Approaching the Red Zone

Level One
Mozart, Don Giovanni There’s fire and brimstone aplenty as Don Juan gets dragged to hell.
Sound check: 81 decibels

Level Two
Donizetti, L’elisir d’amore The frothy rom-com outdoes Mozart.
Sound check: 82 decibels

Level Three
Verdi, La Traviata The tragedy level is rising, but Verdi’s weepie stays under the all-important safety bar.
Sound check: 83 decibels

Level Four
Rossini, La Cenerentola A comic fairytale surprisingly noisier than Verdi.
Sound check: 84 decibels

Level Five
Delibes, Sylvia. Scraping in, but still safe, an archetypal French Romantic ballet score.
Sound check: 85 decibels

Warning: use protection

Level Six
Puccini, Tosca. Verismo passion comes at a cost.
Sound check: 86 decibels.

Level Seven
Tchaikovsky, The Sleeping Beauty. Somnolent this score certainly ain’t.
Sound check: 87 decibels

Level Eight
Wagner, Die Walküre. The gods and godesses of the Ring pump up the volume.
Sound check: 88 decibels

Level Nine
Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet. It’s that big Soviet ballet sound, relying on bold brass and muscular woodwind.
Sound check: 89 decibels

Level Ten
Strauss, Salome Few pieces of music ask as much from an orchestra as Strauss’s erotic thriller.
Sound check: 89 decibels

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