Functional Harmony Portraying Dysfunctional Families
August 30, 2011
We deserve a little fun after Hurricane Irene. Here are radio station WQXR’s choices for the works that present the top ten dysfunctional operatic families:
1. Wagner: The Ring Cycle (1869-76)
2. Bernstein: A Quiet Place (1983-4)
3. Janacek: Jenufa (1904)
4. Strauss: Salome (1905)
5. Verdi: Don Carlo (1867)
6. Handel: Agrippina (1709)
7. Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande (1902)
8. Berg: Lulu (1937)
9. Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia (1833)
10. Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride (1779)
See their reasoning here, and offer your own additions and/or subtractions.
RogerEvansOnline.com 
In a completely different vein, I’ll suggest Philip Glass’s Les Enfants Terribles. I saw it at Spoleto with Glass at the keyboard.
http://www.philipglass.com/music/compositions/enfants_terribles.php