéra premiere single-handedly ended Wagner’s hopes of establishing himself in Paris.  

Carmen 

While the previous operas saw disaster due to production issues, Carmen caused outrage due to the opera's content. By all accounts, Carmen   should’ve been a hit from the very start with a cast of rising stars and genre elements that made it ahead of its time. But much alarm was raised about Carmen’s nature as an amoral character who did as she pleased. Many of the management would urge Bizet to tone down the work, especially because the opera was to be performed for an Opera-Comique audience, who expected a more lighthearted and traditional story. Bizet refused and was supported by members of the cast.  

So, Carmen premiered on March 3, 1875, in all its glory, and was attended by Paris’ leading musical figures. The first act went smoothly but the audience started to become colder in Act 2. They only applauded once in Act 3 and were ice cold throughout Act 4. While many of Bizet’s composer friends were blown away by the opera, audiences were shocked by its realism and the more conservative audience members and critics hated the heroine, wishing for a “woman of virtue” to have been the lead instead. While some critics praised it, it wasn’t enough to raise the show’s popularity and it had to compete with performances of Verdi’s Requiem, which saw far greater success. Carmen   would be performed to half-empty opera houses with management giving away tickets in mass hoping that people would come to fill the theater.  

Unlike the previous operas on the list, Carmen   wouldn’t see any revisions from Bizet due to his sudden death on June 3, 1875. His friend Ernest Guiraud would make slight revisions to help the opera fit better into the “grand opera” format. After Bizet’s death, interest in Carmen   would grow in France and the original cast would come back that year to perform the opera again in honor of Bizet. These later performances would draw in legends such as Wagner, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, who all praised the opera. Brahms reportedly watched it 20 times and Tchaikovsky wrote that “Carmen   is a masterpiece in every sense of the world...one of those rare creations which expresses the efforts of a whole musical epoch.” Bizet’s passing coupled with the praise of these composers helped establish Carmen’s longevity and legacy, with many recognizing that the opera had been a work of genius all along. Now Carmen    is a mainstay in the repertoire and, just like the rest of the list, is one of the most performed operas of all time.  

First impressions are important, but they’re not everything. An opera can premiere with flaws or be too ahead of its time for audiences' taste, but time has a way of being very kind to the greatest pieces of art. While these composers suffered from these disastrous premieres, we are still talking about and performing these operas in our own time and can’t imagine a world that doesn’t include them. If there’s one thing that these stories taught us, it’s that it’s better to believe and stand up for your work than to crack and give up under pressure. For if Puccini threw in the towel and worked on another opera, Wagner had withdrawn Tannhauser   entirely or Bizet had given in and changed his vision we wouldn’t have the masterpieces that we have today.