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Clear filtersQueen Almira of Castile loves her secretary Fernando, while her guardian expects her to marry his son Osman. Osman loves Edilia, and Princess Bellante loves Osman. A ruby reveals that Fernando is Consalvo’s long-lost son, allowing Almira and Fernando to marry; Osman marries Bellante, and Edilia accepts King Raymondo.
After a volcanic eruption destroys the Temple of the Sun, Spanish conquistador Alonso rescues Inca maiden Cora, breaking the law that requires her sacrifice if she leaves the temple. Alonso offers to die with her, but the people spare them and abolish the law.
Zamoro returns to Peru after being presumed dead and reunites with Alzira, who is held by the Spanish. Gusmano captures Zamoro and forces Alzira to agree to marry him to save Zamoro’s life. Zamoro escapes and fatally stabs Gusmano at the wedding; Gusmano reveals that Alzira agreed only to secure Zamoro’s freedom, forgives him, and blesses their union before dying.
The knight Amadigi loves Oriana, who is also pursued by Dardano, while the sorceress Melissa tries to win Amadigi for herself. After Melissa uses magic to inflame jealousy between the lovers, Amadigi kills Dardano in a duel. Melissa imprisons Amadigi and Oriana, then takes her own life; the sorcerer Orgando blesses their union.
Amadis and Oriane’s faithful love is opposed by the sorcerers Arcabonne and Arcalaus; Florestan and Corisande form a secondary pair of lovers.
In ancient Brittany, the brothers Amadis and Galaor are separated at birth. Amadis kills Galaor in a duel over Floriane, then recognizes his brother from matching magic stones given to both by their dying mother.
A five-act tragédie en musique based on Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo’s Amadis de Gaula, using Quinault’s libretto previously set by Lully.
Sorceress Arcabonne has fallen for a nameless knight who once saved her, but her brother Arcalaüs urges her to destroy Amadis, who killed their brother. Arcalaüs’s demons make Oriane jealous of Amadis. When Amadis attacks the fortress where he believes Oriane is held, demons capture him. Arcabonne recognizes him as her rescuer during the sacrificial rite and frees him and the other prisoners. Arcalaüs then deceives Oriane into believing Amadis is dead, but the fairy Urgande breaks the enchantment. Arcabonne kills herself when she understands Amadis will never love her, and Amadis frees the prisoners of the enchanted palace.
A tragédie en musique based on the medieval romance Amadis de Gaula, featuring Amadis, Zirpheus, Melissa, Nicated and the Prince of Thrace.
Amahl, a disabled boy who walks with a crutch, and his mother welcome the Three Kings, who are traveling to bring gifts to the Christ Child. The impoverished mother tries to take some of their gold, but Amahl defends her and the kings forgive her. Amahl offers his crutch to the Child and is miraculously healed; with his mother’s permission, he joins the kings on their journey.
Pregnant Amelia confronts her unresolved grief over her father Dodge, a Navy pilot missing in Vietnam. Years earlier, a Vietnamese couple who sheltered Dodge explain how their daughter was killed and reveal that he left a photograph and letter; Amelia later dreams of speaking with her father before giving birth.
A socialite’s husband refuses to accompany her to a ball unless she reveals her lover’s identity. A fight follows; Amelia tells police that a burglar attacked her husband, leaving her lover to be arrested while she departs for the ball with the investigating police chief.
Set in the mountains of Savoy around 1900, this verismo domestic tragedy involves two brothers, Giorgio and Renaldo, and the woman they both love, Amica.
A three-act opera featuring Amilie and Jose Spechbacher, with a chorus of gypsies.
Prince Amleto learns from his father’s ghost that his uncle Claudio murdered the king. He feigns madness and stages a play to expose Claudio. Amleto accidentally kills Polonio, whose daughter Ofelia goes mad and drowns. In the original fourth-act ending, a poisoned duel and cup lead to the deaths of Geltrude, Laerte, Claudio, and Amleto.
A collaborative opera, with music by José de Nebra in the first act and Giacomo Facco and Filipo Falconi in the remaining acts.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Giovanni Battista Mele. A two-act setting performed during the 1737 Carnival at Teatro de los Caños del Peral, Madrid. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
A three-act opera drawing on Ovid’s fables of Echo and Narcissus and Cephalus and Procris.
A young woman thought to have died pretends to be a ghost to misdirect her former fiancé and marry the man she truly loves.
Four-act German Singspiel based on the Cupid and Psyche story. The entry identifies its creators, roles and premiere but gives no plot synopsis.
A three-act opera based on an episode from Virgil’s Aeneid, bringing together mythological and epic characters including Lavinia, Turnus and Aeneas. The work juxtaposes noble characters with comic figures and explores love, power and choice; a plot synopsis is not provided.
Three-act commedia per musica by Leonardo Leo to a libretto by Antonio Federico Gennaro.
Simon Mayr’s opera buffa for Teatro San Moisè in Venice is written in the new Neapolitan style without recitatives. A later recording lists six roles, including Elmira/Zefirina, Gelmina, Ernesto, and Argante.
At the court-martial of Sgt. Aaron Marcum, Danny Chen’s mother pleads for justice as testimony prompts flashbacks to Chen’s life in New York, his enlistment, and the racist abuse he endured. Chen appears as a ghost in the courtroom; at the end, his mother sings a childhood lullaby as soldiers fold the flag and Chen salutes her.
Clyde Griffiths leaves a Chicago bellhop job for work in his uncle’s New York factory, where he pursues Roberta Alden before turning to Sondra Finchley. When Roberta tells him she is pregnant and hopes to marry him, Clyde, who loves Sondra, schemes to rid himself of the unwanted relationship.
During the American Civil War, Alabama plantation owner Peyton Farquhar is to be hanged by Union soldiers for trying to burn a railroad bridge. As the rope breaks, he appears to escape and return home, but the escape is revealed to be a fantasy in his dying moments.
A three-act Märchenspiel combining characters and episodes from numerous fairy tales, including tales by the Brothers Grimm. Hütchen is a kobold blamed for everything.
The old poet Anacreon pretends he will marry his protégée Chloë, who loves the young Bathylle. He eventually reveals that he planned to unite the two lovers all along.
At the poet Anacréon’s birthday gathering, Cupid arrives disguised as a runaway child and uses his powers to disrupt the guests’ romances. Venus grants Anacréon’s wishes, including that Corine return his love.
At a ball before the French Revolution, poet Andrea Chénier denounces the suffering of the poor and attracts the affection of Maddalena, while servant Carlo Gérard leaves his aristocratic employers. During the Reign of Terror, Chénier and Maddalena reunite and fall in love. Gérard, now a revolutionary official, has Chénier arrested to gain Maddalena, but relents and admits he falsified the charges. The Tribunal condemns Chénier. Maddalena takes the place of another condemned prisoner, and she and Chénier go together to the guillotine.
After the Trojan War, Andromache is held captive by Pyrrhus, who desires her. He reveals her son Skamander survived and offers her responsibility for his upbringing, but Andromache remains devoted to her dead husband Hector and resists Pyrrhus. Hermione seeks to become queen, while her cousin Orest arrives with Greek demands that she marry Pyrrhus and that Skamander be killed. When Pyrrhus offers Andromache the crown, Hermione asks Orest to kill her rivals. Pyrrhus and his warriors pledge to protect Skamander if Andromache accepts Pyrrhus; she closes by declaring Ilion defeated.
Pyrrhus loves his Trojan captive Andromaque, while Hermione loves Pyrrhus and Oreste loves Hermione. To save her son Astyanax, Andromaque agrees to marry Pyrrhus but resolves to die before the wedding; Hermione orders Oreste to kill Pyrrhus, then kills herself when the Greeks carry out the murder, leaving Oreste mad with despair.
Opera based on the Greek myth of Andromeda, the princess chained to a rock. The libretto survived after the score was lost.
A serenata based on episodes from Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, set by Nicola Porpora to a libretto by Metastasio. The plot details are not documented in the available text.
In Padua in 1549, Tisbe loves Rodolfo, but he loves Catarina, who is secretly his lover. Tisbe recognizes Catarina’s crucifix as the one her mother gave years earlier to a Venetian noblewoman’s daughter and secretly helps Catarina and Rodolfo escape Angelo’s jealous control. Catarina takes a sleeping potion, allowing her to be carried to a sealed crypt. Rodolfo, thinking Tisbe poisoned her, stabs Tisbe; Catarina awakens, and Tisbe blesses the couple before she dies.
Alfred Bruneau’s French opera adapts Victor Hugo’s play Angelo, Tyrant of Padua, set in Padua.
Two angels return to earth and are found by a financially troubled couple. The couple first tends to them, then imprisons and exploits them, clipping their wings and forcing them into prostitution to profit from their feathers.
Boniface, a china-shop owner, asks his neighbor Charlot to help sell his impulsive wife Angélique. Three prospective buyers are rejected, and even the devil refuses her. As Boniface prepares to hang himself, Angélique pleads at his feet and the couple reconcile; after the curtain, Boniface tells the audience he still wants to sell her.
The spacecraft Aniara, controlled by the computer Mima, leaves a poisoned Earth carrying emigrants toward Mars. During a midsummer celebration it is thrown off course and redirected toward Lyra, a journey expected to last longer than the lives of those aboard. After Earth is destroyed, Mima can no longer function. The commander tries to manage the passengers’ growing despair and moral deterioration. The voyage continues through its twentieth anniversary, and in the final night the blind poetess sings of death as the passengers and Mimaroben face the end.
A three-act Italian opera with a libretto partly based on the Quintero brothers’ play El genio alegre. The entry does not provide the plot of the operatic version.
A two-act opera in nine scenes and an epilogue, adapted from George Orwell’s novella. The entry does not describe the opera’s plot.
At Windsor, Henry VIII plans to replace his wife, Anna Bolena, with Jane Seymour. Anna’s former love, Percy, returns from exile. Henry orders his courtier Hervey to spy on them. Smeaton, a page who loves Anna, secretly returns a locket with her portrait; when Percy draws his sword to kill himself after Anna rejects him, Smeaton rushes out, and Henry finds the locket and arrests them. Anna refuses Jane’s offer to admit guilt in exchange for her life. Henry’s council condemns Anna and her companions. In the Tower of London, Anna becomes delirious, imagining her wedding day and her childhood home. She is led away to execution as the court celebrates Henry and Jane’s wedding.
Iain Hamilton’s three-act opera adapts Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina.
A two-act opera with prologue and epilogue based on Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina.
Anna Kraus is a German woman forced to leave her country under Nazi oppression because of her political views. This one-act radio opera was commissioned by the BBC and first broadcast on its Third Programme.
An opera based on the life of American model Anna Nicole Smith, structured in two acts and 16 scenes.
French operetta adaptation of the musical Annie Get Your Gun, adapted for Paris by André Mouëzy-Éon and Albert Willemetz.
Musician Pink relives a lonely childhood and builds a symbolic wall to cope with his father’s death, an overbearing mother, depression, and addiction. As his madness intensifies, he imagines himself as a dictator addressing a neo-Nazi rally; the hallucination ends with a judge ruling him innocent and ordering the wall taken down.
Anoush and the shepherd Saro fall in love, but Saro humiliates her brother Mossy during a village wrestling match, violating local honor custom. The lovers flee when reconciliation fails; Mossy later kills Saro, and Anoush, overcome by grief, takes her own life.
After Oedipus leaves Thebes, his sons Eteocles and Polynices kill each other in combat over the throne. Creon orders Eteocles buried with honor but forbids burial of Polynices. Their sisters Antigone and Ismene grieve; Antigone resolves to bury Polynices despite the decree. She cremates him at night, and Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s beloved, is wrongly arrested. Antigone admits responsibility and Creon orders her walled alive in a cave. Believing Haemon dead, Creon repents and reverses the sentence. Haemon reaches Antigone in the cave, and the lovers are rescued and married.
An Italian opera seria in three acts based on the Antigone subject, set by Josef Mysliveček to Gaetano Roccaforte’s libretto.
After the deaths of Eteocles and Polynices in battle, Kreon forbids the burial of Polynices. Antigonae disobeys and is sentenced to be buried alive. The prophet Tiresias persuades Kreon to reverse the order, but Antigonae has already killed herself. Haemon and Eurydice then also die, leaving Kreon alone.
Opera adaptation of Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone.
Set in a modernized Thebes, Kreon is portrayed as a dictator whose immoral laws and administration lead the state toward ruin. His son Haimon argues that being human means refusing to function blindly. Antigone arrives late for her brother’s funeral but stands in solidarity with women who uphold the old order; she is ready to die for her appeal. The chorus closes by reflecting on humanity’s capacity for horror.
Macedonian king Antigono and his banished son Demetrio are both loved by Egyptian princess Berenice. Antigono’s daughter Ismene loves Alessandro, Macedonia’s enemy. After conflict and confusion over identities and relationships, Antigono forgives his adversaries and the opera ends happily.
Berenice is betrothed to Antigono but loves his exiled son Demetrio, while Antigono’s daughter Ismene loves Alessandro, king of Macedonia’s enemy Epirus. Their romantic conflicts unfold amid a struggle between Antigono and Alessandro, and are resolved when Antigono forgives his rivals and permits Berenice to marry Demetrio.
Antonio Maria Mazzoni’s setting of Pietro Metastasio’s libretto was in rehearsal as a planned 1755 opera for Lisbon’s Ópera do Tejo when the earthquake struck. It was not performed until 2011, when a live performance was recorded in Lisbon. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
Lucifer raises the Antichrist, and God allows him to act on Earth for a time. Six scenes portray aspects of the Antichrist’s influence: apathy and hope, vainglory, despair, lust, conflict between truth and power, and perdition. The work ends with God destroying the Antichrist and giving peace and insight to creation.
A multilingual opera by Christoph Graupner with German recitatives, arias in German and Italian, and French-style entrées. Its cast includes Antiochus, Stratonica, Seleucus, and Erasistratus.
Samuel Barber’s three-act opera sets Shakespeare’s tragedy using the playwright’s language. It premiered at the opening of the Metropolitan Opera House in 1966 and was extensively revised by Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti for a 1975 premiere.
John Adams’s two-act opera adapts Shakespeare’s tragedy, incorporating supplementary passages from Plutarch, Virgil and other classical texts. Its plot is not detailed here.
Anyuta, raised in a peasant household, is revealed to be of noble birth and marries her beloved Victor.
Zephyrus is jealous of Hyacinth’s closeness to Apollo. Apollo visits King Oebalus and falls in love with the king’s daughter Melia. While the group is at play, Apollo’s discus strikes Hyacinth, fatally wounding him. Zephyrus is responsible, and he tries to court Melia while Apollo is absent. Before dying, Hyacinth reveals the truth. Apollo turns Zephyrus into a wind; flowers rise from Hyacinth’s grave, and Apollo and Melia become engaged.
Boudinet expects his daughter Sempronia to marry the son of his old friend, an apothecary she has never met. He mistakes her hairdresser Chilpéric for the bridegroom, while Sempronia and Chilpéric recognize each other as former sweethearts. After a string of misunderstandings, Chilpéric reveals he is a cousin of the intended groom, and Boudinet agrees to their marriage.
As the Civil War nears its end, Grant and Lincoln consider surrender terms while Lee weighs whether to continue the fight. At Appomattox Court House, Grant offers terms that let Confederate soldiers return home, and Lee accepts. The opera flashes forward to later racial violence and civil rights struggles, including the Colfax massacre, the Selma marches, and a jailed Klansman's recollection of murder, as Julia Grant concludes that war will not be the last.
As a boy in North Carolina in the early 1960s, Davis Miller is inspired by seeing Muhammad Ali on television to overcome traumatic childhood events. More than twenty years later, a middle-aged writer seeks to revive that spirit by visiting his childhood hero at Ali’s mother’s home in Louisville.
Groups of singers and dancers embody a society moving from rigid constraints toward new relationships and greater harmony. Individuals first struggle for independence, then competing leaders and viewpoints produce confusion; a communal upheaval leads into a more open and peaceful society. The work unfolds in a prologue and two acts, with orchestral and dance scenes as well as choral passages.
In 1860s Vienna, the financially troubled Waldner family hopes to marry off Arabella, while her sister Zdenka is disguised as a boy. Zdenka secretly loves Matteo and sends him letters signed with Arabella’s name to keep him from despair. Arabella falls for Mandryka, who has inherited his uncle’s fortune and proposes. A mistaken identity at the hotel leads Mandryka to suspect Arabella, but Zdenka reveals the truth, Matteo agrees to marry Zdenka, and Arabella and Mandryka reconcile.
Arald brings his dead bride Maria to a pagan Seer and asks him to revive her. The Seer turns Arald into a ghost, and Maria awakens. At dawn, the lovers embrace and are swallowed by the earth, leaving the Seer behind.
Semiri, wife of Arbace, is held by the Assyrian ruler Scitalce. Arbace disguises himself as his own assassin to rescue her; Idaspe helps them escape, Scitalce dies in a fire, and Arbace becomes ruler of Assyria.
The opera tells of Alice Arden and her lover Mosbie murdering her husband, Thomas Arden. Erich Fried’s German libretto draws on a chronicle and the anonymous play Arden of Faversham; Geoffrey Skelton prepared an English version.
An opera set at an Indian royal court, centered on a young princess smitten by a dishonest suitor.
Ariadne sleeps on the shore of Naxos while Theseus decides he cannot remain with her and pursue his destiny. He sails away, leaving her stranded. She awakens to find herself abandoned and commits suicide.
A wealthy Viennese host orders a serious opera and a commedia dell’arte troupe to perform simultaneously after the evening’s dinner runs late. The young Composer reluctantly accepts, then despairs over the changes. In the opera within the opera, Ariadne, abandoned on Naxos, mourns her lost love and longs for death. Zerbinetta and her troupe try to cheer her, with Zerbinetta advising her to find another lover. Ariadne mistakes Bacchus for the messenger of death, but they fall in love and she agrees to follow him.
A prologue and five-act tragédie en musique.
Ariane and her sister Phèdre both love Theseus, but he chooses Phèdre. After Phèdre is killed by a falling statue of Adonis, Ariane visits the underworld and persuades Perséphone to restore her sister. Theseus again chooses Phèdre and abandons Ariane on Naxos, where sirens lure the grieving woman into the sea.
At Knossos, Theseus meets Ariane while seeking the Minotaur; attraction and mistaken identity blur the lines between the hero and monster. The Minotaur proves to be Theseus’s double, and killing it costs Theseus his love for Ariane, whom he and his companions abandon.
A tragédie en musique with prologue, based on the legend of Ariadne as recounted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Ariane enters Bluebeard’s castle determined to learn what happened to his five former wives. Beyond a forbidden door, she finds them alive and helps them escape their underground chamber. When Bluebeard is captured by angry peasants, Ariane frees him and leaves; the other wives decline to follow her.
Benedetto Marcello’s two-act music drama sets a libretto by Vincenzo Cassani with contributions by Pietro Pariati. The source identifies Arianna as its subject but does not provide a plot synopsis.
Eight-scene opera by Alexander Goehr setting most of Ottavio Rinuccini’s libretto for Monteverdi’s lost L’Arianna, based on the classical story of Ariadne and Theseus. Goehr preserves Monteverdi’s surviving lament and intersperses it with choral episodes.
In Crete, Theseus arrives to end Athens’ tribute of youths and maidens to the Minotaur and reunite with Ariadne. Misunderstandings make Ariadne believe he loves Carilda, while the king orders Ariadne sacrificed in Carilda’s place. Theseus kills the Minotaur, reveals Ariadne is Minos’ daughter, and wins permission to marry her; Carilda and Alceste are also joined.
Paolo Rolli’s libretto brings Ariadne and Theseus into a new Italian opera by Nicola Porpora, alongside Piritoo, Onaro, and Antiope. Rolli’s text takes a different source route from Handel’s Arianna in Creta, drawing on Giovanni Porta’s pastoral drama Arianna.
A Turkish-language opera based on Nikolai Gogol’s play The Government Inspector.
Princess Ina loves the knight Ariodant, but her rejected suitor Othon plots to ruin her with her maid Dalinde. Othon deceives Ariodant and the king by having Dalinde impersonate Ina, leading to Ina’s arrest. At trial, Dalinde appears in disguise, exposes the scheme, and tells how Ariodant saved her from Othon’s men.
In Scotland, Princess Ginevra is betrothed to Prince Ariodante, but the Duke Polinesso desires her. Polinesso persuades Ginevra’s attendant Dalinda to disguise herself as the princess and admit him to Ginevra’s chamber. Ariodante sees them and believes Ginevra unfaithful; he attempts suicide, and Ginevra is condemned. Polinesso later hires men to kill Dalinda, but Ariodante rescues her and learns the truth. Lurcanio challenges Polinesso to a duel and mortally wounds him. Before dying, Polinesso confesses his plot. The King pardons Ginevra, and she and Ariodante are reunited.
A tragédie en musique based on the Greek myth of the poet Arion.
In Bergamo, Arlecchino seduces Annunziata while her husband Matteo reads Dante, then invents a war to send Matteo away. Arlecchino returns dressed as a soldier, later escapes his wife Colombina, and provokes a theatrical duel with Leandro. After the townspeople’s comic procession, Arlecchino and Annunziata depart together, while Matteo continues waiting for his wife.
Based on Tasso’s epic poem, Salieri’s opera centers on the relationship between the sorceress Armida and the Crusader Rinaldo.
Sacchini’s opera seria adapts an episode from Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata and incorporates chorus, ballet, and theatrical spectacle. The source identifies the work and its roles but gives no plot synopsis.
A three-act opera seria drawn from characters and incidents in Torquato Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, featuring the sorceress Armida and the knight Rinaldo.
The sorceress Armida is sent to turn the Crusaders from their mission and enchants the knight Rinaldo, but she falls in love with him. Ubaldo and Clotarco try to free Rinaldo, while Zelmira also helps Clotarco. Rinaldo eventually returns to the crusader camp, cuts down the myrtle tree that holds Armida’s power, and prepares for battle as she vows to pursue him.
The sorceress Armida disguises herself as a dispossessed ruler and persuades the Crusaders to help her, while conspiring with her uncle Idraote to weaken them. She and Rinaldo, the Crusaders’ chosen leader, fall in love. After Rinaldo kills the jealous knight Gernando in a duel, he escapes with Armida. She brings him to an enchanted pleasure palace, where he abandons thoughts of military duty. Two fellow knights, Ubaldo and Carlo, find Rinaldo and restore his resolve by showing him his reflection. Armida begs him to stay, but they take him away. She chooses revenge, destroys the palace and flies off.
Princess Armida is sent to sow discord in the Frankish camp, but falls in love with the crusader Rinald and escapes with him. The sorcerer Ismen attempts to destroy her enchanted palace, while Rinald's companions use a diamond shield to draw him away; later, as the Crusaders advance on Damascus, Rinald kills Armida in battle without recognizing her until after she is mortally wounded.
In a modern Middle East conflict, Rinaldo is an army officer torn between his love of peace and military duty, while Armida is a television journalist covering a war in her occupied country. She enters his army camp intending to subvert the soldiers. When she and Rinaldo fall in love, she spirits him away in her helicopter to an enchanted Moorish city. His fellow soldiers try to free him, but he no longer wants to fight. Love prevails: the soldiers take up gardening, and Armida’s news organization stops covering wars and produces gardening programs.
Tancredi is captured by sorceress Armida while trying to free Rinaldo from her enchanted realm. Armida loves Rinaldo, who repeatedly resolves to leave her but is drawn back by her charms. With help from Tancredi and the magic bough, Rinaldo and his companions escape. He later agrees to break the spell over the Crusaders’ forest. Armida appears beside the magic myrtle and warns that striking it will strike her, but Rinaldo fells the tree and ends the enchantment. Armida escapes in a dragon-drawn chariot, swearing revenge.
An opera about Armida, with a version that begins with events before the war against the Crusaders. The original Act II is lost; a restored version is available in a complete recording.
During the First Crusade, the sorceress Armide captures Christian knights. When she raises her dagger to kill their defender Renaud, she falls in love with him instead and uses magic to make him love her. Unable to bear that his feelings are enchanted, she asks the Goddess of Hate to restore her hatred, but cannot escape her love. Two of Renaud’s fellow soldiers arrive and break the spell. Renaud escapes, leaving Armide enraged and despairing.
Gluck set the same libretto Philippe Quinault had written for Jean-Baptiste Lully’s 1686 opera Armide, based on Torquato Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered. Gluck removed the allegorical prologue and added lines to the end of Act Three.
Set in Rome under Tiberius, the opera centers on Segesta, the wife of Arminius, who becomes a prisoner of Germanicus.
Arminio, a Germanic leader fighting Rome, is captured through the treachery of Segeste, his father-in-law. Segeste hopes to marry his daughter Thusnelda to the Roman general Varo, who desires her, but Varo eventually frees Arminio to fight. Arminio defeats the Romans, kills Varo, and forgives Segeste; he and Thusnelda are reunited.
The opera draws on the saga figure Arnljot Gelline and the history of Jämtland. In an Act I speech, the chieftain Sigurd urges the people to reclaim their independence and elect a leader.
After returning from the Crusades, Aroldo discovers that his wife Mina has been unfaithful with Godvino. Her father Egberto urges her to hide the affair and later challenges Godvino, while Aroldo struggles with his response. Aroldo offers Mina a divorce, but when she explains that Godvino deceived her, Egberto kills him. Aroldo retreats to Scotland with his companion Briano. Mina and Egberto are shipwrecked nearby, and Briano’s appeal to forgive leads Aroldo to reunite with Mina.
Nobleman Arrighetto hides under the name Tebaldo, working as gardener in Corrado’s household while awaiting news that he can safely reveal himself. Corrado intends his daughter Despina to marry Count Ludovico, but she loves Giannotto, who is Arrighetto’s elder son; Ludovico is the younger son, raised by another family. When Ludovico recognizes Giannotto and gives up his claim to Despina, news of the defeat of Charles I allows Arrighetto to disclose his identity, reunite with his sons, and bless Giannotto’s marriage.
King Arshak II returns victorious to his capital and falls in love with Parandzem, who is betrothed to Gnel. Gnel is mortally wounded while trying to protect her from the king’s guards. Arshak later regrets imprisoning his wife, Queen Olympia, but a reconciliation feast ends with her death from poisoned wine and an uprising against the king.
A dramma per musica whose controversial plot involves Queen Arsilda falling in love with another woman disguised as a man.
An English-language, Italian-style opera staged at Drury Lane in 1705. Peter Anthony Motteux adapted a libretto by Tommaso Stanzani for the London production. The title character was fictional and unrelated to historical women named Arsinoe. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
A three-act opera by Tomaso Albinoni with a libretto by Bartolomeo Vitturi. Composed in 1740 and premiered in Venice during the 1741 Carnival season, the music is now lost.
Set in the Persian court, Artabano murders King Serse and accuses the king’s son Dario. He seeks to eliminate the rest of the royal family and persuades Artaserse to avenge the murder. A succession of events exposes the treason.
After Artabano murders King Serse, he frames his son Arbace and helps secure Artaserse’s succession. Arbace refuses to join his father’s plot and is condemned, while Artabano continues conspiring against the royal family. Arbace escapes, prevents Artaserse from drinking a poisoned cup, and exposes the truth; Artaserse pardons Artabano and reunites Arbace with Mandane.
Artabano murders King Serse and frames his son Arbace, who is in love with Mandane. Artaserse doubts Arbace’s guilt and frees him; when a rebellion threatens, Arbace defeats the traitors. Artabano confesses to the murder and an attempted poisoning, and Artaserse condemns him to exile while the two couples reunite.
After King Xerxes is murdered, his general Artabanes frames his own son Arbaces and seeks the throne for Artaxerxes. Artaxerxes frees his friend, who defeats a rebellion and exposes Artabanes as the killer; the king exiles the general and reunites two pairs of lovers.
Set in the Venetian Republic, the story centers on love, betrayal, virtue, and honour. Two pairs of crossed lovers are reunited by a benevolent monarch.
Artemisia, Queen of Caria and widow of Mausolus, faces a variety of unwanted suitors.
On the isle of Mona, Roman general Messala tries to capture British king Arvire with help from his sons Irvin and Vellinus. Irvin reveals the plot and leads the British defense, while Vellinus first betrays Arvire and later repents. The Britons defeat the Romans and free Évélina from captivity; Arvire releases Messala and his men and promises Évélina to Irvin in marriage.
Portrayed by two singers as Hannah Before and Hannah After, Hannah discovers her gender identity amid isolation and rejection. Through high school, college, hormone therapy, and a complicated relationship with her family, she learns to accept and love herself.
The Portuguese puppet opera treats the complications of marriage and love, with mythological figures Proteus and Nereus and the witty character Caranguejo. The entry does not provide further plot details.
In 1539 Paris, sculptor Benvenuto Cellini and his apprentice Ascanio love Colombe, while Scozzone loves Cellini and the Duchess admires Ascanio. Cellini steps aside for the young couple and hides Colombe in a reliquary to protect her from the Duchess’s jealousy. The Duchess diverts it to her estate, intending to suffocate Colombe, but Scozzone secretly takes Colombe’s place. The king approves Ascanio and Colombe’s marriage, but Scozzone is found dead.
Venus sends her son Ascanio to rule the future Alba and orders him to conceal his identity while testing his betrothed Silvia’s virtue. Silvia recognizes him from a dream but is later convinced he is not Ascanio and despairs. Venus finally reveals the test, unites the lovers and blesses the future city.
An Azerbaijani opera based on motifs from the Ashig Garib dastan.
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