3280 shows
Clear filtersRodrigue is engaged to Chimène, but a quarrel between their fathers leaves Don Diègue too old to fight. He orders his son to avenge the insult. Rodrigue reluctantly kills Don Gomez, who dies in Chimène’s arms naming his killer. At court, Chimène demands justice while Don Diègue pleads for his son’s life. Rodrigue offers himself to Chimène, who cannot kill or forgive him. His father urges him to live and fight the Moors, and Rodrigue agrees, hoping to die in battle.
Rogneda and the Perun priesthood plot to kill Prince Vladimir, while Christian Rual’d seeks to rescue his bride from Vladimir. Rual’d saves Vladimir from a bear and dies, prompting the prince to reconsider. Rogneda later attempts to kill Vladimir, but he stops her. After Vladimir converts and orders Perun’s idol drowned, the people call for Rogneda’s death; their son Izyaslav persuades Vladimir to forgive her.
Roland loves Angélique, who secretly loves the soldier Médor. She uses a magic ring to escape Roland and flees with Médor after their marriage. Discovering their names carved together and learning they have fled, Roland descends into madness. A fairy’s intervention and visions of ancient heroes restore his reason and lead him back to battle.
A three-act French tragédie lyrique adapted from Philippe Quinault’s libretto for Lully’s five-act opera and based on Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso.
After the Battle of Cannae, Fausta allows the sacred fire at the Temple of Vesta to go out. Facing the punishment of being buried alive, she returns to Rome to accept her fate. Her blind grandmother Posthumia gives her Fabius’s dagger, but when the executioners bind Fausta’s hands, Posthumia kills her to spare her the burial and atone for the sacrilege.
Sutermeister follows Shakespeare’s tragedy of Julia Capulet and Romeo Montague. In the final scene, a celestial chorus celebrates the lovers’ union in death.
Boris Blacher’s opera is one of the operatic treatments of Romeo and Juliet. The available text does not provide a plot summary.
Romeo and Julie secretly marry in hopes of ending their families’ feud. After Romeo kills Tybalt in revenge for Mercutio’s death, he is banished. Julie’s father plans to marry her to Paris, so Friar Laurence gives her a sleeping potion that will make her appear dead until Romeo can rescue her. Romeo hears she has died and enters the tomb to kill himself, but Julie revives; Capulet keeps his promise to accept Romeo as a son-in-law, and the families rejoice.
Loosely based on the legendary Rape of the Sabine Women, the opera centers on Romolo, founder and ruler of Rome, and Ersilia, a Sabine princess betrothed to him.
An Italian opera seria in three acts by Josef Mysliveček, setting Metastasio’s libretto about Romolo and Ersilia. Its principal characters include the Roman king and founder, his Sabine fiancée, and Acronte, a rival who also loves Ersilia.
Louis Karchin’s one-act comic opera adapts Alexandre Dumas, père’s 1854 play using Barnett Shaw’s English translation.
At a masked ball in Verona, Roméo and Juliette meet and fall in love despite their families’ feud. They marry secretly, but a street fight leads to Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s deaths and Roméo’s banishment. Juliette takes a sleeping draught to avoid a forced marriage; Roméo, believing her dead, takes poison in the family tomb. When Juliette awakens, she kills herself to join him in death.
Fictional Argentine composer Juan Manuel de Rosa writes music for westerns and is murdered in Uruguay. He mistreats his fiancée Esmeralda while loving his horse, prompting her to cover herself in ink to resemble the black mare. Two horsemen shoot Rosa; in a staged re-enactment, cowboys marry Esmeralda to his corpse, then carry out his will by killing and burning the horse and the corpse.
Henry II loves Rosamond Clifford, but Queen Elinor’s jealousy leads her to poison Rosamond. Rosamond recovers, and Henry repents of his affair. Elinor appeals to Henry’s sense of destiny and regains his love. A comic subplot follows Sir Trusty and his wife Grideline. At the climax, Henry sees a vision of the future site of Blenheim Palace.
Thomas Arne’s first opera is a new musical setting of Joseph Addison’s libretto first used for Clayton’s Rosamond in 1707. It premiered at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre in 1733 and launched Arne’s reputation as a composer. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
At the court of Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine attempts to poison Rosamund Clifford, her husband’s beloved, setting off a tragic conflict of love and jealousy.
A three-act French opéra-comique by Michel-Jean Sedaine with music by Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny.
The opera was written as a light afterpiece, with spoken dialogue, an English text, and folk and popular melodies.
An Italian opera in three acts and a prologue by Francesco Cavalli with a libretto by Giovanni Faustini.
A pasticcio setting of Silvio Stampiglia’s Partenope libretto, assembled with arias attributed to Vivaldi, Handel, Hasse, Pergolesi and other Venetian composers. No independent plot summary is given.
Rosmonda is the secret mistress of King Enrico II, who has concealed her identity even from his page Arturo. When Queen Leonora discovers the affair, she plots against Rosmonda, who refuses Enrico’s offer of marriage and agrees to leave England with Arturo. Leonora mistakes her for fleeing to the king and stabs her; Rosmonda dies as Enrico and her father arrive.
Loris Tjeknavorian’s opera is based on the story of Rostam and Sohrab in the Persian epic Shahnameh. The composer performed it in Tehran in 2000; its European concert premiere was in 2002.
Yakov Ivanov, a coffin-maker and amateur fiddler, quarrels with the local musicians and treats the Jewish musician Rothschild with contempt. As his wife Marfa lies dying, she recalls their little daughter, who died decades earlier. Ivanov reflects on the life he has wasted and on his mistreatment of Marfa and Rothschild; after her death, he gives his violin to Rothschild, who plays it.
A one-act ballet opera in 13 scenes with a female choir, by Kurt Weill and Yvan Goll. The entry lists its cast but does not describe the plot.
Robin Oakapple is actually Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, heir to a baronetcy cursed to commit a crime each day or die in agony. He hides his identity while courting Rose Maybud, but his foster-brother Richard wins Rose before changing course. When Robin inherits the title, he proves inept at crime. His ancestors demand that he abduct a woman; he instead uncovers that the curse’s terms make refusal a crime itself, freeing him. Rose returns to Robin, and Sir Roderic reunites with Dame Hannah.
A separate musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Ruggiero libretto, distinct from Hasse’s 1771 opera. The source provides no separate plot description.
Behzad Abdi’s Persian-language puppet opera combines Persian dastgāh modes and sama dance with Western music. Its libretto is based on the story of Shams Tabrizi and Rumi; the available text gives no further plot details.
Natacha, the miller’s daughter, learns that the prince she loves will marry a wealthy princess and throws herself into the Dnieper. Years later, the prince is drawn back to the river by her voice. Natacha has become queen of the rusalkas, and her father pushes the prince into the water, where the rusalkas bring his body to her.
The water nymph Rusalka loves a human prince and asks the witch Ježibaba to make her human. The spell takes away Rusalka’s speech and immortality, and Ježibaba warns that the prince’s rejection will doom her. The prince takes Rusalka to his castle but becomes enamored of a foreign princess and rejects her. Rusalka returns to the lake and refuses Ježibaba’s offer to escape her fate by killing the prince. She becomes a spirit of death. When the prince returns to the lake, Rusalka can speak again; she grants his request for a kiss, knowing it will kill him.
At the wedding of Ruslan and Lyudmila, the bride is abducted by sorcerous forces. Ruslan journeys to rescue her, defeats the sorcerer Chernomor, and returns to Kiev with the sleeping Lyudmila. A magic ring awakens her, and the couple are reunited.
A sacred opera in English by Lennox Berkeley, with a libretto by Eric Crozier based on the Old Testament Book of Ruth. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
In an unnamed South American country, newly elected president Christian Delacruz becomes the central figure in a story of political intrigue and family tragedy.
A four-act opera based on the Rübezahl fairy tale, featuring the legendary mountain spirit and a bagpiper from Neisse.
In Gaul under Roman rule, Sabinus plans a revolt and marries Éponine despite Governor Mucien’s attempt to stop them. The Gauls rebel; Mucien captures Éponine and destroys a Druid sanctuary. Presumed dead, Sabinus hides underground while Éponine refuses Mucien’s demand that she marry him. Sabinus emerges from his tomb, kills Mucien and spares the other Romans, and the Gauls celebrate their freedom.
An opera based on the case of Sacco and Vanzetti, begun by Marc Blitzstein in 1959 and completed by Leonard Lehrman.
An opera by Anton Coppola about Sacco and Vanzetti.
The gusli player Sadko leaves his wife Lyubava and Novgorod to seek his fortune. With help from the Sea Princess Volkhova, he catches golden fish and sails abroad, later marrying her in the Sea Tsar’s realm. After a storm destroys the undersea kingdom, Sadko returns to Novgorod wealthy, and Volkhova becomes a river flowing from Lake Ilmen to the sea.
During the Olympic poetry contest, Saffo condemns the Leucadian Leap and angers Apollo’s priest Alcandro. With Alcandro’s encouragement, jealous Faone denounces her. Saffo befriends Climene to seek Alcandro’s help, but discovers Climene is to marry Faone; she disrupts the wedding and damages Apollo’s altar. At the cliff, an old man reveals Saffo is Alcandro’s lost daughter and Climene’s sister. Though reunited, she must honor her vow to Apollo and jumps, drowning in the sea.
Simon Mayr’s Italian-language opera for La Fenice draws on the story of Sappho and Apollo’s rites at Leucadia. The cast featured castrato Girolamo Crescentini.
Persian princess Safié loves envoy Ahmed, who promises to send her a rose each week while away on a diplomatic mission. Zehu, a magician’s son, tries to force his affection on her and later sends her a poisoned bracelet. Safié dies as Ahmed’s first rose arrives.
The opera follows stages in Saint Francis’s spiritual development. He embraces and miraculously heals a leper, encounters an angel disguised as a traveler, and hears an angel play a viol. Francis preaches to the birds, receives the stigmata, and dies surrounded by his brothers. The Angel and the Leper comfort him, and the choir sings of the Resurrection.
Schubert’s unfinished opera adapts the Sanskrit story of Shakuntala’s love for King Duschmanta and her rejection.
Based on Gustave Flaubert’s novel, the opera is set in Carthage in 240 BC.
During a revolt by Carthage’s unpaid mercenaries, the priestess Salammbô captivates their leader Mâtho. Mâtho steals the sacred veil of Tanit, and Salammbô enters his camp to recover it; later, as Carthage celebrates victory, the condemned Mâtho dies at Salammbô’s feet, and she falls dead over his body.
A four-act Bashkir-language opera based on stories from the life of Bashkir national hero Salawat Yulayev.
Salome leaves Herod’s banquet and hears the imprisoned prophet Jochanaan. She persuades Narraboth to bring him out and becomes fixated on him, but he rejects her. Narraboth kills himself, and Jochanaan is returned to the cistern. Herod, who desires Salome, asks her to dance and promises to grant her wish. After the Dance of the Seven Veils, Salome demands Jochanaan’s head. When it is delivered, she kisses the severed head. Herod orders his soldiers to kill her, and they crush her beneath their shields.
A one-act French opera based on Oscar Wilde’s play Salome, which was itself inspired by Flaubert’s Herodias. Mariotte’s version uses a different selection of Wilde’s text and differs in style from Richard Strauss’s opera on the same source.
On the fictional Caribbean island of Salsipuedes in 1943, musicians Ulises and Chucho are carried off aboard a ship during their wedding celebration. Their wives search for them. The ship holds anchovies that a corrupt government plans to sell to the Nazis. When the scheme is exposed, the ship is attacked; Captain Magallanes sacrifices himself, and the couples and other passengers escape.
A four-act opera seria by Antônio Carlos Gomes, with a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni based on Eugène de Mirecourt’s novel Masaniello. The opera makes painter Salvator Rosa the protagonist and centers its love story on Rosa and Isabella during the Neapolitan revolt against Spanish rule.
In postwar Sicily, an EVIS representative introduces Giuliano to villagers as a leader in the independence movement. Giuliano and his lieutenant Pisciotta discuss freeing his mother from prison, but her return with a Mafioso reveals his debt to the Mafia. Giuliano tells journalist Maria that poverty and injustice led him to banditry and that he hopes for amnesty and emigration. A Mafioso offers protection in return for an attack on a communist May Day parade; Giuliano accepts. After the Portella della Ginestra massacre, police chief Colonel Luca receives orders to eliminate him. Giuliano kills five Mafiosi at a wedding, leading the Mafia and police to unite against him. Pisciotta is persuaded to betray Giuliano, then urges him to flee. Giuliano refuses and is shot in the village.
Samson frees the Israelites and defeats the Philistines, but Delilah seduces him and learns that his strength lies in his hair. Captured and blinded, Samson is brought to the Philistine temple. He calls on God and brings down its columns, killing himself and his enemies.
The Hebrews pray for relief from Philistine rule, and Samson leads their revolt, killing Abimélech. Dalila agrees to betray Samson to the Philistines, motivated by revenge and loyalty to her gods. She seduces him and discovers that his strength is in his hair; the Philistines capture and blind him. At Dagon’s temple, Samson regains his strength, brings down its pillars, and dies with his enemies.
Stockhausen’s Saturday opera centers on Lucifer and presents four discontinuous ritual scenes: a dream and feigned death, a flute-led requiem, a dance in which Lucifer makes an orchestra into a giant face, and a farewell ceremony ending with the release of a bird. The spatial music expands across performers and audience.
A one-act French-language opera by François-André Danican Philidor with a libretto by Antoine-Alexandre-Henri Poinsinet based on Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
Sancia, Queen of Castile, believes her husband and son have died and plans to marry Saracen prince Ircano. Her son Garzia returns after surviving an assassination attempt that Ircano arranged. Ircano says he will marry Sancia only if she poisons Garzia, but she repents and drinks the poisoned cup herself, dying as she begs her son’s forgiveness.
In a convent at night, Susanna is drawn away from prayer by sensual sights and sounds. Sister Clementia warns her with the story of Sister Beata, who was bricked up behind the altar for yielding to her desires. Susanna gives in, tears away her veil and the loincloth from a crucifix, and asks the gathered nuns to punish her in the same way.
A revised form of Philidor’s Viking-era opera about the struggle for control of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and for the hand of Princess Ernelinde.
Married couple Stan and Flo quarrel over breakfast until a knock at the door reveals that they have won a large sum on the football pools, reconciling them. An egg is put on to boil as the opera begins and removed at the end, matching the work’s four-minute duration.
In a sixteenth-century setting near the Pasig River, Muslim pirates demand maidens as tribute. Lapu dreams of an alliance between Filipinos and Americans that could lead to their rescue.
Raised by the bird catcher Santa, Maria is nicknamed Santa Maria by their neighbors. The childless King of Holland learns that he had a child stolen from its cradle twenty years earlier. Lieutenant Bertrand, sentenced to death, volunteers to search for the missing royal child. Three years later in Italy, Bertrand is imprisoned and changes identities with a tailor. He is ordered to try a dress on Santa Maria and recognizes a lily-and-crown birthmark on her arm, proving she is the king’s daughter. Bertrand and Santa Maria fall in love and return to Holland, where they are proclaimed future king and queen.
At the Olympic Games, Phaon is torn between the poet Sapho and the courtesan Glycère. Sapho wins a poetry competition and Phaon declares his love for her. Phaon is also involved in a revolutionary plot; Glycère learns of it from Pythéas and informs the authorities, while telling Sapho she will keep silent if Phaon leaves Lesbos. Phaon prepares to depart, and when Sapho refuses to join him he turns to Glycère. At the shore, Sapho forgives and blesses Phaon before leaping into the sea.
Fanny Legrand, known as Sapho, begins a relationship with the young Jean Gaussin. Jean learns about Fanny’s past, including a child from an earlier relationship, and leaves her. After Jean returns to his family, Fanny visits but departs alone; later, when he returns to their former home and offers to sacrifice his prospects for her, she quietly leaves while he sleeps.
A farce set on the fictional South Seas island of Migo Migo, using a scenario inspired by Mozart’s Così fan tutte to satirize political sacred cows on both the left and right.
In Nineveh, the Greek captive Mirra loves King Sardanapalo but grieves that he conquered her homeland. When a priest warns of rebellion, the king is persuaded to take up arms.
At a village entertainment, Sarolta tells her father Ordító that she loves Gyula, a knight. The king arrives and asks Gyula to exchange roles with him; while disguised, he declares his love to Sarolta, who remains faithful to Gyula. When war is announced, Ordító learns about the exchange and hopes his daughter might become queen, but she still refuses the king. The king, pretending to be Gyula, says he will marry her. Baron Belus prevents the deceptive match and arranges for the real Gyula to marry Sarolta according to the king’s order. When the king returns victorious, he banishes Gyula but makes him commander of Moson fortress.
In 1830s Paris, Balzac tells Madame de Rochefide the story of sculptor Sarrasine and the celebrated Roman singer Zambinella. Sarrasine falls in love with Zambinella, then discovers the singer is a castrato. As Sarrasine moves to kill Zambinella, Balzac and Rochefide intervene; Sarrasine dies and Zambinella survives.
A four-act English-language opera by Michael William Balfe.
Philip Glass’s opera follows episodes from Mahatma Gandhi’s life in three acts. Each act refers to a different figure: Leo Tolstoy, Rabindranath Tagore, and Martin Luther King Jr. The opera is sung in Sanskrit using text from the Bhagavad Gita.
A multilingual chamber opera adapted from Petronius’s Satyricon, structured as 16 unordered numbers with an open-form collage score.
Saul disobeys Samuel and sinks into despair until David’s music comforts him; David later defeats Goliath and wins Michal’s love, provoking Saul’s jealousy. After Samuel anoints David, Saul consults the Witch of Endor and learns he and his sons will die; Jonathan falls in battle and Saul takes his own life, while David is acclaimed king.
A surreal, fractured reimagining of Sarah Palin and Joe Biden’s 2008 vice-presidential debate interweaves the encounter with interviews, campaign events, other political figures, and fantastical digressions.
In the Supreme Court building, a supernatural Commentator seals Scalia inside and requires him to pass three trials to escape. Ginsburg enters to defend her friend and insists on facing the trials with him. The opera draws on the justices’ public legal disagreements, private friendship, and shared love of opera.
A dramma per musica depicting Skanderbeg, presented in the opera as King of Albania and as ethnically Greek.
A prologue and five-act tragédie en musique based on the life of Skanderbeg, the 15th-century Albanian resistance leader against the Ottoman Empire.
A four-act Singspiel by Philipp Christoph Kayser to Goethe’s libretto.
In Holliger’s unsettling reworking, Snow White and the Queen dispute the familiar fairy-tale history of attempted murder. The Prince’s desire shifts between Snow White and the Queen, while the Huntsman supports the Queen’s denial of guilt; by the end, Snow White rejects the fairy tale’s account and returns to the castle with the others.
A week after Švanda and Dorotka marry, the bandit Babinský persuades Švanda to leave home for adventure. At a Queen’s court, Švanda’s bagpipes break a magician’s spell, and the Queen offers to marry him. Dorotka’s arrival enrages the Queen, who imprisons the couple and condemns Švanda to death. Babinský sabotages the execution and helps them escape. When Švanda swears that he never kissed the Queen, he falls through the earth into Hell. Babinský wins a card game against the Devil and rescues him. Švanda and Dorotka reconcile, and Babinský leaves for another adventure.
Set in 17th-century Bohemia during the witch trials of the Thirty Years’ War, the opera opens with Hulda regretting that she killed her illegitimate child and buried it in a forest. Fearing the Inquisition, she longs for a friend whose understanding could free her from remorse.
In an 1815 Black Forest village, Berlin friends Hans and Richard become entangled with Hans’s girlfriend Malwine and orphaned maid Bärbele. Bärbele’s employer, aging organ master Blasius Römer, is also secretly attracted to her; the young people’s complications ultimately resolve happily.
Boxing champion Ochsenschwanz catches his wife Evelyne kissing her dance instructor Gaston and locks her away. Gaston later disguises himself as a deliveryman and persuades the naïve Anna Maria to pose as a training dummy; Ochsenschwanz knocks her out, then finds himself cuffed to the machine when a minister arrives to announce his Olympic selection.
At New Carthage, the Roman general Scipione falls in love with the captive Berenice, who loves the disguised Spanish prince Lucejo. Scipione initially considers marriage, but changes his mind when Berenice’s father honors his promise to Lucejo. He frees the couple and gives them their ransom as a wedding gift.
This three-act dramma per musica concerns Scipio Africanus and is based on Livy's account The Continence of Scipio.
An opera seria in three acts featuring Scipione, proconsul of Spain, and Roman and Iberian characters including the princes Lucejo and Indibile and the princesses Elvira and Argea.
Mr and Mrs Jedermann travel through the events, politics, and social changes of the twentieth century without ageing.
A prologue and five-act tragédie en musique.
Scylla rejects her suitors, including Glaucus, who seeks help from the sorceress Circe. Circe falls in love with Glaucus and casts a spell to win him, but Scylla’s name breaks it. The lovers reunite; Circe obtains poison and places it in Scylla’s favorite fountain. Scylla drinks from it and dies, transformed into a rock, while Circe rejoices in Glaucus’s misery.
During Japanese rule in the 1930s, Sun-Nyo and her family endure repeated tragedies before finding the resolve and means to join the communist revolution against their oppressors. The opera presents self-reliance and solidarity as central ideals.
Satyr Trügewald wants to seduce the nymph Seelewig and enlists vain shepherd Künsteling and others to help. Sinnigunda tries to turn Seelewig from virtue, while Gwissulda and Herzigild warn her. After gifts and a storm, the tempters deceive her with a false forest echo. Trügewald captures Seelewig during a game, but her guardians uncover the trick and drive the group away. Seelewig is converted, and angels celebrate her salvation.
Antioco is torn between loyalty to his father Seleuco and love for his father’s young bride, Stratonica, who is betrothed to Seleuco but loves Antioco. Seleuco’s generosity resolves the conflict.
Poul Ruders’s opera is based on Lars von Trier’s film Dancer in the Dark and concerns a Czech immigrant coming to America.
Semele, daughter of Cadmus, loves Jupiter rather than her intended husband Athamas. Jupiter carries her away to a mountain palace, where she enjoys their life together but grows dissatisfied with being mortal. Juno disguises herself as Semele’s sister and persuades her to demand that Jupiter appear in his divine form. Bound by his oath, Jupiter grants her wish; his thunderbolts consume her. Apollo announces that her unborn child will be Bacchus, and Athamas accepts Ino as his bride.
Semele is about to marry Athamas against her will when Jupiter carries her away. Juno discovers the lovers’ palace and plots against Semele. Disguised as Ino, she persuades Semele that she can become immortal by insisting that Jupiter appear in his divine form. Jupiter warns her but fulfills his oath; his fire and lightning destroy her. Ino marries Athamas, and Apollo foretells that Semele’s unborn child, Bacchus, will rise from her ashes.
The opera concerns Semiramide, the legendary queen of Assyria; the reviewed entry does not provide a plot synopsis.
Semiramide, an Egyptian princess ruling Assyria in disguise, is reunited with her former lover Scitalce when Princess Tamiri’s choice among suitors sets events in motion. The intrigue exposes the villainy of Sibari, Scitalce’s rival.
In Babylon, Queen Semiramide prepares to name a successor and marry Arsace, whom she believes loves her. Arsace learns from the high priest Oroe that he is Ninia, son of the late King Nino, and that Semiramide and Assur conspired to kill Nino. Semiramide learns the truth and offers herself to Arsace, but he remains loyal to her as his mother. At Nino’s tomb, Arsace accidentally kills Semiramide while trying to strike Assur. Assur is arrested, and Arsace accepts the throne.
Princess Semiramide rules Assyria disguised as a man. When Princess Tamiri chooses among suitors, events reunite Semiramide with her former lover Scitalce and expose the villainy of his rival Sibari.
Semiramide rules Assyria disguised as her son. At Princess Tamiri’s choice of husband, Semiramide reunites with former lover Scitalce and exposes Sibari’s deception. Semiramide and Scitalce marry; Tamiri marries Semiramide’s brother Mirteo.
In Babylon, returned warrior Merôdach attracts Queen Semirâma, who is involved with Falâsar. Falâsar reveals that Merôdach is Semirâma’s exiled son Ninya, but she refuses to believe him. On the eve of their wedding, Susiâna tells Merôdach the truth. He attempts to kill Falâsar but in the darkness kills his own mother.
In 1918 Ukraine, demobilized soldier Semyon hopes to marry Sofya, daughter of wealthy Tkachenko. Tkachenko seeks to restore the old order and conspires with loyalists and occupying forces against the revolution and Semyon’s marriage plans. His intrigues cost two of Semyon’s friends their lives. Semyon is reunited with Sofya, and Tkachenko is arrested and executed.
During a civil war, a girl witnesses three soldiers kill her father and brother; one of them spares her. Years later, she recognizes the now elderly man and confronts him about the past, including her forced marriage at 14. They prepare to sleep together.
An opera by Stefano Pavesi to a libretto by Angelo Anelli. Its libretto later served as the basis for Donizetti’s separately titled Don Pasquale. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
King Serse falls in love with Romilda, who loves his brother Arsamene. Serse orders Arsamene to court her on his behalf, then banishes him. Arsamene’s servant Elviro tries to deliver a letter, but Romilda’s sister Atalanta intercepts it and deceives both Romilda and Serse. Meanwhile, the princess Amastre, whom Serse jilted, disguises herself and confronts the King’s plans. Serse orders Arsamene to kill Romilda, but Amastre reveals her identity. Serse admits his fault, agrees to marry Amastre, and accepts Romilda and Arsamene’s marriage.
In Nero’s Rome, Servilia’s father seeks to arrange her marriage to Trasea, but she loves his adopted son Valerius. The freedman Egnatius exploits Valerius’s disappearance to force Servilia toward him; when Valerius returns with news that the tribunal is dissolved, Servilia dies, and the others turn to Christianity.
A three-act opera about the mythical Egyptian king Sesostris, who is loved by Artenice and believed to be the natural son of Amasis. The entry lists principal characters but does not describe the plot.
An elderly Joe Louis recalls his rise as a professional boxer and his 1938 victory over Max Schmeling, which made him an American hero. The second act follows his decline, defeat in the ring, and financial troubles with the tax authorities.
A seven-scene dreamlike sequence about the life and death of philosopher Walter Benjamin, structured around his descent into the underworld. The opening scene concerns his suicide, while the work’s themes include time, history, and representation.
A modest woodcutter’s daughter, Khurshid Banu, wins over the formidable Shah Abbas. Because he loves her, the Shah learns carpet weaving, and the folk-legend story ends happily.
A six-act Azerbaijani mugham opera based on a legend about young Shah Ismayil. The characters include the Shah, his father Aslan Shah, and Gulzar, his lover.
Set in the Cork mountains during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
Mrs. Everton, a wealthy widow, supports the young Native American singer Shanewis and invites her to her California home. At a gathering there, Shanewis sings and attracts the attention of Lionel Rhodes, who is engaged to Everton’s daughter Amy. Unaware of the engagement, Shanewis yields to Lionel’s courtship after he promises to seek her family’s approval. She returns to her Oklahoma reservation for a summer powwow, secretly followed by Lionel. Her foster-brother Philip Harjo, who has long loved her and resents white people, gives her a poisoned arrow. When Amy and her mother arrive, Shanewis learns of Lionel’s engagement and sends him back to Amy. As Shanewis leaves for the forest, Harjo shoots Lionel with the arrow. Shanewis and Amy kneel by Lionel’s body.
Set during the Ukrainian–Soviet War, the opera follows Red Army commander Mykola Shchors as he rallies peasants, addresses military and supply troubles, and leads forces toward Kyiv. He dies in battle against Ukrainian troops, and the closing scene sends his body away as a chorus mourns.
The opera follows Aurelia Browder, Claudette Colvin, Susie McDonald, Rosa Parks, Jeanetta Reese, Jo Ann Robinson, and Mary Louise Smith during the civil rights movement.
Sheikh Sanan falls in love with Khumar, a Georgian woman. His passion leads him to reject promoting Islam and become an ardent critic of religion; the opera protests religious canons that divide people of different nationalities and faiths.
Twelve cantos present the trauma of war through figures including the Mother, Colonial Soldier, Soldier, Nurse, Deserter, Survivor, Angels of Death, Fallen, Missing, Unknown Soldier and Orphans. The characters change roles and assist one another in telling their stories.
The opera follows Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney from their meeting in 1903, when Wright proposes a house for the Cheneys, through their affair and life together. Mamah’s time in Berlin reveals her doubts about the unequal partnership. In 1914, Wright pursues another woman while Mamah watches. Edwin Cheney later tells Wright that Mamah has been murdered and Taliesin burned. At the ruins, Wright finds a letter in Mamah’s coat and vows to rebuild the house in her memory.
A one-act Russian-language opera based on Nikolai Gogol’s story of the same name. The cast includes Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka, his aunt Vasilisa Tsupchevska, and Grigory Grigorievich Storchenko.
In 19th-century Osaka, Sasuke is involved in a love affair with Shunkin, a blind koto teacher, while Ritarō, Sasuke’s wealthy suitor, opposes their relationship.
Fisherman Zéphoris rescued Princess Néméa, but Prince Kadoor claims credit and forces him to leave. Zéphoris dreams of being king; the king arranges for him to wake in the palace and temporarily rules in his place. Returned to his hut, Zéphoris learns it was not a dream. Néméa declares her love, Kadoor’s treachery is exposed, and after victory over the Portuguese the king agrees to the couple’s marriage.
Stephana, once seduced and sold to Prince Alexis by Gleby, becomes the Prince’s mistress. She loves Lieutenant Vassili, who believes her to be a working girl. When Vassili learns the truth, he remains devoted to her. A duel with Alexis ends with Vassili killing the Prince, and he is sent to Siberia. Stephana leaves everything to join him. At the prison camp, she and Vassili plan to escape, but Gleby alerts the guards. Vassili is captured, and the wounded Stephana dies after saying farewell to him.
Set in the garden of the Kapilavastu palace, the opera-ballet recounts the prince Siddhartha’s transformation into the Buddha.
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