15 show-stealing moments

We take a look at the arias, movements, songs and dances whose fame has outshone the larger works in which they first appeared

- WORDS: JEREMY POUND & STEVE WRIGHT ILLUSTRATION: DAVID LYTTLETON

However highbrow we think we are, we've all been guilty of it - that is, sitting in a concert or opera and waiting impatiently for 'the famous bit'.

In some instances, that well-known moment may be just one of several in a work that is fairly familiar to us overall; in others, it can be the sole reference point in what is otherwise entirely unexplored territory.

Some of those famous bits have become so big that they have taken on a life of their own, often played as standalone pieces and inevitably known by a name that makes no reference to the larger work they came from. Having such a star moment within it doesn't necessarily condemn a work to obscurity; however, there are also plenty of examples where, while one part of a work enjoys the limelight, the rest sits unheard and unloved in a dark, forgotten corner. Let's take a look at a few examples...

Rimsky-Korsakov's The Flight of the Bumblebee

Whether at the hands of pianists, violinists or whoever, there has been a fad in recent years for playing this chromatic finger-twister as fast as possible, hence earning oneself a place in the Guinness World Records. Even taken at a sensible pace, this depiction of a prince turning into a bee so that he can fly over the sea to his father, takes about 80 seconds. That's around 105th of the length of the opera in which it features: 1900's The Tale of Tsar Saltan, which, sadly, rarely creates any other sort of buzz on the opera stage today.

JS Bach's Air on a G string