3280 shows
Clear filtersSemiramide 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.
The opera adapts the plot of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, with some characters omitted, including Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Mary Bennet.
A three-part opera set in New York City before and during the 1969 Stonewall uprising. Its characters include lesbian, gay, transgender and other residents who face harassment and ultimately unite against the police; the action moves from several city locations to the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Street before dawn.
In Venice, Stradella tries to protect and flee with Léonor, who is pursued by the Duke of Pesaro. In Rome, Stradella’s singing during Holy Week moves hired assassins to abandon their plan; the Duke later captures and condemns him, but yields to pleas from Léonor and the people.
In Venice, the Duke of Pesaro abducts Léonor, but singer Stradella helps her escape. The Duke pursues the lovers to Rome and hires assassins. During Holy Week, Stradella’s sermon moves the killers to abandon their mission, and the Duke forgives the couple.
Prince Antiochus falls ill from love for Stratonice, who is intended to marry his father, King Seleucus. The physician Erasistratus discovers the cause and helps the king understand it; Seleucus gives Stratonice to his son to save his life and happiness.
On a tenement block during a heat wave, Rose Maurrant and her neighbor Sam Kaplan grow close while gossip surrounds Rose’s mother Anna and the milkman. Frank Maurrant discovers Anna’s affair and kills her and the milkman. Rose returns from a funeral to find the aftermath, and although Sam offers to leave with her, she chooses to go alone.
A five-act French opera continuing the Armide story and drawing on Torquato Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, whose subject is the defeat of Saracen forces by Christian armies. The entry does not provide the opera’s plot.
Opera based on the mythological tale of Sukanya from the Mahabharata. The source does not provide the opera’s narrative details.
A three-scene opera set in a peasant house in a village in Upper Egypt, adapted from Tawfiq al-Hakim’s play Song of Death.
This two-act chamber opera by Richard Mills is based on Ray Lawler's play Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.
On an indoor imitation beach, performers lounge, eat, play, and carry out other everyday activities while singing about ordinary life and climate change. Their songs address the sun, tides, ocean pollution, environmental threats, and extreme weather.
Jin Xiang’s Chinese contemporary opera adapts Cao Yu’s 1936 play Sunrise, with a libretto by the playwright’s daughter, Wan Fang.
A historical opera based on Ivan Gundulić’s epic Osman and its continuation by his son Šišmundo Gundulić, with Sunčanica as its subject.
Sister Angelica, who has lived in a convent for seven years, learns that her aunt, the Princess, has come to obtain her signature on a document transferring her inheritance to her sister Anna Viola. Angelica asks about the son she was forced to leave behind. The Princess tells her that he died of fever two years earlier. Angelica signs the document and collapses in grief. She makes and drinks poison, then realizes she has committed a mortal sin and fears she will be separated from her son forever. As she dies, she asks the Virgin Mary for mercy and sees a vision of the Virgin and her son coming to embrace her.
Surcouf joins a privateer to earn enough to marry Yvonne. Four years later he returns wealthy, but a false report that Yvonne has married another man leads him to challenge a British captain, who captures him. Surcouf escapes with help from Arabelle and his crew, defeats the British frigate, and returns to Saint-Malo to marry Yvonne.
In New Hope Valley, Tennessee, eighteen-year-old Susannah Polk is shunned by her church community after elders discover her bathing in a creek and accuse her of immorality. Reverend Blitch later seduces her and returns seeking forgiveness, but Susannah refuses. Her brother Sam shoots Blitch, and the townspeople head to Susannah’s cabin to drive her out. She confronts them with a shotgun; they retreat, leaving Susannah isolated from the community.
A Czech opera featuring Vltavka, a vila of the Vltava, alongside a count, his daughter, a woodsman, a miner and a hunter. The plot is not summarized in the available record.
In 894 Great Moravia, King Svätopluk, believing himself near death, gives power to his sons Mojmír and young Svätopluk. The younger son plots with Frankish and pagan allies to take the throne, while Mojmír frees Milena from a planned pagan sacrifice and refuses to rebel against his father. Ľutomíra frames Mojmír, and the king imprisons him. After a failed attempt by the younger son to kill the king, Svätopluk’s third son Predslav persuades him to lift his sons’ death sentences. The king forgives them and urges unity, but young Svätopluk attacks Mojmír; Milena shields Mojmír and dies, and the king dies during the struggle. Young Svätopluk flees.
In this site-specific opera, Native American Hosts initially welcome colonial Arrivals. The newcomers despoil the land in the name of progress and Manifest Destiny.
An opera about Swindon, told through songs reflecting different decades. Diana Dors narrates a story centered on the Eveley family.
Three-act opera about Joan of Arc, with a libretto by Braunfels based mainly on German translations of French and Latin trial documents. The entry notes some references to George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan but provides no plot synopsis.
A two-act opera based on Mark McShane’s novel and Bryan Forbes’s screenplay for the 1964 film. The source does not summarize the opera’s plot.
A prologue and five-act tragédie en musique by André Cardinal Destouches, with a libretto by Pierre-Charles Roy.
In Babylon, Queen Sémiramis sees the ghost of her murdered husband Ninus, who demands revenge for himself and their missing son Ninias. She plans to marry Arzace, unaware he is Ninias. High priest Oroès reveals the truth and that Assur murdered Ninus at Sémiramis’s order. Sémiramis rushes into the tomb to save Arzace from Assur; in the dark, Arzace mistakes her for Assur and mortally wounds his mother. She forgives him before dying.
Semele is promised to Prince Adraste but loves Jupiter, who first courts her in disguise. Juno, jealous of Jupiter’s infidelity, impersonates Semele’s nurse and persuades her to demand that Jupiter reveal his divine form. He resists, knowing the sight will kill her, but ultimately appears in a storm of fire; Semele and Adraste die, and Jupiter restores Semele to life and raises her to heaven.
A three-act operetta centered on Sì, an actress at the Folies Bergère named for her inability to say no. Its libretto draws on La duchessa del Bal Tabarin and Majestät Mimi.
Sāvitri learns that Death has come for her husband Satyavān. Death offers her any boon except her husband’s return; she asks for a full life, then points out that such a life is impossible without Satyavān. Death relents, and Satyavān awakens.
In Tangier, Irishman Dennis O’Grady is mistaken for a French chef and faces execution if he cannot satisfy the Pasha’s taste for spicy food. Trader Marco and his sister Lola disguise the unconscious Dennis as a new harem girl while helping Fatima escape; a bottle of hot sauce saves Dennis from the Pasha’s displeasure. Later, a plot to bomb the Pasha is foiled, and the arrival of a ship carrying Tabasco sauce leads to pardons and the lovers’ reunion.
Set in Düsseldorf during the French occupation of 1813, the opera follows a local tailor who becomes a thorn in the occupiers' side.
On a snowy afternoon in the suburban home of Tracy and Laura Gates, an argument about Tracy’s drinking turns violent; Tracy dies of a heart attack, and Laura prays for him to return. A Greek chorus tells of the mariner Hypraemius’s four seasonal miracles, granted when a penitent prays for the dead at 3:59. The opera presents three miracles: a Tuscan noblewoman’s infant son returns, a Scottish farm girl gets her family’s cow back, and a German soldier’s dead brother returns. Back at the Gates’ home, Tracy revives with no memory of events, but he and Laura resume their quarrel. He suffers a second heart attack and dies permanently. A doctor treats Laura as the chorus sings that the only death in life is the death of love.
After defeating the Ottoman sultan Bajazet, Tamerlano seeks to marry Bajazet’s daughter Asteria, who loves the Greek prince Andronico. Asteria and her father resist, and she attempts to poison Tamerlano. Bajazet takes poison and dies; the events lead Tamerlano to pardon Asteria and Andronico and unite with Irene.
In Syracuse, Amenaide is secretly in love with the exiled soldier Tancredi. Her father, Argirio, arranges for her to marry Orbazzano, hoping to end a feud and strengthen the city. A letter Amenaide wrote to Tancredi is mistaken for a treasonous message to the Saracen leader Solamir, and she is imprisoned. Tancredi, still believing she betrayed him, challenges Orbazzano and wins. He later defeats the Saracens; the dying Solamir confirms Amenaide’s innocence, and the lovers reunite. In the Ferrara version, Tancredi is mortally wounded and learns the truth just before dying in Amenaide’s arms.
A French tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts, based on Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata.
Opera by John Lunn and Steven Plaice, the third work in a Glyndebourne trilogy created to interest young people in opera.
Tannhäuser leaves Venus’s grotto after invoking Mary and returns to the Wartburg, where he reunites with Elisabeth and competes in a song contest. He reveals his time with Venus and is exiled on a pilgrimage to Rome. The Pope denies him absolution, so he returns seeking Venus. Wolfram calls out Elisabeth’s name, and her funeral procession arrives. Tannhäuser dies beside her, while returning pilgrims bear the Pope’s staff, now sprouting leaves.
Set in the early 1930s, this three-act light opera plays on contrasts between urban bohemians and rural aristocrats, artists and the hunting set.
A five-act tragédie lyrique preceded by a prologue.
In 17th-century Ukraine, Taras Bulba leaves his sons Ostap and Andriy in Kyiv for education. Andriy falls in love with Maryltsya, daughter of a Polish governor. When war breaks out, Taras takes his sons to the Cossack stronghold. During the siege of Dubno, Andriy helps Maryltsya and joins the Polish army to marry her. Taras learns of his son’s desertion and kills him; Ostap sings a lament. In the final orchestral scene, Taras and Ostap lead the Cossacks to victory and take Dubno.
In a prologue set in 1925, Marius and Corinna are students. In a near future, Marius has become the dictator Tarquin, while Corinna is connected to a clandestine radio station. A tragedy eventually leads him back to God.
A prologue and five-act tragédie en musique.
Orgon, taken in by the hypocrite Tartuffe, plans to marry his daughter Mariane to him despite her engagement to Valère. Tartuffe attempts to seduce Orgon’s wife Elmire and tricks Orgon into giving him the family property. Elmire exposes Tartuffe, and the family stages a deception of its own: Damis, Valère, and Mariane appear in disguises to announce the King’s order for Tartuffe’s arrest. Orgon admits his mistake and reunites Mariane with Valère.
In sixteenth-century Michoacán, Princess Coyuva and Prince Ticátame seek revenge for the death of her father, but Coyuva’s Christianity leads them to Bishop Vasco de Quiroga. He seeks to improve the Purépecha community’s lives; Petámuti’s plot to kill the couple fails, and he asks for baptism as he dies.
Taverner is tried for heresy and pardoned by the Cardinal, but Death later prevails in a symbolic battle for his soul. After the Reformation, Taverner becomes an agent of royal religious policy and oversees the trial and execution of the White Abbot.
Zenobia Powell Perry’s opera is set around the real Tawawa House resort in Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1852. The site was frequented by slaveholders and their enslaved mistresses, and enslaved workers there could earn freedom and education. The house was also part of the Underground Railroad. The opera’s story concerns the lives of escaped slaves; no fuller plot is available in the reviewed text.
An opera based on a Turkish tale about a dollmaker and a love story involving a heartless character.
At a Japanese temple, monk Seikyo recalls his earlier love for Chinese princess Lan. He and Lan search for the true Book of Tea, but her brother challenges Seikyo and a struggle leaves Lan mortally wounded. Seikyo spares the Prince and renounces worldly life, returning to the ritual of empty tea.
Simon Mayr’s dramma per musica takes its subject from the Odyssey and was composed for the Venice Carnival of 1797. The cast featured castrato Girolamo Crescentini.
Intrigues and complications surround Telemachus, son of Odysseus. The libretto draws on Homer’s Odyssey and François Fénelon’s didactic novel Les Aventures de Télémaque.
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