Guinness World Records Day

Sunday, November 15th, is the Annual Guinness World Records Day, so we thought that it would be fun to go share some Guinness World Records from the Opera world:

Oldest Opera Singer (Guinness World Record)

Luo Pinchao receiving his Guiness World Record

Luo Pinchao (b. China, 19 June 1912) began his singing career in 1930 and continued to regularly perform Cantonese opera and celebrated his 93rd birthday and record-breaking career with a performance at the Guandong Cantonese Opera Grand Artistic Theatre, Guangzhou, China on 20 June 2004.

Luo Pinchao passed away on 15 July 2010, at the age of 98.

Longest Opera (Guinness World Record)

Richard Wagner

The longest regularly performed opera is Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by German composer Richard Wagner (1813–1883). A normal uncut version can entail 5 hours and 15 minutes of music.

The opera The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin by Robert Wilson (b: October 4, 1941) was performed in 7 acts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on December 14 and 15 in 1973 and required 13 hours 25 minutes. Act 7 was deemed by some to be the best.

The Heretics by Gabriel von Wayditch (1888–1969) has a piano-vocal score that numbers 2,850 pages of music and lasts 8½ hours.

Most Curtain Calls (Guinness World Record)

Luciano Pavarotti

Famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti holds the record with 165 curtain calls after a performance of Donizetti's The Daugher of the Regiment at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He was applauded for 1 hour and 7 minuets.

He also holds the record for longest applause ever at 1 hour and 30 minutes, most roles performed, most recordings made, most famous living operatic tenor at his 70th birthday in 2005, most money raised by an individual for charities, and another for the best-selling classical album (In Concert by the Three Tenors; the latter record is thus shared by fellow tenors Plácido Domingo and José Carreras).

Most Performed Opera (Guinness World Record)

The 2009 production of Verdi's La traviata at Sarasota Opera

According to Opera Database, Giuseppe Verdi is the most performed composer with 3009 operas programmed, and his opera La Traviata is the most performed opera with at 659 performances over the last five seasons from 2009-10 through 2013-14.

Composer and opera tables are based on counts of performance runs (how many times a work was programmed, not the number of performances) over five seasons from 2009-10 to 2013-14.