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Clear filtersA 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.
Mime raises Siegfried, who reforges Nothung and learns from the Wanderer that only one who knows no fear can repair it. Siegfried kills Fafner and Mime, takes the ring and Tarnhelm, and follows a woodbird to Brünnhilde. The Wanderer’s spear is broken, and Siegfried crosses the fire surrounding Brünnhilde’s rock. He awakens her, and they join in love.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Gioacchino Cocchi. Premiered on 30 May 1748 at Teatro San Carlo, Naples. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Ignazio Fiorillo. Performed at the summer fair in 1752 at the Hoftheater, Brunswick. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Domenico Fischietti. Performed at the Ascension Day fair in 1761 at Teatro Sant’Angelo, Venice. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Leonardo Leo. Premiered on 11 May 1737 at Teatro Malvezzi, Bologna; the source describes a later pasticcio version as Viriate. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Francesco Maggiore. Premiered on 10 October 1744 at Teatro Manfredini, Rovigo. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Nicola Antonio Porpora. First setting premiered on 26 December 1725 at Teatro Regio Ducale, Milan; also performed the same day in Venice. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Nicola Antonio Porpora. Second version premiered on 2 July 1730 at Teatro Capranica, Rome; the source notes intermezzi by Michele de Falco. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Giuseppe Sellitto. A pasticcio premiered on 4 December 1734 in Naples, using music by Vinci, Porpora, Giacomelli, Hasse, and others. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
King Siface plans a political marriage with Viriate but falls in love with Ismene, who loves his general Erminio. Siface schemes against Viriate and forges evidence to imprison her. Moved by Viriate’s forgiveness and freed by Orcano and Erminio, he abandons his cruelty, restores Viriate as queen, and accepts the union of Ismene and Erminio.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Giuseppe Maria Nelvi. Premiered in January 1732 in Frankfurt am Main. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
An Italian two-act opera set in 16th-century Poland.
An opera by Frederic H. Cowen based on a work by Ouida. It was first performed in a reduced three-act Italian translation in Milan; its story is not described in the available account.
Gorgibus plans to marry his daughter Célie to wealthy Valère, though she and Léon love each other. When Célie faints and loses a locket with Léon’s portrait, a chain of mistaken assumptions makes Clara suspect her husband Signor Deluso and makes Deluso, Célie and Léon each suspect infidelity. Rosine resolves the confusion by revealing that Valère has been secretly married to his maid; Célie and Léon can marry.
Luca Mosca’s English-language opera brings playwright Carlo Goldoni and his characters together with Shakespeare and characters from Shakespeare’s plays set in the Veneto. The available text gives no fuller plot.
Hilda gives Sigurd a potion so he will love her, but he and Gunther travel to Iceland to win Brunehild for Gunther. Sigurd defeats the monsters surrounding Brunehild and wins her for Gunther while concealing his identity. When the deception is revealed, Brunehild frees Sigurd from the potion. The two recognize each other as their fated partners, but Gunther kills Sigurd while hunting. Brunehild joins him on the funeral pyre, and their spirits ascend to paradise.
In summer 1914, war disrupts an opera performance in Berlin, sends singer Nikolaus Sprink to the front, prompts Scotsman William Dale to enlist, and separates pregnant Madeleine from French lieutenant Audebert. On 23–24 December, fighting kills William and Nikolaus despairs at the violence. German troops receive Christmas trees, the French receive food and wine, and the Scots receive whisky. Nikolaus sings “Silent Night,” accompanied by a Scottish bagpipe, and the soldiers agree to a truce. They meet in no man’s land, exchange provisions, and attend mass, while Jonathan vows revenge for William. On Christmas Day, the truce is extended for burials, but military headquarters condemn it. Anna leads Nikolaus across the lines to seek French asylum. On 26 December, the Scots are punished with reassignment; Jonathan mistakenly shoots Frenchman Ponchel in a German uniform. Audebert is sent to Verdun, German soldiers are transferred to Pomerania, and no man’s land is empty.
After defeating his enemies, Silla declares himself dictator. He tries to seduce Celia and Flavia, but his wife Metella stops him. He imprisons Lepido and Claudio, whom Celia loves, and sentences them to death. Metella uses a bloodstained garment to convince Silla that Lepido has been executed, then frees the prisoners. The couples reunite, and Metella rescues Silla from a shipwreck. The god Mars appears as Rome’s supporters rise against the tyrant; Silla repents, retires with Metella, and consents to Claudio and Celia’s marriage.
A three-act opera centered on the Roman general and dictator Sulla.
Count Rudolf finds the mute forest girl Silvana and falls in love with her, while Mechthilde loves Albert, son of her father’s enemy. Silvana is revealed to be Ottilie, Count Adelhart’s daughter, whom he had abandoned as a child; recognizing her, he ends the feud and allows both daughters to marry their beloveds.
A two-act seafaring drama; the plot is not described in the available material.
In Genoa, corsair Simon Boccanegra becomes Doge and discovers that his lover Maria has died. Their daughter has disappeared. Twenty-five years later, Boccanegra meets Amelia, a young woman he recognizes as his long-lost daughter. His adviser Paolo, angry that Amelia refuses to marry him, arranges her kidnapping. Boccanegra stops a mob from attacking Gabriele Adorno, Amelia’s lover, and discovers Paolo’s role. Paolo poisons the Doge and incites a revolt. After the revolt is suppressed, Boccanegra dies reconciled with his enemy Fiesco, who learns that Amelia is his granddaughter. Boccanegra blesses Amelia and Adorno’s marriage and names Adorno his successor.
The opera follows Bolívar from boyhood through the campaigns for Latin American independence, his presidency of Gran Colombia, conflicts with Santander and Páez, illness, exile, and death in disgrace. A coda shifts to a 20th-century protest against dictatorship, where Bolívar’s spirit encourages demonstrators to resist.
Loosely based on the life of singing-school teacher William Walker, the opera contrasts his virtue with the corruption of Kinch Hardy, a local troublemaker in fictional Oconee Town, South Carolina.
Singoalla, a nomadic tribe’s princess, has a son with the knight Erland. Her tribe gives Erland a potion that makes him forget her; ten years later, now married to another woman, he is troubled by dreams of the Black Death, and their forgotten son re-enters his life. The story ends in the deaths of the principal characters.
Falstaff plots to seduce Mistress Ford and Mistress Page for money, but the Merry Wives discover his identical letters and arrange to humiliate him. Meanwhile, Anne Page loves Fenton while her parents and suitors promote other matches. Ford, disguised as Brook, tests Falstaff and later joins the Pages in a trap involving a laundry basket. At Windsor Forest, the group stages a fairy prank; Anne and Fenton reveal they have married, while Slender and Caius discover their supposed brides are boys in disguise. The opera ends in reconciliation.
Rolf Riehm’s three-part, eight-scene opera draws on the Odyssey’s myth of Odysseus, Circe, and the Sirens, as well as related texts by Karoline von Günderrode, Giovanni Pascoli, and Isabelle Eberhardt. The first part unfolds on Circe’s island Aiaia, the second opens with the Siren Song, and Circe, Odysseus, and Telegonos dominate the final scene. No complete plot account is available in the reviewed text.
Medarse plots to supplant Siroe as heir to the Persian throne. Siroe loves Emira, who is disguised as a man, while Laodice loves Siroe; Cosroe ultimately recognizes Siroe and Emira’s loyalty and names Siroe the new king.
A three-act opera seria by Pasquale Errichelli using Pietro Metastasio’s Italian libretto.
In a fictionalized seventh-century Persian court, Crown Prince Siroe is caught among his brother’s ambitions, his father’s suspicions, and the competing demands of Emira and Laodice. He refuses to expose conspirators and faces execution, but confessions and reversals reveal the plots; Siroe survives, forgives his brother, and succeeds his abdicating father.
A country girl leaves home to pursue the American Dream. Robert Livingstone Aldridge’s opera adapts Theodore Dreiser’s 1900 novel, with a libretto by Herschel Garfein.
The source lists theatre characters and staff, including a Director, performers, a Prompter and Wardrobe Mistress, alongside the Father, Son, Stepdaughter and Mother.
This English-language opera evokes the relationship between the 13th-century poet Rumi and the Sufi dervish Shams Tabrizi without depicting them literally. Its main narrative ends with Shams’s death and Rumi’s coming to terms with the loss through his work and life. The piece combines sung and spoken material, poetry, theology, prayer, and chorus.
A meeting arranged by writer Elizabeth Costello brings together Paul Rayment, a middle-aged man with an amputated leg, and Marijana, a blind woman. The work explores love, isolation, aging and fear of death through their encounter and its effects on the characters.
Poet Sly drinks in a London tavern and later wakes in a palace, where he is told that he is its owner and has been in a coma for ten years. Believing the story, he falls in love with Dolly. When Sly learns the truth, he slashes his wrists; only then does he discover that Dolly loves him.
An opera by Detlev Glanert and Reinhard Palm based on Stanisław Lem’s science-fiction novel Solaris. The entry does not describe the opera’s plot.
Manfred Gurlitt’s three-act opera adaptation of Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz’s play The Soldiers.
Suleiman the Magnificent suspects his eldest son Selim of treason and prepares to punish him. He later recognizes his error and spares Selim; the two brothers are reconciled and marry Persian princesses Narsea and Emira.
Sultan Solimano sends his sons Selimo and Zanghire to war against Persia, with Selimo expected to marry the Shah’s daughter Persane and rule both realms. Solimano’s wife Roselane and Grand Vizier Rustano plot to eliminate Selimo and place Zanghire on the throne. Zanghire remains loyal to his brother, exposes the scheme, and kills Rustano. Selimo reconciles with his father, and the two couples—Selimo and Persane, Zanghire and Barsina—are allowed to marry.
A one-act opera inspired by the life of Swiss explorer and writer Isabelle Eberhardt.
The Sunday opera celebrates the union of Eve and Michael and the development of life and the cosmos. Its scenes combine light and water, angel processions, visual images, scents representing the days of the week, and simultaneous choral and orchestral performances; a synthesizer adaptation of the farewell accompanies audiences leaving the theatre.
An opera drawing on passages from Anton Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya in English translation, with additional spoken text by Neal Thornton. The roles include Sonya, her uncle Vanya, Dr. Astrov, and Yelena.
An older Stingo narrates events. In Brooklyn in 1947, young writer Stingo meets Sophie and her lover Nathan at their lodging house. Their unstable relationship breaks down as Sophie is tormented by her past, gradually revealed in scenes at Auschwitz.
Melo rebels against his father, King Haliate, believing that Haliate plans to favor his illegitimate son Argone. Sosarme, king of the Medes, tries to mediate while in love with Haliate’s daughter Elmira. After the conspirator Altomaro’s plans are exposed and he dies by suicide, Haliate and Melo reconcile, and Sosarme and Elmira are to marry.
A tale of necromancy and betrayal among a Navajo tribe.
The King of Armenia captures Stateira and her mother during a war with Darius of Persia. Cloridaspis, King of Arabia and in love with Stateira, frees them and returns them to Darius; Stateira tends the wounded Arab king and falls in love with him. Usimano, an Egyptian prince disguised as Stateira's servant Ermosilla, grows jealous; by the end, Stateira marries Cloridaspis and relinquishes the Persian throne, while Usimano marries Floralba.
The opera juxtaposes the story of Simeon Stylites, who lives for decades on a column and is venerated as a saint, with scenes involving Stephen Dedalus from James Joyce’s Ulysses. The action moves between the Syrian Desert and Dublin at night.
Stiffelio, a Protestant minister, returns home to his wife Lina, unaware that she has been unfaithful with Raffaele. Lina’s father, Stankar, conceals the affair, then kills Raffaele. After Stiffelio learns the truth and confronts his wife, he is moved by the biblical story of the adulterous woman and forgives Lina.
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